From my cookbook… Dave’s Tomato Pie
Here’s a regional favorite from upstate New York. You’re gonna love it!
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
One of the reasons I enjoy traveling is that I get to sample different foods from different regions of our country and other countries as well. When we travel, I’ll make notes on local foods and take pictures of my meal (I know, I don’t care for it either when I see people taking pictures of their food, but hey! I’m working here!) and note how the menu describes the food. Just as soon as I get home, I’ll start researching that food, and sometimes a recipe will pop up. I may look at it and consider what it has in it. I’ve been doing this for so long now that I can just about look at a recipe and tell how it will turn out. Then, and this is the important part, and why I must get to work as soon as I get home, I will remember how the food tasted, the consistency, and the mouth feel. I’ll remember the tastes of the ingredients. Usually. Sometimes this part is hard. And then, I’ll make it. Most of the time, I can get pretty close on the first try, but there are always tweaks to make, and I’ll make a dish as many times as I need to get it just where I want it. And there is one final consideration…That is, I try to use standard US package sizes so it’s easier for us home chefs. One of the downsides of this, if you want to call it that, is that there will often be larger portions. First, because I don’t care to cook for just one or two meals, and secondly, that I don’t want partial packages of opened food around. Thirdly, and you know this about me already, is I want to be efficient in the kitchen and get several meals out of one cooking session for leftovers during the week.
I’m working on a Cudighi sandwich recipe now, and I can’t wait until it’s done! Never heard of it? Well, then you must not be a Yooper then (that would be Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, or U.P. as Michiganders call it. I’m also working on air fryer chicken wings, which would be a simpler (and not fried) version of the time we visited the site of the original Buffalo wings, The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.
Oh, and in the recipe introduction, I make reference to Old Forge, PA, white pizza. This is another wonderful regional recipe, and I’ll share this delicious pizza and the interesting story behind it in an upcoming post, a few months from now. Don’t want to wait? Click on the link in Note 1 and get your own copy of my cookbook today!
David Giustozzi’s Tomato Pie
I first heard about tomato pie from an Andrew Zimmern Bizarre Foods show about the Erie Canal. Tomato pie is synonymous with Utica, NY. Then, when visiting my best friend Chuck in Auburn, near the Finger Lakes, I heard about it again. So, tomato pie kept coming up and I knew I had to try my hand at making it. And when I did, it was great! It has a slightly sweet taste due to the sugar and balsamic reduction. Now I know why they rave about it! But you understand tomato pie is not pizza, right? Don’t call a tomato pie a pizza to a Utican. I mean, as they say here in Oklahoma, “them’s fightin’ words!”
Utican’s (those are people from Utica, NY) are rightly proud of tomato pie. Utica tomato pie reminds me of the pizza I used to get from my dad’s hometown of Old Forge, PA. Old Forge pizza is a unique pizza in its own right, especially Old Forge white pizza (Google it). We never, ever, ever got anything on a pizza except sauce and cheese. Then, they would leave it on the counter all night and eat it for breakfast the next morning. Tomato pie is like that, it’s eaten at room temperature. I’ve simplified this recipe for you by using my Detroit style crust made in two cast iron skillets. You could use a 10 x 15 sheet pan, but you will have to adjust the cooking time as the thin sheet pan heats more quickly than the dense cast iron skillets.
Ingredients
For the crust
2 cups bread flour (Note 1)
1 ¼ oz. packet rapid rise instant yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt, sea salt preferred
Extra virgin olive oil
Cornmeal
For the filling
4 fresh whole tomatoes, thinly sliced (optional, Note 2)
1 28 oz. can whole San Marzano tomatoes (Note 3)
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
3 cloves garlic
¼ teaspoon dried oregano (Note 4)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar reduction (Note 5)
3 tablespoons sugar
Very thin slices of purple onion (optional, Note 9)
Garlic salt
Grated parmesan cheese for topping
Additional dried oregano, dried basil or crushed red pepper, salt and freshly grated black pepper to top
Directions
Whisk the flour, salt and yeast together in a large glass (or metal) mixing bowl. Add the water and beginning with a silicon spatula, mix well, then knead by hand until you have a large, sticky ball. Wipe a second mixing bowl, glass preferred, with extra virgin olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Wipe the top and sides of the dough with more oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place in an oven that is turned off with the light on to provide just a little heat and so there are not any drafts. Allow to rest until doubling in size, about 2 hours (Note 6). When you are ready to make the tomato pie, remove the dough from the oven.
