Calzone, Sausage Pizza (1947)

[Grant Barrett]

On 9/25/01 11:47, "Frank Abate" <abatefr at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Re "pizza pie", as a former Midwesterner, I can report that referring to a
> pizza as a "pie", common in the NYC-area (and elsewhere?  DARE files?)
> struck me as odd when I first heard it.  To me it was never called anything
> but "pizza", and "pizza pie" was only known from the lyrics of the Dean
> Martin song "That's Amore".  One can also ask for a "slice of pie" in NYC,
> which in Ohio/Michigan would mean something with fruit or cream (or
> whatever) in it, not pizza, not ever.

Aren't New Yorkers more likely to ask for just "a slice"? Also, I think "a
slice" is usually a plain cheese slice, unless you specify. If you specify,
you're probably not going to say "a slice of the white" for fear of getting
both a slice and a piece of the white pizza (sometimes known as the
three-cheese or four-cheese or just the ricotta). In my early days here, I
was corrected on this several times by pizzamen asking me, in that mildly
exasperated voice, "Whaddyou want? A slice or the three-cheese?"

Finally, there has always seemed to me to be some uncertainty as to what
constitutes a pizza pie. Some might argue that a plain cheese pizza is just
a pizza and not a pie, while Lombardi's clam pie is a pie (and not just a
pizza) because it has layers of other toppings besides sauce and cheese. Is
there some connotation of depth with the word "pie"?

--

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.worldnewyork.org/
New York Loves You Back