People often ask me what the difference is between Roman pizza and other styles. And I always say the same thing.
Come to MaMeMi. Take one bite. You will understand immediately.
But if you want the longer answer, the one that explains why our pizza tastes and feels the way it does, then let me walk you through it. Because the secret is not one thing. It is five specific techniques that Roman pizza makers have been perfecting for generations, and that my family passed down to me growing up near Rome.
These are not tricks. They are not shortcuts. They are the result of centuries of understanding how flour, water, time, and heat work together to create something extraordinary.
Let me explain each one.
First, What Is Roman-Style Pizza?
Before we get into the techniques, it helps to understand what we are talking about.
Roman pizza, or pizza alla Romana, is the style of pizza that comes from Rome and the surrounding region. It is fundamentally different from Neapolitan pizza, which is the soft, chewy, foldable style that most people outside Italy associate with the word pizza. Our dedicated blog on Roman vs Neapolitan pizza has the direct side-by-side, if you want the full comparison.
Roman pizza is thin. It is crispy. It holds its shape when you pick it up. When you bite into it, you hear a sound that Romans describe as scrocchiarella, a word that basically translates to the crunch itself. It is light enough that you can eat a whole pizza without feeling heavy, but satisfying enough that you leave the table genuinely content.
At MaMeMi, this is the only style we make. It is what we grew up eating. It is what we know. And it is what we brought to Copenhagen because we believed this city deserved to experience it. Today it is what we serve as the best pizza in Copenhagen, and we defend that claim seriously.
Now, here are the five techniques that make it what it is.
Technique 1: The Flour Blend
Most people think flour is just flour. It is not.
The choice of flour is the single most important decision a Roman pizza maker makes, and it is also where most pizzerias outside of Italy cut corners. They use one flour, often a generic commercial grade, and wonder why their pizza does not taste the way it should.
In Rome, serious pizza makers obsess over flour. Different flours have different protein contents, different absorption rates, different flavors, and different textures when baked. Some flours give you structure. Some give you crispness. Some give you flavor. Some give you that delicate interior that contrasts beautifully with the crispy exterior. This is one of the pillars of what we consider authentic Italian pizza.
At MaMeMi, we use a secret blend of five different organic flours from small Italian producers. We developed this blend over years of testing and tasting. Each flour in the blend has a specific purpose and brings something the others cannot.
I am not going to tell you exactly which flours we use, because it took us a long time to get it right and it is genuinely what makes our pizza taste the way it does. What I will tell you is that when you taste our dough on its own, without any toppings at all, it has flavor and complexity. That is how you know the flour blend is right.
If you ever eat Roman pizza and the crust tastes like nothing, the flour was not chosen carefully enough. Our blog on what defines original Italian pizza covers the wider ingredient philosophy that shapes this.
Technique 2: The Long Fermentation
This is where patience becomes an ingredient.
Roman pizza dough must ferment for a long time. At MaMeMi, our dough ferments for a minimum of 48 hours. Sometimes longer depending on the temperature and humidity in the kitchen. We never rush this process, because you cannot rush fermentation without losing something important.
Here is what happens during those 48 hours.
The yeast in the dough slowly eats the sugars in the flour and produces carbon dioxide gas. This gas gets trapped in the gluten network, creating tiny bubbles throughout the dough. Those bubbles are what give the final crust its texture, that balance of crispy exterior and slightly open, tender interior.
But fermentation does more than create bubbles. It also develops flavor. The longer the dough ferments, the more complex it tastes. You get subtle notes that are impossible to achieve with quick dough. A slight tanginess. A depth of wheat flavor. Something that makes you keep eating even when you thought you were done.
Fermentation also breaks down some of the gluten proteins in the flour, which makes the pizza much easier to digest. This is why people often tell me they feel completely different after eating our pizza compared to most other pizza. Not heavy. Not bloated. Just satisfied.
If a restaurant tells you their dough is made fresh every day and used the same evening, that is a sign the pizza will taste thin and unremarkable. Great Roman dough takes two days minimum. There are no shortcuts.
Technique 3: The Olive Oil in the Dough
This is the technique that surprises people most when I tell them about it.
Traditional Neapolitan pizza dough contains only four ingredients. Flour, water, salt, and yeast. Nothing else. This is codified in the rules of authentic Neapolitan pizza making and there are organizations in Naples that certify pizzerias on this basis.
Roman pizza is different. Roman dough includes olive oil.
This sounds like a small detail. It changes everything.
The olive oil coats the gluten strands in the dough and changes how they behave during baking. It prevents the dough from becoming too elastic and chewy, which is what allows Roman pizza to be rolled incredibly thin without springing back. Without the olive oil, getting Roman pizza as thin as it needs to be is almost impossible. The dough keeps fighting you.
During baking, the olive oil also contributes to crispness. As the pizza cooks, the oil helps create that golden, crunchy exterior while keeping the interior just a little tender. It also adds flavor, a subtle richness that you taste in every bite without being able to identify it specifically.
At MaMeMi, we use quality olive oil in our dough. Not the cheapest option. Because when olive oil is one of only a handful of ingredients, its quality matters — the same principle we apply across all our traditional Italian pizza toppings.
This small addition is one of the defining differences between Roman and Neapolitan pizza, and one of the reasons the two styles taste and feel so different despite being made with similar basic ingredients.
