Long Island, New York (Italian-American home tradition)

Grandma

Quick same-day square; sheet-pan minimalism.

Hydration
65–72%
Bake temp
500–550°F
Bake time
12–16 min
Ferment
0–24 h same-day or overnight cold
Oven
thin-walled rectangular sheet pan in a home oven
Flour
Bread flour, All-purpose flour

Defining characteristics

The home-cook Sicilian: a thin-ish square pizza cooked in a heavily oiled sheet pan, with cheese under the sauce and the sauce dolloped or striped rather than spread. Lower-rise crumb than Sicilian, fewer hours, less commitment.

History

Grandma pizza is the Italian-American Long Island home tradition: a thin square baked in a heavily oiled half-sheet pan in a home oven, with cheese laid down on the dough and the sauce dolloped or striped on top. The point is speed and ease — no wood oven, no long proof, no specialty pan, just the equipment a Sicilian-American home cook already had. The name reflects the lineage: this is what nonna made on a Sunday afternoon when the bakery was closed.

The restaurant version is most often traced to Umberto's of New Hyde Park (Long Island, opened 1965), where Umberto Corteo started serving a thin square pizza he'd grown up eating at home. King Umberto, Salvatore's of Elmont, and other Long Island shops carried the format through the 1970s and 80s as a counter offering alongside the round and the Sicilian. Grandma stayed regional — a Long Island specialty — until the 2010s slice-shop revival, when shops like Scarr's, F&F, and L'industrie put grandma squares on Manhattan menus.

The form is now standard at New York–style slice shops nationally. The canonical version: thin, slightly crisp bottom from a generous pour of olive oil into the pan, low-moisture mozzarella under a chunky tomato sauce, and dried oregano and torn basil on top.

Common riffs

Vodka-sauce grandma — pink cream-vodka sauce instead of red — is a 2010s breakout (Lucali, Scarr's, L'industrie). Pesto grandma swaps the red sauce entirely. Square upside-down (sauce-on-top, like Spumoni Gardens) crosses grandma with the L&B Sicilian. Sausage and broccoli rabe is the Sunday-dinner classic.

Other Grandma recipes