Pour some pure olive oil into the skillets to coat the bottom (Note 7). Sprinkle cornmeal over the bottom of the pan into the oil. The oil will be absorbed into the crust and the cornmeal will help the dough not to stick and add a very nice crunch to the crust.
While the dough is still in the mixing bowl, cut in half with a sharp knife. You won’t need to do this if using a sheet pan. Place each half into a skillet and form to fit, allowing dough to rise slightly up the sides. This will contain the sauce. The dough will be loose and sticky. Cover skillets with plastic wrap, place back in the oven to rise a second time for 30 minutes (Note 8).
While the dough is on its second rise, make the sauce. Drain the canned tomatoes and place all the filling ingredients in a blender except the fresh tomatoes. Pulse until not quite smooth, don’t over blend.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Make sure you have removed the skillets with the dough first!
Using a small gravy ladle to prevent splattering, ladle the sauce over the crusts up to about ½” from the edge, dividing equally among the pies. For tomato pie, you are using more sauce than with pizza, so keep that in mind and apply it liberally (Note 10). The crust is thick and tough and will stand up to more tomato sauce. Evenly spread the tomato slices over the top, overlapping the sauce to the end of the crust. Add onions over the top if using. Sprinkle with garlic salt.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the crust is just starting to turn brown on the edges and the tomatoes are good and wilted. Lift the edge of the pie with a knife at 25 minutes to check to see it is nicely browning on the bottom. Rotate the pies in the oven once about halfway through. You can bake tomato pie more than pizza because we don’t use cheese that will burn for this long cook time.
Let rest for 10 minutes or longer. I cut with a heavy-duty spatula that I purchased from Lou Malnati’s, the Chicago pizza place. it’s really heavy and has sharp edges that will cut the thick crust easily. Alternatively, you can use a knife or slide the pie onto a large cutting board and use a pizza cutter or large chef’s knife. Remember that tomato pie is typically eaten at room temperature so it’s OK to make it well before you want to eat it. Enjoy this unique New York treat!
Notes
I like King Arthur flour the best.
Using tomatoes are an optional step of mine and not typical of Utica tomato pie. When it’s summer, I love to use all the fresh tomatoes from the garden in different ways. You may have to buy your tomatoes in the store if you don’t grow them or it’s not summer. Try to buy them a few days in advance and let them sit on the counter to ripen well before using them. Be sure you have a very, very sharp knife when you cut them and be careful!
Italian San Marzano tomatoes are the best. If you can’t find them, Hunt’s San Marzano’s are good. Just be sure to use a very good quality tomato, whatever you use.
Crushing the oregano in your hand releases oil and flavor. Besides, it makes your hand smell good!
I hope you have some balsamic vinegar reduction on hand for making salads with extra virgin olive oil. If not, use balsamic vinegar. There is a huge variety and quality difference among balsamic vinegars. Only buy the good stuff, that is the expensive one. You will know as soon as you taste it. Just trust me.
The key is for the dough to double in size, and it may take a little more or less time depending upon temperature, humidity and other local factors.
You can use pure olive oil for oiling the pans. Pure olive oil has a little higher smoke point than extra virgin and you really don’t want to impart the more pronounced taste of the extra virgin oil into the crust. Besides, it’s cheaper so you save a little with no detrimental impact to the tomato pie. Be liberal with use of the oil, because as the pie bakes, the oil will “fry” the crust, making is brown and crispy. Yum!
One time I forgot to let the dough rise during this step, and the tomato pie was still good. If you are short of time, you can skip this step and get away with it, but I would not recommend it.
Onions are not a part of the original tomato pie recipe, but I can understand if you want to use them to up the taste a little. If you do, use a few very thin slices of purple onion (only) and sprinkle them on top of the fresh tomatoes before baking in the oven.
You will not use all of the sauce and have some leftover. Use the leftover sauce to make David Giustozzi’s Leftover Pasta Sauce Meal. You will get a double bang for your buck!
Dave’s Tomato Pie
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Call to Action
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.
Besides getting a copy of the cookbook for yourself, it makes an excellent gift for those you love and care for, especially for those with a young family who are looking to save time and money in the kitchen. And learn a few things in the process! What a great idea!
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