The debut of the youngandfoodish PizzaTuesday series at Datte Foco was no event for sprinters. The entrants on Tuesday night were all analytically minded marathoners of good taste who know an endurance tasting when they see one. So extraordinary was the restraint exhibited by these distance runners in the event’s earliest stages that it threatened to trample the self-confidence of pizzaiolo Herbie Leonelli. He is unaccustomed to people limiting themselves to just 2 or 3 small slices of his authentic pizza bianca romana. It must have killed him to see a sizeable pile of unclaimed pieces left behind on the tray.

The benefit of the marathoners’ collective resolve became clearer with the passing of each pizza lap. The Chianti-fueled runners breezed through the outstanding 4th and 5th pizzas – a crostino salsiccia e broccoletti (white pizza with spicy sausage and broccoli rabe) and crostino salsiccia e porcini (white pizza with sweet sausage and fresh porcini mushrooms) without the slightest hint of shortness of breath. All but one made it to the finish line, heartily digging into the 8th and last pizza and praising it with great gusto, much to Leonelli’s satisfaction. He’d prepared the crostino bresaola e rucola (white pizza with air-dried beef and rocket) as a PizzaTuesday exclusive with an assist from his mamma back in Rome. She’d sent him the bresaola in an unmarked parcel.

In designing a marathon menu featuring various toppings and combinations I confess to an ulterior motive: I wished to demonstrate to participants the pure pleasure of a red pizza accessorized only with tomatoes – pizza rossa – or tomato and anchovies – pizza marinara. The base of a pizza al taglio, as the rectangular “by-the-cut” pizza is known in Rome and practised in London at Datte Foco,  is an ideal platform for a generous layer of plum tomatoes: It’s thicker and crispier than Neapolitan-style pizza and therefore doesn’t turn soggy or mushy under the weight of a red sauce.

The rossa and marinara together constituted the evening’s true taste breakthrough. Although the group loved the more elaborate toppings, a good third picked the elemental red pizzas as their favorite. Even those who preferred one of the other 7 pizzas regarded the rossa as something of a revelation. Most couldn’t recall ever trying or, for that matter, contemplating a pizza with tomatoes as its only topping. Yet it was just such a pizza, laid bare without the usual cover of mozzarella and sampled amongst a marathon of classic combinations, that proved to be the biggest and best surprise of all. The fullness of the sweet, zesty, unvarnished tomatoes in the mouth can be one of the great sensations in the pizza eating experience.

The next PizzaTuesday is 23 February at Pizza Metro Pizza. Book now.