Grandma pizza is a distinct thin, rectangular style of pizza attributed to Long Island, New York, United States. Typically topped with cheese and tomato sauce, it is reminiscent of pizzas baked at home by Italian-American housewives who lacked a pizza oven. The pizza is similar to Sicilian pizza, but usually with a thinner crust.
A grandma pizza is typically rectangular, with the cheese placed before the tomato sauce, baked in a sheet pan in a home oven, and cut into small squares.
Etymology The name refers to the home-style pizza that grandmothers made in Italy. According to food writer David Rosengarten, pizza makers on Long Island possibly began making the thin, rectangular pie in the 1970s, recreating what their mothers or grandmothers had made at home. For about ten years they made it only for themselves. Rosengarten writes that accounts differ on who first put it on the menu, but credit often goes to King Umberto's in Elmont. For most of the 1990s it remained largely a Long Island product, with perhaps a few appearances in eastern Queens, before spreading more widely across New York City. Variations Grandma pizza is often compared with Sicilian pizza. The main difference lies in how long the dough rests after it is stretched into the pan: Sicilian dough is left to rise further, giving a thicker, bread-like crust, while grandma dough is baked after a short rest, giving a thinner, crisper crust. Pizza maker Theo Kalogeracos says that some Italian-American pizza makers in New York refrigerate the dough for about 24 hours, which gives it more structure to support additional toppings.
The cheese is usually applied before the sauce, but the order is not fixed.
History The origins of grandma pizza can be traced back to the early 20th century when immigrants from southern Italy developed a pizza that would be made at home with simple ingredients with standard American cooking equipment (including a standard kitchen oven and sheet pan). The pie's humble roots left it dubbed "grandma pizza", since it was mainly made by first-generation immigrants in their own kitchens.
Despite having existed for generations, the term "grandma pizza" was little known outside of Long Island. Around 1994, Umberto Corteo introduced "Sicilian Grandma pizza" at his Long Island pizzerias; unlike typical thick-crusted Sicilian pizza, his Grandma Sicilian pizza had a thinner crust, though not as thin as Neapolitan. Within a few years, "Grandma pizza" began being advertised by other Long Island restaurants.
By the late 2000s and early 2010s, the name caught on and numerous pizzerias began to offer the pie.
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