{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.

Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips

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Author: The Mod Mommy

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of fresh pizza dough
  • 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

  1. Be sure to let your fresh pizza dough rise for a couple of hours before making pizza.
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  3. 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.
  4. Put the remaining olive oil on the cookie sheet covering completely.
  5. Roll out dough and position to fit inside cookie sheet. Be sure to give yourself a little crust along the edges.
  6. Prick the dough with a fork to prevent it from bubbling.
  7. 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.
  8. Bake at 400 degrees on the middle rack for 15-17 minutes.
  9. 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!

Related

{Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (3)

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

  1. 8

    {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (4)Jessie says

    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!

    🙂

    • 9

      {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (5)Courtney says

      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!

  2. 10

    {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (6)Ray says

    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!

  3. 11

    {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (7)Steven says

    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

      {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (8)Courtney says

      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!

  4. 13

    {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (9)Sandy says

    Sadly these look nor taste nothing like a true R.I pizza strip.

    • 14

      {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (10)Courtney says

      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.

  5. 15

    {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (11)Sheri says

    That looks amazing. Right up there with Vienna and Crugnale.
    Sheri recently posted…I Found “Me”{Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (12)

    • 16

      {Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (13)Courtney says

      You are too kind!!! Thank you!

{Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy (2024)

FAQs

{Recipe} Rhode Island-Style Pizza Strips - The Mod Mommy? ›

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.

What is a Rhode Island pizza strip? ›

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.

What is Rhode Island pizza with no cheese? ›

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.

What is a grandma pizza? ›

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.

Why is it called Grandma's pizza? ›

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.

What comes on Grandma's pizza? ›

Grandma pizza contains sliced mozzarella cheese and randomly scattered thick plum tomatoes on top. Kind of like an upside-down pie. It's almost always drizzled with a heavy dose of garlic-infused olive oil and finished with some Sicilian oregano and Pecorino Romano cheese.

Is bakery pizza a Rhode Island thing? ›

This Rhode Island recipe is inspired by the bakery pizza I used to have as a kid that can only be had in Rhode Island's Italian bakeries and markets. Don't let the lack of toppings stop you from trying this delicious recipe. It's great for a party and kids love it!

Why is it called tavern pizza? ›

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.

Why are pizza places called Apizza? ›

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).

What is Massachusetts South Shore style pizza? ›

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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