Grandma pizza — the recipe
The Long Island answer to a Tuesday: a thin square pressed straight into an oiled sheet pan, no par-bake, mozzarella laid down first and a bright raw garlic-and-tomato sauce spooned over the top in stripes. The grandma was born in nonna's kitchen, not a pizzeria's deck — which is exactly why it fits yours.
This is a pan recipe, so everything below is weighed for the pan and scales with its area — the table covers the common sheet sizes. The dough is thin and oil-crisped; the Grandma preset weighs it for whatever pan you own.
What goes on top
Per pizza, on the default 35 × 35 cm pan — in layering order:
cubed or shredded, straight onto the dough, edge to edge
in the sauce and under the dough — the grandma runs on oil
a pinch in the sauce
grated over the top before the oven
Different pan? Dough and toppings scale together with the pan’s area — the common sizes:
| Pan | Dough | Low-moisture mozzarella | Crushed tomatoes | Garlic | Extra-virgin olive oil | Dried oregano | Parmigiano Reggiano | Fresh basil |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 × 22 cm | 343 g | 80 g | 70 g | 1 clove | 5 g | 1 g | 8 g | 3 leaves |
| 33 × 23 cm · 13 × 9 in | 395 g | 95 g | 80 g | 1 clove | 6 g | 1 g | 9 g | 3 leaves |
| 35 × 25 cm | 455 g | 105 g | 95 g | 1 clove | 7 g | 1 g | 11 g | 4 leaves |
| 33 × 33 cm | 566 g | 135 g | 115 g | 2 cloves | 9 g | 1 g | 13 g | 4 leaves |
| 40 × 30 cm | 624 g | 145 g | 125 g | 2 cloves | 10 g | 1 g | 15 g | 5 leaves |
| 46 × 33 cm · 18 × 13 in | 789 g | 185 g | 160 g | 2 cloves | 12 g | 1 g | 20 g | 6 leaves |
The dough
Grandma is built on Grandma dough. Thin, olive-oil-crisped square in a sheet pan — no par-bake, sauce on top. For 4 pans:
| Ingredient | Baker's % | For 4 pizzas |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 1495 g |
| Water | 65% | 972 g |
| Salt | 2.2% | 33 g |
| Olive oil | 3% | 45 g |
| Yeast | 0.23% | 3.4 g |
The yeast is weighed for an example 8 h rise at 21°C — your kitchen disagrees, and that’s the point: set your real schedule in the calculator and it reweighs the pinch.
How it’s done
- Make the dough: 4 pans of Grandma dough — the calculator weighs everything for your pan size.
- Stretch the dough into the oiled pan and let it relax into the corners.
- Top with 150 g low-moisture mozzarella (cubed or shredded, straight onto the dough, edge to edge).
- Top with 130 g crushed tomatoes (raw, hand-crushed — spooned over the cheese in two or three stripes).
- Top with 2 garlic cloves (sliced thin or grated into the sauce).
- Top with 10 g extra-virgin olive oil (in the sauce and under the dough — the grandma runs on oil).
- Top with 1 g dried oregano (a pinch in the sauce).
- Top with 15 g parmigiano reggiano (grated over the top before the oven).
- Bake at 260 °C / 500 °F — no steel or stone needed: the pan is the baking surface; set it low-to-middle in the oven.
- After the bake: 5 fresh basil leaves — torn over the hot square.
Questions from the counter
Grandma or Sicilian — what's the difference?
Both are square and pan-baked, but the grandma is the thin one: pressed straight into the pan and baked once, so it comes out crisp and almost cracker-bottomed. The Sicilian (sfincione) is the thick, spongy, twice-proofed cousin. Same shape, opposite crumb — and the sfincione has its own weighed recipe here.
Cheese under the sauce — is that a mistake?
It's the whole idea. Mozzarella against the dough shields the thin base from the wet sauce and browns into the corners, while the raw tomato rides on top and stays bright instead of stewing. Sauce-on-top is the grandma's signature — the same logic that builds a Detroit red-top.
Do I need a special pan?
Any quarter- or half-sheet pan works — the grandma was invented to use the one already in the kitchen. Oil it well (the base fries as much as it bakes), and dark metal crisps better than shiny. Press the dough out, let it relax ten minutes, then press it the rest of the way to the corners.
Get the dough
The Grandma preset weighs the pan and writes the schedule — mix, rise, pan, dimple, bake.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.