Technique 4: Rolling Thin and Resting the Edges
In Naples, using a rolling pin is practically forbidden. Neapolitan pizza makers stretch their dough by hand, working from the center outward, never touching the edge, building up that characteristic puffy cornicione. If you want to understand exactly what a cornicione is and why Neapolitan pizza obsesses over it, our blog on what is a cornicione breaks it down.
In Rome, we use a rolling pin. And we are not ashamed of it.
The rolling pin is what allows us to achieve the even, ultra-thin base that Roman pizza requires. Rolling gives you control over thickness in a way that hand-stretching simply cannot. You can work the dough to exactly the thinness you want, consistently, every time.
But rolling thin is only half of the technique. The other half is knowing what to do with the edges.
Unlike Neapolitan pizza, where the entire effort goes into building up the cornicione, Roman pizza has a subtler edge. It is slightly raised but not dramatically puffy. The key is leaving the edge alone after rolling. You press and work the center to keep it thin and flat for the toppings, but you never press the outer rim. The edge has to maintain whatever air structure developed during fermentation.
This takes practice. Roll too aggressively and you flatten the edge completely and lose texture. Leave too much thickness in the center and the pizza will not cook evenly. Getting it exactly right — thin throughout with just a gentle rise at the edge — is a skill that takes time to develop.
At MaMeMi, our pizzaiolo Christian has spent years mastering this balance. Every pizza that comes out of our kitchen has that perfect thin base with just enough edge to hold the toppings and give you something to bite into at the end.
Technique 5: The Baking Temperature and Timing
The last technique is about heat, and it is where Roman pizza diverges most dramatically from other styles. Our blog on how pizza is cooked in Italy walks through the traditional oven work if you want to go deeper into the technique.
Neapolitan pizza is cooked at extreme temperatures. We are talking 450 to 485 degrees Celsius, in a wood-fired oven, for 60 to 90 seconds. The pizza goes in, gets blasted by intense heat, and comes out with a soft, slightly charred, immediately-eat-it result. Leave a Neapolitan pizza for five minutes and it starts to go soft and sad.
Roman pizza is different. We bake at lower temperatures, around 300 to 340 degrees Celsius, for three to four minutes. This longer, gentler bake does something specific. It cooks the pizza evenly all the way through, creating uniform crispness rather than a charred exterior and soft interior.
The result is a pizza that stays crispy. Not just for the first minute after it comes out of the oven. For several minutes. Long enough to carry to the table, long enough to pour a glass of wine, long enough to have a conversation before you eat. Long enough that when you order delivery, it actually survives the journey in a way that Neapolitan pizza simply cannot.
This also means Roman pizza is better for sharing. With Neapolitan pizza, you eat fast or the texture changes. With Roman pizza, you can take your time. You can have that conversation. You can let Danilo explain why the wine he chose works with what you are eating — see our guide on which wine goes best with your pizza for more on the pairing philosophy. You can enjoy the meal at the pace a meal deserves.
The baking temperature is not a coincidence or a compromise. It is a deliberate choice that reflects a different philosophy about what pizza should be and how it should be eaten.
Why These Five Techniques Together
Each of these techniques matters on its own. But what makes Roman pizza truly special is how they work together.
The flour blend gives the dough structure and flavor. The long fermentation develops complexity and makes it digestible. The olive oil enables the thin roll and contributes crispness. The rolling technique creates the even base. The baking temperature locks in the crunch.
Remove any one of these elements and you do not have Roman pizza. You have something close, maybe, but not the real thing.
This is why most pizza outside of Italy — and frankly many places in Italy too — does not taste like what you get in Rome. It is not that they are using bad ingredients necessarily. It is that the technique is incomplete. Our overview of what are the different styles of Italian pizza shows just how many regional variations exist, and how each one gets these techniques slightly different.
At MaMeMi, we try to do all five things correctly every single day. We have been doing this for over ten years in Copenhagen, and we get better at it all the time. Our dough recipe has evolved. Our flour blend has been refined. Our baking has been calibrated specifically for our oven. That is our story in short.
The result is a pizza we are genuinely proud of. One that has been recognized as among the best in Europe. One that makes Italians living in Copenhagen say it reminds them of home.
Come Experience It Yourself
Reading about technique is one thing. Tasting the result is another.
The best way to understand what makes Roman pizza unique is to eat a well-made one. And not just once. Come a few times. Try different pizzas. Try them with different wines that Danilo selects for you from our Italian wine bar in Copenhagen. Pay attention to the crust on its own, the way it crunches, the way it tastes even without toppings.
That is when you start to understand technique. Not from reading, but from tasting.
We are at Mysundegade 28 on the corner with Istedgade in Vesterbro. We serve lunch every Saturday and Sunday from 12:00, and dinner Wednesday through Sunday. Our terrace is open in warmer months, and our wine list has over 1000 natural wine labels waiting to be explored.
See the full menu, book your table online, or walk in. We will take care of you.
And if you want to talk about the dough, I am almost always there. I love this subject. Possibly too much.
See you soon.
Francesco
MaMeMi serves authentic Roman-style pizza in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Made with a secret blend of five organic flours, fermented for 48 hours, and baked to the perfect scrocchiarella crunch. Over 1000 natural wine labels curated by sommelier Danilo. Weekend lunch open Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00. Book online or walk in at Mysundegade 28.
