Pizza Today - September 2018 - 36

thinks, on some level, that they
do much of his work for him.
He sees his work as one link in
a chain, a chain that begins with
the sun and soil and farmer. He
believes, to some extent, that
he isn't making anything. He's
simply putting great ingredients
together and staying out of their
way.
"Technique is only so much,"
Bianco says. "To take things to
the highest level, you're going to
work with what the farmers are
doing in the field."
He says that pizza makers who
want to elevate their flour don't
necessarily have to stick to local
grains. Because grain keeps well
during shipping, pizza makers
can source grains from far parts
of the country, milling it upon
arrival.
Bianco mills grain at Pane
Bianco, his large sandwich shop
that functions as his base, the

central location that does heavy
lifting (milling, bread baking,
pastry making) for his two pizzerias and two restaurants. "As soon
as we mill it, we're activating,"
he says. "Just like dry oregano.
When you bump it through your
fingers, it's heady and aromatic.
The timer is on. You've pulled
the string on the grenade for the
flavor bomb."
Milling grain, though, isn't
practical for many pizza makers.
Logistics and technicalities strew
the process, not to mention
financial, space and time
obstacles. Sourcing flour from
great millers works for those who
can't make their own.
AN OBSTACLE TO BOTH
GRINDING HIGH-END GRAINS
AND SOURCING GREAT FLOUR IS
COST. In part because of rising

labor costs, the high-end grain
approach will undoubtedly raise

3 6 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8

your pizza's price point. But if
done with attention and care, it
should also raise the ceiling of
how your pizza can taste. ("You
can only go so fast in a Prius,"
Bianco says.)
Over the years, the flour
Bianco has used has changed.
These days, he likes to use
Blue Beard Durum for making
extruded pasta at Tratto, his
trattoria. Relative to his pizza,
he may opt to bake bread with
more White Sonoran Wheat,
a heritage grain that has been
grown in Arizona for centuries.
Often, he bakes test batches
of bread and pizza using new
flour blends. For pizza these
days, he uses a mixture of
flours, two or three from grains
raised in the American west.
"Most of all the pizza
(flour I use) is hard red spring
wheat," he says. "We might
soften it with a little White
Sonoran Wheat. For the most
part, I like the characteristics
of a hard red spring. Sometimes, there's (also) a variety
called Edison Wheat, an old
variety from Washington that's
making a comeback."
Bianco strives for flour with
a protein content of
13.5 to 13.8 percent since
more protein gives pizza
dough, once baked, an intricate
and more robust architecture.
This is Bianco's pizza preference, one he says he picked up
from his youth in New York.
He selects grains with this
firmer texture in mind. That is
why, despite his love for local,
he doesn't use 100-percent
White Sonoran Wheat. White
Sonoran Wheat grows readily
near Bianco's mill, but has less
protein, resulting in "a softer
crumb."
He acknowledges, though,
that White Sonoran might be
right for pizza makers who are
after that softer crumb.

BIANCO EMPHASIZES THE
IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING WHAT KIND OF
PIZZA YOU WANT TO MAKE.

This allows you to more
optimally tailor ingredients,
like flour, towards your ideal
pizza. "In the pizza industry, it
starts to really set you free," he
says. "As an operator, you need
to decide what you're really
going for."
For Bianco, that is a pizza
made in his own style, one
simple and yet refined, one
expressive of Arizona. In an
effort to reach the high protein
level he requires, Bianco even
keeps on some of the grain's
bran when milling.
He believes that flour,
like wine, has terroir (taste
of place). He believes that
pizza has terroir. "Pizza is in
the same conversation as the
tomato," he says, "or the terroir
that's grown in."
For this reason, local flours
can help a pizza maker express
a particular place, he believes.
"If you come back from
Tuscany or Puglia, and grow
that same grain here, it might
not have that level of success,"
Bianco says. "If we're diligent
and we understand what our
backyard is good for, I think
the possibilities are endless."
Bianco says that his pizza is
better now than it was
30 years ago and 10 years ago
because of the ingredients. He
understands which to get from
his backyard, and which not to.
Some of his pizza flour comes
from local grain; some doesn't.
The common thread is that
Bianco doggedly pursues the
best ingredients - and that
means searching nonstop for
the best flour for his pizza.
"When you see grain as an
ingredient," he says, "that's
another level." n
CHRIS MALLOY is a food writer
based in Arizona.
http://www.mfgtray.com http://www.mfgtray.com http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
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