Pinsa vs Neapolitan — the difference
Both are round-ish, hand-stretched Italian doughs, but they chase opposite textures: Neapolitan is a soft, fast-fired pie with a puffy charred rim, while pinsa romana is a much wetter, longer-fermented flatbread stretched to an airy, crisp-bottomed oval.
Side by side
Every number below is the calculator’s, at each style’s default size:
| Pinsa | Neapolitan | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Hand-stretched round | Hand-stretched round |
| Typical size | 230 g ball ≈ 23 cm | 260 g ball ≈ 29 cm |
| Dough per pizza | 230 g | 260 g |
| Hydration | 80% | 62% |
| Salt | 2.4% | 2.8% |
| Oil | 2% | — |
| Oven | 300 °C / 572 °F | 450 °C / 842 °F |
| Flour | Pinsa blend or strong 00 | Pizzeria 00 |
| Protein | 12.5–14% | 12–13.5% |
What sets them apart
Pinsa. Pinsa runs very high hydration and a long, usually cold ferment, so it bakes exceptionally light — airy inside, shatter-crisp underneath — and is traditionally shaped as an elongated oval rather than a round.
Neapolitan. Neapolitan keeps it lean and is stretched gently, then fired fast and hot so the rim balloons into a soft, leopard-spotted cornicione — tender and foldable, not crisp.
Which one to make
Go Pinsa. Reach for pinsa when you want a light, crisp, almost focaccia-adjacent base that forgives a home oven and rewards a long fridge ferment.
Go Neapolitan. Reach for Neapolitan when you have real top heat and want the soft, foldable classic with a dramatic airy rim.
Both want strong flour and both love a long ferment, so the habits carry over; the fork is water and heat — pinsa is far wetter and bakes longer at a lower temperature than a true Neapolitan. The calculator swaps the hydration and oven for each.
For the numbers behind the table, see the hydration and flour guides.
Questions from the counter
Is pinsa just high-hydration pizza?
Almost — pinsa is wetter and longer-fermented than most pizza, traditionally made with a wheat-rice-soy flour blend for its light, crisp texture, and shaped as an oval. It's usually baked lower and slower than a Neapolitan, which makes it far more home-oven friendly.
Can I make pinsa in a home oven?
Yes, and that's part of the appeal — pinsa bakes beautifully at normal home-oven temperatures on a steel or stone, where a true Neapolitan really wants 450 °C. The high hydration does the lifting.
Make either one
The calculator weighs and schedules both — pick a preset and it does the rest.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.