Pizza in pala alla romana with a biga

For the biga, mix the flour mix, water and dry yeast, adding the water slowly onto the yeast.

Rest the biga 24 hours in a tall deep container in the cool room, with space to proof.

Put the wholemeal flour in the mixer with the yeast, add the biga, then a tiny bit of the water.

Add the rock salt and start the mixer, feeding the remaining water in slowly and waiting for the dough to take each addition, up to about 80% hydration.

Check the dough temperature, 24 degrees here, then work in the extra virgin olive oil until absorbed; the dough should be soft and elastic.

Wet your hands and lift the dough into a deep container to rest one hour, marking the level so you can see when it has doubled.

Turn out onto semolina, cut with big scissors and weigh balls of 600 g for a half metre pizza, 600 to 650 for thicker, 1 kg to 1.2 kg for a metre.

Fold the edges inward to round each piece, turn it upside down and adjust; it will be long rather than perfectly round.

Set the pieces on trays, covered, and proof until three times their starting size.

Flour the top, turn the piece upside down onto semolina and flour it again, then massage it out on a floured wooden board and onto the paddle, larger for thin, smaller for puffy.

Brush the top with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil and prick a few holes to stop it proving further in the oven.

Par bake at 250 to 300 degrees to drive the water out, pulling it when it starts to brown, then finish with the toppings and return it to the oven.

Variation: bake it straight through without par baking, with just a little salt on top, for a focaccia.

Topped as a classic margherita.

Par baked bases keep in the fridge or freezer and can be finished the next day.