Grandma Pie Dough (Italian-American Torta Della Nonna)

Grandma pizza is a distinct pizza that originates from Long Island, New York. It is a thin, square pizza, typically with cheese and tomatoes, and is reminiscent of pizzas cooked at home by Italian housewives without a pizza oven. The pizza is often compared to Sicilian pizza.

There's nothing quite like a thin-crust slice of pizza. The crust, both soft and crisp, isn't too thick, and lets the sauce and cheese take center stage. Although it's thin, the crust is crucial, and once you've had perfect crust like the kind you'll find at New York City's Motorino or Brooklyn's Roberta's, your pizza standards will change forever. Our love for thin-crust pizza pretty much eclipses any other sort of pizza. (Sorry, deep dish. When we want a casserole, we'll make a bloody casserole.) Still, there remains one exception to our singular focus on thin-crust pizza, and that deviation from pure thin-crust devotion belongs to one important pizza: the grandma pie.

Grandma pie is square or rectangular pizza that has been cooked in an olive oil-coated pan. It's covered in a thin layer of mozzarella cheese, and in uncooked canned or fresh tomatoes, and when it comes out of the oven, the thick crust is a little crispy. Often times, the cheese goes directly on the dough, and the sauce goes on top, but not always. For those of you who think grandma pie is the same as Sicilian pizza, allow us to clear things up for you. Yes, Sicilian pizza is also cooked in a square, olive oil-coated pan, but the dough in Sicilian pizza is left to rise a little between the time that it's stretched on the pan and put in the oven. This waiting time makes for a softer, fluffier final product. Grandma pie, on the other hand, is tossed in the oven quickly or immediately after it's been stretched onto the pan, which gives it a slightly denser and crispier crust.

While it's becoming increasingly popular, grandma pie is still relatively unknown. New Yorkers have been privy to the pizza for decades, but in the midst of the Neapolitan pizza's soaring popularity, the grandma pie has retained something of a cult following. That's all well and fine by us, because it means more grandma pie for our endless appetites, but it pains us slightly to think that some people aren't familiar with this epic pizza form.

Like many great foods - especially of the Italian-American variety - the origins of grandma pie are somewhat unknown. According to Forbes, in Italy people (namely grandmas, of course) make fast pizzas in their ovens from quickly stretched and pressed dough, fresh tomatoes and a little bit of cheese. Michele Scicolone, co-author of "Pizza: Any Way You Slice It," said that "grandma pie sounds a lot like 'pizza alla casalinga' (housewife-style pizza), the kind of pizzas you'd get in Italy if you were invited to someone's home." Forbes says that sometime around the 1970s, Italian Americans who had immigrated to Long Island started getting nostalgic for the pizza they grew up eating in the old country, and started imitating this quick and casual pizza form. When this old-school pizza style got dubbed "grandma pie" and started making waves in New York City is also up for debate, but it appears we can thank Long Island for the grandma pie as we know it today.

1 env active dry yeast (about 2¼ tsp.)
2 Tbsp. + ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl
2 tsp. kosher salt
4 cups all-purpose flour, divided

Stir together yeast and 1¾ cups warm water (105-110°F) in the bowl of a stand mixer; let stand until yeast starts to foam, about 10 minutes.

Mix in 2 Tbsp. oil, then salt and 2 cups flour. Attach dough hook and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add another 2 cups flour, a cup at a time, mixing until incorporated and a shaggy dough forms, about 3 minutes.

Increase speed to medium and mix until dough is soft and elastic and starts to pull away from sides of bowl, 5-6 minutes. It will still be somewhat sticky. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill 24 hours.

Coat an 18x13" rimmed baking sheet with remaining ½ cup oil. Turn out dough onto a rimmed baking sheet and let sit 10 minutes to take off the chill. Gently and gradually stretch dough until it reaches edges and all 4 corners of baking sheet. (If dough springs back or is stiff to work with, let it rest a few minutes before continuing. You may need to let it rest more than once.)

Cover dough on baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place (but not too warm, about 70°F is ideal for yeast to grow) until it is puffed and full of air bubbles, 30-40 minutes.

Makes enough dough for 1 pie.