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.

A second double take is elicited by what lies just inside the window: pizza al taglia and pizza bianca romana so good they could be mistaken for treasures stolen from the Eternal City. Sure I am getting a bit overexcited: This is hardly the first place in Londinium to do either pizza al taglio – “cut” pizza usually sold by weight (see Maletti and Princi), nor is it the sole practitioner of authentic pizza bianca romana (see Spianata). Moreover, the dough is still evolving and the finished product, like all pizza rustica (as the by-the-slice format is known outside Rome) invariably suffers in the reheating. You’ll nonetheless forgive my giddiness once you’ve sunken your teeth into one of these crisp yet puffy rafts and explored its exceptional topography.

The pizzeria was opened by Stokey native Neil Belgrave (above left) and Herbie Leonelli (above right with slab of bianca), two friends who said “datte foco” to their City jobs in finance. Leonelli’s tale is especially poignant: His Anglophile parents travelled from Rome to London so he could be born here and then shipped him off to English boarding school at 13. (You can see him wince even now from the retelling). 20 years later he returned to Rome to apprentice as a pizzaiolo at Pizzeria Russo in the Prati district. His journey home is what’s known, in Rome and elsewhere, as la forza del destino – “the force of destiny.”

Pizza bianca romana ought not be confused with the tomato-less white pizzas seen on pizzeria menus all over. Brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and rosemary, the Roman version is more like focaccia than pizza. My colleague David Downie, author of the definitive Cooking the Roman Way and the indispensable Food Wine Rome guide, observes that it’s crispier and more porous than focaccia and likens it instead to “a leavened flatbread with a rough, uneven texture varying in thickness from 1/4 to 3/4 inches.” The thicker half of that description matches Leonelli’s pizza bianca londinese.

Datte Foco outfits its pizza al taglio in a wide assortment of good-quality toppings. Some combinations are baked nearly every day; others are specials. A couple of the former, like the pizza topped with potatoes cut to the size of frites, were meant to be one-offs but proved too popular. The Margherita is blanketed with decent fior di latte (cow’s milk mozzarella), yet it’s not as pleasing as the pizza rossa with only roma tomato sauce or anything with mushrooms and sausage. It’s a mouth feel thing. Melted mozza doesn’t always reheat all that well.

A great plus of pizza al taglio is that it allows you to sample several varieties at one. You are encouraged to do just that, to go light yourself on fire. Alternatively this might be more fun to do as a group: youngandfoodish.com will be launching a series of pizza Tuesdays, the first of which will take place on the 2nd of February at Datte Foco at 7:30pm. To learn more or book a place at the table,  click here.

Datte Foco: A Pizza & Love Joint – 10 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 (see map). Tel: 020 7254 6055

The first Spianata & Co rolled out in 2004, so it is something of a stretch to term this Italian sandwich shop a discovery. Yet the thousands of City suits who walk by it every day, oblivious to its very existence, can make it seem like an esoteric find.

This pizza bianca is not the tomato-less “white pizza” featured at pizzerias but is instead the near-naked raft of classic flat bread from Rome. It’s one of the world’s great chews. Forget cheese: the only toppings are scant olive oil, salt and rosemary. Spianata’s version may not compare to Rome’s best –  Antico Forno Roscioli, Forno Campo de’ Fiori – but its golden, bronze-highlighted color looks right and its crisp-crusted air pockets and low density allow for chewy compression. My lone frustrations: that it’s baked with no rosemary to speak of and mostly in advance. If you want it warm, as you should, you usually have to ask for a reheat, which hardens the bread and doesn’t do it justice.

Spianata also prepares pizza rossa romana, which, as you’ve guessed, is painted with a coat of tomato sauce. It’s thinner and crisper than the bianca and altogether fabulous. Incredibly it’s only £1.60 cold, £1.85 reheated (due to VAT). I’ve otherwise tried and liked 3 toasted sandwiches assembled with pizza bianca, including the delightful Nutella breakfast panino, but won’t explore any further. From now on it’s either the bianca or the rossa for me. If I want a sandwich I’ll get 2 rossi and stick them together.

Spianiata has good espresso and cappuccino prepared with illy’s arabica blend. The illy red sign is hardly a reliable indicator of quality preparation, but here they have Italians who care about coffee on both sides of the counter and the results are positive. Spianiata didn’t make my list of top 10 coffee shops in London, nor did it qualify for my top 10 London pizzerias (which rated only Margheritas). Still, when stuck within the walls of London’s Square Mile, why not follow the Roman way?

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73A Watling Street, London EC4
41 Brushfield Street, London E1
20 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1
12 Moorfields, London EC2
29/30 Leadenhall Market, London EC3