Welcome to Off the Eaten Path, a collection the place our Check Kitchen creator Noah Tanen dives deep into regional recipes. Subsequent up? Tomato Pie.
For fanatics of regional pizza types, tomato pie generally is a little bit of a tough promote. Seldom discovered within the case at an precise pizzeria, these golden crisp dough slabs blanketed in a thick layer of tomato sauce are fashionable all through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Although tomato pie could also be made with a small quantity of pecorino cheese, both within the sauce itself or sprinkled on prime after baking, there isn’t a mozzarella, brick cheese, or Provel to be discovered on this slice. You may see why it’s usually referred to, mainly by detractors, as “pizza with out cheese.”
Although is tomato pie even pizza in any respect? I’ve all the time mentioned that it is extra like a focaccia with sauce. The truth is, traditionally the dish is a byproduct of Italian bread bakeries. The thought is that any leftover bread dough could be repurposed right into a value-added product by shoving it right into a sheet tray with some olive oil and baking it with sauce on prime. It’s usually discovered proper by the register, marketed primarily as an impulse purchase, or somewhat snack for the street. Because of this, tomato pie is supposed to be loved at room temperature, ideally whereas strolling down the road between errands or leaning over the hood of your automobile.
Tomato pie bakers and enjoyers alike appear to make a distinction between their beloved sq. slices and pizza. Louis Sarcones III himself, of the famed Sarcone’s Bakery in South Philadelphia, makes the excellence in this interview. That’s a bakery proprietor in a neighborhood on the epicenter of the tomato pie universe telling you” “The dough just isn’t a pizza dough. It is a bread dough.”
Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and Utica, NY all lay declare to this dish as their very own, however we’ll by no means know for certain the place it originated. For many who don’t stay in these locations, tomato pie is extremely straightforward to make at house. You may try my recipe to present it a attempt your self. In the event you’re fearful in regards to the lack of cheese, don’t fear, I add a beneficiant handful of pecorino proper into the sauce for a salty and tangy chunk. And bear in mind, it’s not likely pizza anyway.
