Like everyone else during the early lockdown periods last spring, Chef Marc Forgione began experimenting with sourdough starter. He had taken over the Italian restaurant Peasant in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood from Frank DeCarlo in February 2020, so he’d only had a short time in the kitchen before they had to shut down mid-March.

He’d already begun to tweak the menu, but hadn’t gotten around to fine-tuning the pizzas yet. Finding himself at home, he decided to create his own starter from scratch, and to play around with whole grains. Eventually, he created and perfected a new whole grain sourdough pizza crust recipe, which he began serving at Peasant this summer, soon after the restaurant reopened.