Welcome to Off the Eaten Path, a sequence the place our Check Kitchen creator Noah Tanen dives deep into regional recipes. Subsequent up? Tomato Pie.
For fanatics of regional pizza kinds, tomato pie could be 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 standard 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 high after baking, there isn’t a mozzarella, brick cheese, or Provel to be discovered on this slice. You’ll be able to see why it’s typically 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. Actually, traditionally the dish is a byproduct of Italian bread bakeries. The concept is that any leftover bread dough may 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 high. It’s typically discovered proper by the register, marketed basically as an impulse purchase, or just a little snack for the highway. For that reason, 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 automotive.
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 will not be 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 individuals who don’t stay in these locations, tomato pie is extremely simple to make at residence. You’ll be able to take a look at my recipe to offer it a strive your self. In case you’re anxious concerning 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 probably not pizza anyway.
