Italian tomato pie is an Italian-American and Italian-Canadian

baked good Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferr ...

consisting of a thick, porous, focaccia-like dough covered with tomato sauce. It may be sprinkled with

romano cheese Romano cheese is a term used in the United States and Canada for a class of hard, salty cheese suitable primarily for grating similar to Pecorino Romano, from which the name is derived. In spite of the name, it should not be confused with genuine ...

oregano Oregano (, ; ''Origanum vulgare'') is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Oregano is a woody perennial pla ...

. It is not usually served straight from the oven, but allowed to cool and then consumed at room temperature or reheated. Like

Sicilian pizza Sicilian pizza is pizza prepared in a manner that originated in Sicily, Italy. Sicilian pizza is also known as ''sfincione'' (; scn, sfinciuni ) or focaccia with toppings. This type of pizza became a popular dish in western Sicily by the mid-1 ...

, 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. Tomato pie descends from and resembles the Italian ''

sfincione Sicilian pizza is pizza prepared in a manner that originated in Sicily, Italy. Sicilian pizza is also known as ''sfincione'' (; scn, sfinciuni ) or focaccia with toppings. This type of pizza became a popular dish in western Sicily by the mid-19 ...

'', 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. A 1903 article in the '' New-York Tribune'' on the food of Italian-Americans described an early version of tomato pie. Tomato pie has been sold by Iannelli's Bakery in Philadelphia since 1910. 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.

Regional names

* Utica: tomato pie * Philadelphia: church pie, gravy pie (as in " Italian gravy", i.e. tomato sauce) * Rhode Island: bakery pizza, party pizza, pizza strips, red bread, strip pizza, red strips * Montreal: tomato pizza, cold pizza, pizza bread * Hamilton, Ontario: Roma pizza (after the name of a bakery), bread pizza, slab pizza

Gallery

File:Sfincione palermitano 2.jpg, Typical

palermitan Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its hi ...

''sfincione'' File:New Hartford NY Hannaford - Tomato Pie.jpg, Tomato pie for sale in a grocery store near Utica File:Box o' strips.jpg, Rhode Island pizza strips

References

{{Tomatoes Italian-American cuisine Italian-American culture in New York (state) Italian-American culture in Philadelphia Italian-American culture in Rhode Island Italian-Canadian culture Pizza styles Tomato dishes

Regional names

Gallery

See also

References