{Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (2024)
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By Courtney
If you’ve ever been to Rhode Island or grew up here, you know what a pizza strip is. It’s crunchy and chewy pizza that is topped only with red sauce and sometimes grated cheese. It’s found mostly in bakeries and is super delicious!
Most bakeries are closed in Rhode Island on Mondays, (I’m not sure if that’s the case anywhere else?), but I was really craving some and I figured I’d try to make my own at home.
I am no chef, although I wish I played one on TV. 🙂 I just like to experiment in my kitchen and if all goes well, I’ll keep it in my dinner rotation.
¼ cup olive oil (this will be divided. Some for sauce mixture, some for bottom of pan)
1 16 oz. can crushed tomatoes or 2 cups of homemade pasta sauce (this works if it's all you have)
1 TBSP white sugar
1 TBSP fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Couple of shakes of garlic powder
Couple of shakes of dried oregano
½ TSP of salt
Black pepper to taste (not too much!)
Cookie sheet for baking
Instructions
Be sure to let your fresh pizza dough rise for a couple of hours before making pizza.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine crushed tomatoes (or homemade pasta sauce), ⅛ cup of olive oil, sugar, cheese, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Make sure everything is incorporated and distributed evenly.
Put the remaining olive oil on the cookie sheet covering completely.
Roll out dough and position to fit inside cookie sheet. Be sure to give yourself a little crust along the edges.
Prick the dough with a fork to prevent it from bubbling.
Top the dough with your sauce mixture. Smear it on evenly and close to the edges as you would with normal pizza. You can also sprinkle cheese on the sauce before cooking too if you'd like.
Bake at 400 degrees on the middle rack for 15-17 minutes.
Let cool, then cut in strips or squares.
This pizza is delicious for lunch, to take to the beach, to serve at a party or just for any ol’ day.
I hope this works out for you as well as it did for me! Mangia!
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About Courtney
Courtney is a mom to four kids, 8 years old and under. She's dog-obsessed and loves to cook. When watching TV, her go-to channels are Food Network, HGTV and Hallmark. And in case you were wondering, her favorite food is home fries. And pizza.
Comments
8
Jessiesays
Is it possible to use ready made dough or does it have to be fresh? Also, the finish product kinda looks like focaccia–could you use that instead? I’ve never had nor made these before so I apologize for the silly questions!
Hi Jessie! Hmmm, I’ve only experimented with dough bought at the supermarket or a bakery. I buy it frozen…it comes in a plastic bag, then I let it thaw and rise. Do you mean the kind from a can, like Pillsbury? It could work, but will definitely taste different. Maybe more like a biscuit? Also, Focaccia might be too thick. But, feel free to get creative. Pizza is awesome all the time! 🙂 P.S. Questions, not silly at all!
I would like for you and all of your readers to visit our Rhode Island web site for favorites in food, fun, people, places and nostalgia of Rhode Island: http://www.pagesintime.com/ri Follow us on Twitter!
11
Stevensays
Your pizza looks delicious, I’m going to try it tonight. Any ideas to convert it to a Caserta style with cheese on top? I could never figure out if Casertas puts the sauce on the cheese or the other way around. Personally it seems like they par bake the dough with sauce, then add cheese with more sauce on top and bake again.
12
Courtneysays
Hmm maybe you could try it both ways by doing half one way and half the other. I thought about adding grated Parmesan at the end of baking, but haven’t yet. Let me know how it goes! Good luck!
13
Sandysays
Sadly these look nor taste nothing like a true R.I pizza strip.
14
Courtneysays
Hi Sandy, thanks for your comment. What’s your go-to bakery? I’m a big Calvitto’s and Tomaselli’s fan. I could never compete with top notch places, but I took a try at making my own. Thanks for testing the recipe too and for visiting my blog.
What is a Rhode Island pizza strip? A pizza strip is a rectangular strip of pizza, served on a crust that would be best described as focaccia, topped with a tomato sauce and often a dusting of grated Romano cheese. It's served at room temperature. That's it.
Remove slices from the pizza box. Separate the pizza into individual slices if you have multiple pizza slices leftover. Wrap each pizza slice tightly in plastic wrap. Store the wrapped slices in an airtight container or freezer bag.
There's a secret pizza style found only in Rhode Island. Known as a pizza strip, red strip, or bakery pizza, this hyper-local flatbread pizza leads to quite the controversy since it's topped with nothing but a thick layer of tomato sauce. That's right—a pizza made without any cheese.
It's also known for being greasy—it's made with lots of olive oil, which often soaks through the bottom of the pizza box. New England Greek-style pizza is typically topped with tomato sauce, lots of oregano, mozzarella and cheddar cheese.
Who knew that a little state of about 1,500 square miles could have so many darn iconic foods? Rhode Island is brimming with dishes that induce heated arguments — where to get the best grinders, the best dynamites and hot weiners, for starters.
There are a couple of different ways to reheat frozen pizza, but for best results, you should always thaw it out first. Take the pizza out of the freezer, still in its protective wrapping, and transfer to the refrigerator, then leave it for 3 to 4 hours until thoroughly defrosted.
The USDA's food safety guidelines state that leftover pizza will last in the refrigerator for up to four days — provided the two-hour rule was followed beforehand. To properly refrigerate your leftover pizza, wrap it tightly in foil or plastic wrap or store it in an airtight container.
The first trick is to par-bake the crust, which sounds more complicated than it really is. Par-baking really just means you partially bake the crust before topping and freezing it. This ensures an extra-crisp crust and zero sogginess upon final baking.
Notable for its distinctly thin crust, Grandma pizza is cooked in an olive oil-coated rectangular pan and topped with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. (The sauce is typically layered over the cheese—not the other way around.) It's cut into square pieces for serving.
Grandma's pizza is traditionally made without a pizza oven because home cooks invented it on Long Island. As the name implies, Grandma-style pizza was once only made in the kitchen by Italian grandmothers.
Top these versatile pies with fresh spinach or mushrooms in addition to traditional toppings like cheese and tomato sauce. Some people also include bell peppers, onions, olives and artichoke hearts. The key to an incredible vegetarian pizza is finding the right balance of toppings to crust and cheese.
The 'bakery-style' crust is made without yeast, and is made in a custom, gas-fired deck oven where the pizza is grilled. This has, at times, been described as pioneering 'Omaha style', a derivation of Neapolitan style pizza.
The phrase was first used in New York City, the first American city to introduce pizza from Italy. In addition to referring to a large slice, New Yorkers also refers to a single slice as a pie.
New Haven–style pizza is a style of thin-crust, coal-fired Neapolitan pizza common in and around New Haven, Connecticut. Locally known as apizza (/əˈbiːts(ə)/, from Neapolitan 'na pizza, Neapolitan: [na ˈpittsə]; lit.
This led to thinner crusts than those present in hand-tossed pizzas. This pizza is cut into squares, also known as "tavern-style" or "party cut", as opposed to wedges. The name "tavern-style" comes from the pizzas originally being served in taverns, often as an enticement to drink alcohol.
What is Apizza? In New Haven, the purists call their homegrown style of pizza “apizza,” (pronounced ah-BEETZ), based on an old Neapolitan dialect (nowadays, you'll see “apizza” used interchangeably with “pizza” there).
South Shore bar pizza is a pan pizza. It's ALWAYS cooked in a small steel pan and the best pans are old, weathered, and seasoned to perfection. Some local bar pizza joints have been cooking their bar pies in the same pans for decades. Literally 40 or 50 years, and they only get better with age.
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