From My Cookbook…Dave’s Old Forge Style White Pizza
Last week, I shared a special guest recipe that was over 100 years old. Here is another recipe that is at least 100 years old. Oh, you’ve never heard of Old Forge white pizza? Well, read on for the story!
There are over 300 recipes in my recently published cookbook, Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us (Click on the link in Note 1 to get your own copy). Even in these inflationary times, we can prepare delicious meals for our family and do so in a way that does not break the budget. And it’s all in the cookbook!
Introduction
I’ve been on a kick for the past few years to resurrect old recipes, particularly from the Depression era, the 1930s. As I write this post, I have a Route 66 Oatmeal pie cooling on the stovetop. Oatmeal pie was a pecan pie copycat that did not contain pecans, as they were expensive during the depression. “The Mother Road” is Route 66, which turns 100 in 2026, and the pie recipe comes from The Rock Café in Stroud. OK, and they are still open to this day!
And so it is with Old Forge White Pizza, which has been served in Old Forge, PA, for at least 100 years, if not longer.
Interestingly, I just went to a restaurant in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, called The Sons of Almafi, which opened in late 2025 after relocating from Rockville, MD. They serve a thin-crust version of white pizza, which, while different than what I’m used to, is absolutely fantastic. I spoke to the owner, who told me that their version of white pizza is a challenge for two reasons: first, making the dough is a three-day process, and second, finding appropriate cheeses locally. He had the same problem I did with the cheeses! Anyway, if you are in the Tulsa area, please make a reservation (they only have 10 tables) and go visit them. Their food is really good, the service is fantastic, and the prices are very reasonable (Note 3).
OK, so enough of all the history and trivia, on to our recipe!
David Giustozzi’s Old Forge Style White Pizza
While pizza got its start in Italy many years ago, and if you look at almost any list of the most popular foods in America, pizza will come up near the top. It’s certainly one of my favorites (right there with tacos) which is why I’ve developed several pizza recipes that I make and enjoy at home. In the United States, typically, there are one of several regional pizza types that are the most popular but certainly every state and many towns have their local favorites (here in Tulsa, OK one of the local favorites is Hideaway Pizza, which was started in Stillwater, OK near the campus of Oklahoma State University. It’s very good, and kind of unique. There are others locally, but this one stands out due to its unique nature).
Typically, you will see American pizzas in the following styles: New York (large hand tossed thin crust), Chicago Deep Dish (thick pan baked pizza with the sauce on top of the cheese), Detroit Style (rectangular, rather thick crust with cheese climbing up the pan edges and browned), New Haven CT (uses a very hot coal fired oven and dough that is fermented a long time). And then there is Old Forge PA. style in both red and white (both use a thicker crust, made into a rectangle and baked in a sheet pan. The red sauce is a little sweeter than most, but it’s the white we want to focus on here. You will see Old Forge white in two forms, double (stuffed) and single crust. I’ve never had the double stuffed crust, so we make the single crust here.
Each of my recipes comes with a story and here is the story about Old Forge Pizza. Legend is that Old Forge style pizza originated at Ghigiarelli’s Restaurant (which is now closed). Filomena Ghigiarelli was a native of Perugia, in the Umbria region of Italy. She and her husband, Erminio started to serve this style of pizza in 1926 to coal miners as a snack in their tavern as an accompaniment to beer and card playing. It’s said that Old Forge style pizza is an offshoot of Italian pizza al taglio, which is very similar in style.
My grandfather, Primo Giustozzi, came to the US in 1924 from a small town in the Perugia region called Rasiglia (the town of streams) and settled in Old Forge to work in the coal mines. He apparently went back to get my grandmother Otavia Innocense (sp) in 1928 and they, like many immigrants of that era, came through Ellis Island. You must wonder if a bunch from that area of Italy heard about work in the coal mines and decided to come to America and settle in Old Forge. I’m sure he ate at Ghigiareli’s at some point, probably knew them, since it was a small town. Later, my father, Diano, worked at Liberty Baking Company in Old Forge (now closed) when he was a teen in the 1940’s. Besides bread, they made Old Forge red and white pizza, and this is where my memory comes from. We’ve also had it at Revello’s, Arcaro and Genell and maybe even some others. All fantastic!
Old Forge pizza (called peetsa) is not a pie, it’s called a tray. This is because it’s baked on a sheet pan, or tray. You eat Old Forge pizza by the cut, not the slice. In Italy they often cut pizza al taglio with scissors, but I don’t remember doing that, it came precut. Everyone loved the crust so you will often see it cut into large pieces, so each piece has a crust and there are no center pieces. I seem to remember smaller pieces and there were some center pieces, but I’m not sure after all these years. Our family only ordered red or white with cheese, no other toppings from Liberty. Perhaps there were other toppings offered, but we never had any. The leftover pizza remained on the counter all night, and we would eat it again for breakfast in the morning, at room temperature.
