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Italian tomato pie
Type	Pizza
Region or state	Northeastern United States; Central Canada;
Main ingredients	Focaccia-like dough, tomato sauce
	Media: Italian tomato pie;

Italian tomato pie is an Italian-American and Italian-Canadian baked good consisting of a thick, porous, focaccia-like dough covered with tomato sauce.^[1] It may be sprinkled with Romano cheese or oregano. It is not usually served straight from the oven, but allowed to cool and then consumed at room temperature or reheated. Like Sicilian pizza, tomato pie is baked in a large rectangular pan and usually served in square slices, although in Rhode Island it is cut into rectangular strips like pizza al taglio.^[2] Tomato pie descends from and resembles the Italian sfincione, although it is not the same dish. For instance, sfincione may have toppings, is usually served hot, and has a crust more like brioche than focaccia.^[3]^[4]^[5]

A 1903 article in the New-York Tribune on the food of Italian-Americans described a "pomidore pizza", or tomato pie, made solely with dough, tomatoes, and powdered red pepper.^[6] Tomato pie has been sold by Iannelli's Bakery in Philadelphia since 1910.^[7] In Utica, New York, the family that would later found O'Scugnizzo's Pizzeria in 1914 sold tomato pies from their basement for several years prior, starting in 1910.^[8]

Regional names

United States

Philadelphia: tomato pie, church pie, gravy pie (as in "Italian gravy", i.e. tomato sauce)^[5]^[9]

Rhode Island: bakery pizza,^[10] party pizza, pizza strips, red bread, strip pizza,^[11]^[12] red strips^[13]
Utica: tomato pie^[14]

Canada

Hamilton, Ontario: Roma pizza (after the name of a bakery),^[15] bread pizza, slab pizza^[16]^[17]
Montreal: cold pizza, pizza bread, tomato pizza^[18]

Gallery

Typical Palermitan sfincione
Tomato pie for sale in a grocery store near Utica, New York
Rhode Island pizza strips

References

^ Berman, Eleanor (2000). Away for the Weekend: New York. Crown. ISBN 9780609805961.
^ Beaulieu, Linda (November 1, 2005), "Rhode Island Pizza Strips", The Providence and Rhode Island Cookbook: Big Recipes from the Smallest State, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 195, ISBN 978-0-7627-5182-2
^ Krall, Hawk (February 13, 2017). "Never tried tomato pie? Then get yourself to Utica right now". Saveur. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
^ Reuscher, J. A. "Tomato Pie". The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Philadelphia's Tomato Pie: Is it Pizza, or What?". Grand Voyage Italy. Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
^ "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress". New-York Tribune. New York, NY. December 6, 1903. Archived from the original on December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
^ Barrett, Liz (September 2014). Pizza, A Slice of American History. Voyageur Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7603-4560-3.
^ "Never Tried Tomato Pie? Then Get Yourself to Utica Right Now". Saveur. March 18, 2019. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
^ "Tomato pie, pizza made with Italian gravy, is a Philly staple". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
^ Olmsted, Larry (April 3, 2019). "No cheese? Rhode Island's 'red strips' are an odd take on pizza". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
^ "This Rhode Island Bakery Serves the Best Pizza Strips You've Ever Tasted". October 27, 2017. Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
^ Ann Martini; Michael Martini (February 16, 2012). "Rhode Island's Best Pizza Strips". GoLocalProv. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
^ Landeck, Katie (February 9, 2023). "Explaining the Rhode Island pizza strip: What is it and why does it exist?". Providence Journal. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
^ Weaver, Teri (March 8, 2017). "'It's not pizza:' Utica's Tomato Pie Day to celebrate iconic Upstate NY food". newyorkupstate.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
^ "Roma Bakery & Deli: the story of an enduring Hamilton icon". October 8, 2021. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
^ Shane Anderson. "PIZZA". Roma Bakery and Deli. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
^ "From Hamilton, with love and (cheeseless) pizza". The Hamilton Spectator. March 31, 2021. ISSN 1189-9417. Archived from the original on November 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
^ Chabot, Amy (July 28, 2018). "An Ode To Montreal Cold Pizza". www.iheartradio.ca. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2024.