Photo: Brent Hofacker (Shutterstock)
A tomato pie disdains cheese in favor of a thick, focaccia-style crust topped with a thick smear of sauce. There are three major variants of a tomato pie: A Philly Tomato Pie is square and usually served room temperature (or even cold), with (at most) a dusting of Parmesan on top—often you don’t see any cheese at all with this variant. The Trenton Tomato Pie is round and embraces cheese, but the cheese goes first, with a generous application of sauce on top. The sauce bakes up in the oven, thickening into a sort of tomato-y crust of its own.
Then there’s the Rhode Island-style “red strips.” These are...weird. Sometimes called “bakery pizza” (because they’re served in bakeries, which does not inspire confidence) they don’t use traditional pizza dough. Instead, this is basically focaccia bread with tomato sauce on top, cut into long strips and served cold.