What makes Old Forge style Old Forge style is that the crust and the cheese are different than other pizzas. The crust is thicker than most, almost bread-like, which is why we use bread flour instead of all-purpose, and it has a long rise time, made in the style of Sicilian Sficione and Northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA) guidance. If you think of cheese sticks, this might be familiar to you. The cheese is a mixture of soft cheeses, and this is a closely guarded secret by the professionals from Old Forge. I’m not saying I got it all right here; all I’m saying is I’ve had to figure it out from scratch and add a few of my own techniques. It is good, and it takes me back to my childhood at the Silvani (Aleria and Americo, my aunt and uncle) and Giustozzi homes in Old Forge eating Old Forge style pizza from Liberty Baking Company. I hope you will enjoy this wonderful peetsa! Note: There are other variations of white pizza, thick, thin, round and square out there that has tomato slices, broccoli and or spinach and even ricotta cheese. They are good, but not what we are trying to do here. Mangia!
One final note: Making this pizza is time consuming due to the long rest times. Best to block out the afternoon, have a football game on or have other activities planned. OK to half (shown in picture), use 9 x 13 sheet pan.
Ingredients
For the crust
4 cups Bread flour (Note 1)
2 teaspoons instant yeast (Note 2)
1 ¾ cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature (Note 3)
Pure olive oil, as required (Note 4)
For the filling
2 heaping cups fontina cheese, grated
2 heaping cups Munster cheese, grated
2 heaping cups provolone cheese, grated
Additional ingredients
Garlic salt, chopped fresh rosemary, grated
Pecorino Romano cheese, crushed red pepper
Directions
Place all of the crust ingredients into a mixing bowl with a dough hook and process until the dough comes together and starts to ride around on the blade, indicated it is mixed together well. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can mix everything together in a large mixing bowl and kneed it until it all just comes together. Don’t overwork it. Oil a large glass mixing bowl, place the dough in the bowl, oil the dough, place plastic wrap on the top and place in a warm place to rise for 3 hours. I like to place it in a cold oven with the light on. No drafts and just the right temperature. The long rise is the key to this crust.
Generously oil an 11x17 steel cookie sheet with olive oil (Note 5). Punch the dough down in the bowl, remove and hand stretch the dough in the pan, ensuring the edges ride up the side and are the same thickness as the crust. Brush the bottom of a second, matching sheet pan with oil, place on top of the dough, return to oven. Let rise for 60 minutes. As it rises, it will lift the pan and keep its shape.
Remove pizza from oven if you are using it for the dough to rise. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all the cheeses together well in a large mixing bowl, place in refrigerator or freezer to cool. Sprinkle cheese by hand over the crust evenly. Sprinkle garlic salt (and rosemary, if using) over entire pizza.
Place in oven and bake for (14-15) minutes until the crust is starting to brown and the cheese has turned brown in spots. The browned cheese is a charteristic I remember from the pizzas from Liberty.
Allow the pizza to rest for 5 or 10 minutes until the cheese firms up. Transfer to a large cutting board to cut. Tradition says to slice once down the middle lengthwise and cut 12 equal pieces from the side. If you don’t have a cutting board large enough, you could use a knife in the pan, if you used a steel pan. You don’t want to cut in an aluminum pan and mar it. Pass grated Pecorino Romano and crushed red pepper.
Notes
I always like to sift my flour by pouring it through a strainer. Also, remember I mentioned there is not a lot of information out there about Old Forge Pizza? Well, here comes another piece to figure out. You will see some recipes for pizza al taglio specify pizza flour, which is “00”, or very fine flour. It’s not common here in the States, but a key is that bread flour and pizza flour have similar protein contents (11-13%). Also, 00 flour is expensive, and the immigrants from Old Forge were working folks, so I’m guessing they originally just used bread flour. Also, I met a guy once who had an Italian food truck who was from Italy, and he told me he liked American flour the best. Go figure.
I use instant dry yeast in this recipe, as King Arthur Flour recommends it over active dry yeast on their website (they recommend SAF red or gold for sweet breads). It’s going to be simpler and faster and you will get excellent results. You also need about 25% less than active dry yeast. If you were a professional baker, you might use fresh yeast, but I’m not in that category. I also use a little more yeast than, for example, a pizza la taglio as the Old Forge pizza I remember had a thicker crust.
I add a little butter because I like the taste. You could grease the pan with butter if you wanted to.
When I was a kid in Old Forge, my family only used Filippo Berio pure olive oil, which they bought in 101.4 oz. tins from Insalaco’s grocery store (later Rossi’s, then Ray’s until it closed in 2018). I have to laugh as I don’t know if my family ever used extra virgin or even knew what it was. They may have been poor folks, but they knew how to get the best from all foods, and we sure did eat well!
I use a cheap, thin steel cookie sheet. The thicker, insulated ones will heat differently, and you will get different results. Be generous oiling the sheet bottom and the sides as the oil will help the crust brown.
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Show someone how much you love them by preparing a delicious meal for them. Later, enjoy the time and money you save by relishing your leftovers, either for lunch at work or dinner at home. Take comfort in knowing you are eating hearty food you prepared. All because you made a good decision to follow the recipes and tips in the cookbook I developed just for you.
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Recommended Resources
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us by David Giustozzi (Note 1).
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Notes
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Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/437OhVQ
Achieve Your Dreams: A Complete Guide to Live Your Best Life by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/3IxEFgy