APRIL/MAY 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 5AS A LOVER of all things topped
with gooey melted cheese, I found
Philly tomato pie puzzling at first.
It has a thick crust similar to that of
Sicilian-style pizza. It’s sold by the rect-
angular slice like Sicilian-style pizza.
And like all pizza, it has tomato sauce.
But this Philly pie features no cheese.
Though I initially wondered where
the fun was in that, I’ve also never met
a pizza I didn’t like. Philly tomato pie’s
crust is thick and chewy-soft. The sauce
is invigorating—sweet-tart and herby.
This pie is generally eaten at room
temperature. Cheese or no cheese, I
was smitten at first bite and eager for a
home version that would be no different.
A South Philadelphia specialty (see
“Beauty in the Basics”), Philly tomato
pie evolved as a frugal way for the area’s
Italian American family-owned bakeries
to use up leftover bread dough.
The recipes I tried missed the
chewy-crust mark, instead ranging
from superlight to dense-yet-pliable
(read: cardboard-y). The sauces were
one-note, with sweetness that trampled
the tomato flavor, and most overcooked
on the pies, leaving thin, raisiny spots of
dried-out sauce. Many recipes caved to
outsider expectations of cheese (albeit
not the gooey kind) grated on top. I in-
tended to stick to the script: chewy-soft
crust, bright sauce, and no cheese.
To get the texture of the crust right,
I needed to know how water affected
the dough. Generally speaking, the
higher the ratio of water to flour in a
dough, the more “open” or airy the
crumb. Experimentation helped me
find the best amounts for small, fine
holes and a pleasantly spongy chew.
Once I’d mixed a dough of flour,
yeast, water, and oil in my stand mixer,
I let it sit for 10 minutes to hydrate
before adding salt—if added sooner,
it would draw moisture away from
the flour (see “Wait on the Salt”). I
then turned on the mixer and let it do
the remaining kneading. When the
dough was satiny and sticky, I scooped
it directly into a greased baking pan
to relax and rise. Once the dough
had doubled in size, I could easily
shape it to fit the pan using my hands.
Side-by-side tests of a dough that had
risen only once, before shaping, and a
dough that had risen a second time af-
ter shaping illustrated that more rising
time meant more flavor development.
For an assertive sauce, I started
by sautéing a bit of onion in olive oil
and then flavored it with a moder-
ate amount of minced garlic, a hefty
amount of herby dried oregano, and,
for kick, ¼ teaspoon of red pepper
flakes. For just the right tomato flavor
and texture, I added one 15-ounce can
of tomato sauce, and for the sauce’s
signature sweetness, 1 tablespoon of
sugar. Simmering it for 10 minutes
allowed the flavors to meld and yielded
enough sauce to cover the pie in a thin
layer that wouldn’t overevaporate in
the oven. Letting the sauce cool before
spreading it and baking the pie made
even coverage easier to achieve.
In typical tomato-pie fashion, I let
my version cool to room temperature
before serving it, and as with pieces
scooped up in a South Philly family
bakery, no one—myself included—
missed the cheese.PHILADELPHIA TOMATO PIE Serves 4
When kneading the dough on medium
speed, the mixer may wobble and
shimmy. To keep it in place, position
a dish towel or shelf liner beneath the
mixer and keep a close watch on it. You
will need a nonstick metal baking pan
for this recipe.DOUGH
2½ cups (12½ ounces) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 cup water, room temperature
1½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoons table saltSAUCE
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon sugar- FOR THE DOUGH: Spray 13 by
9-inch nonstick baking pan with vege-
table oil spray. Using stand mixer fitted
with dough hook, mix flour and yeast
on medium speed until combined,
about 10 seconds. With mixer running,
slowly add room-temperature water
and oil and mix until dough forms and
no dry flour remains, about 30 seconds,
scraping down bowl as needed. Turn
off mixer, cover bowl with plastic wrap,
and let dough stand for 10 minutes.- Add salt to dough and knead on
medium speed until dough is satiny
and sticky and clears sides of bowl but
still sticks to bottom, 6 to 8 minutes.
Transfer dough to prepared pan, cover
pan tightly with plastic, and let dough
rise at room temperature until doubled
in size, about 1½ hours. - FOR THE SAUCE: While dough
rises, heat oil in small saucepan over
medium heat until shimmering. Add
onion and cook, stirring occasionally,
until softened and lightly browned, 3 to
5 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, and
pepper flakes and cook until fragrant,
about 30 seconds. Add tomato sauce
and sugar and bring to boil. Reduce
heat to medium-low and simmer until
sauce is slightly thickened and measures
about 1¼ cups, about 10 minutes. Let
sauce cool completely. - Using your well-oiled hands, press
dough into corners of pan. (If dough re-
sists stretching, let it rest for 10 minutes
before trying to stretch again.) Cover
pan tightly with plastic and let dough
rise at room temperature until doubled
in size, about 1½ hours. Adjust oven
rack to upper-middle position and heat
oven to 450 degrees. - Spread sauce evenly over dough,
leaving ½- to ¼-inch border. Bake until
edges are light golden brown and sauce
has reduced in spots, about 20 minutes.
Let tomato pie cool in pan on wire
rack for 5 minutes. Run knife around
edge of pan to loosen pie. Using
spatula, slide pie onto cutting board.
Cut into 8 pieces and serve.
Philly
Tomato
Pie
Dough, sauce, and no
cheese? Philly tomato
pie challenges the pizza
equation. by Cecelia Jenkins
Wait on the Salt
To produce a chewy pizza crust, we
use a technique called autolyse; this
simply entails mixing the flour, yeast,
and liquid but withholding the salt
for a short period (10 minutes in this
case). Salt slows flour’s absorption
of water, so delaying the addition
of salt allows the flour to soak up
liquid and become more thoroughly
hydrated. More hydration means
more gluten formation, which leads
to a chewier finished crust—exactly
what we were after here.