Comments on: Cudduruni

By: Holly Chase

Holly Chase — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:58:11 +0000

We love hearing readers like you, Kelli. Your account of tomato pie reminds us that any Italian “recipe,” whether made back in Italy and in America, enjoys scores of local variations.

By: Kelli T

Kelli T — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:20:03 +0000

What a happy day it was in my house when I found this page. My husband’s family is from Utica, NY; tomato pie, as its called there, is a staple at every get-together and is available everywhere. My teenage boys can inhale a pie in no time. 100 miles away in Rochester, where we live, no one has ever heard of it, and an attempt to describe it in its delicious simplicity is impossible. In Utica it always served at room temperature, but I’ve never seen red pepper flakes (but I’m willing to try). Thank you so much.

By: Sandra Spada Soucy

Sandra Spada Soucy — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:25:59 +0000

I am so excited to find your web-page. My father’s family (Spada) was from Middletown, on Union Street, near Lastrina’s bakery, which you mention in your article. My aunts used to make “Sicilian pizza” just as you have described, although I had not heard the term cudduruni. Since all are now deceased, I long for this comfort food. Thanks for all of the background and for the recipe. My aunts added chopped onion to the tomato sauce and did not use the red pepper flakes. But we did eat it at room temperature — that’s the only way to enjoy it. They also made sciacciatta — bread stuffed with chunks of potatoes and onions. Ohhh, my mouth is watering! Thanks again!

By: NancyO

NancyO — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:26:13 +0000

Oh, this brings back memories of my uncle, Joe Oteri’s bread bakery on Prince Street in Boston’s North End (1940′s – 1950′s). I didn’t realize at the time that he was not making pizza, but his (Messinese) version of Cudduruni (first time I’ve heard the term).

Thanks for the memories (and the tears).

By: Sharon Renzetti

Sharon Renzetti — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:18:57 +0000

I can’t believe I finally found this recipe. My ex-mother-in-law who was from Middletown and has since passed made this all the time and it was the best. I have tried to duplicate it and it just isn’t the same. I was born and brought up in Middletown and often went to Marino’s and Lastrina’s for pizza and pasta. Loved going into the bakery and the kitchen to watch them putting the pizza’s together. This has brought back alot of great memories. Again thank you for putting this out on the web.

By: Skip

Skip — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:22:01 +0000

Hello, Nick,

Thanks for your comment. I never spent a lot of time on Franklin Ave. when I was growing up because we could get all of those treats either at home or at one of two or three huge pizzerias in Middletown. (Marino’s, Lastrina’s, for exampe)

I’m afraid I also missed out on Caserta’s the last time I was in Providence, but found some decent cudduruni at Palmieri’s, along with a boatload of homemade taralli.

Glad you enjoyed the recipe.

Best regards,
Skip Lombardi

By: nick

nick — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:48:04 +0000

All the Hartford bakeries had this. We called it bakery pizza, never hot, always room tempature, until the “wonderful” health department decided to destroy another great tradition. (Most places just nodded yeah, yeah, and put the pies right back up after the department left)

But, the best version I ever had, was Caserta’s on Federal Hill ,in Providence, when I went there for college. This place has the best pan casalinga pizza in the entire country. The crust, brown, crisp and slightly oily from the crisco (many places use crisco for the bottom, not oil, simply becasue the dough will not spring back when you use lard, it grips and holds the dough in place, right to the edges.) The tomato topping a deep red, a bit dry in spots and heavy in others. And they finished this little slice of heavy with oil, and grated ROMANO cheese. Just wonderful. (love the fresh basil in your pic….smell it from here!)

By: Skip

Skip — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:16:47 +0000

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks for your comments. Actually, what you’ve described is a dish that my family called Schiacciatta. My grandmother would make it three or four times per year on major holidays; Christmas eve in particular, when my family held a huge open-house party. And indeed, the fillings were exactly as you’ve described with the addition of Veal, Potatoes, and Onions on very special occasions.

What I found most interesting is that Floridia is very close to Syracusa, but Schiaccatta–as nearly as I can tell–originated in Catania, about 70 Km. away. While it’s only about an hour by car today, it would have been quite a haul for anyone back in the late 1800′s. So I’m surprised–and delighted–that your grandmother would have known about it.

As for Cudduruni, please hang on to the recipe. It seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs in the mom & pop bakeries of Little Italy. We’re trying to keep the tradition alive.

Best regards,
Skip Lombardi

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:04:21 +0000

Oh my gosh, you are the first person I’ve come across that has heard of cudduruni! I thought it was just something somebody in my family made up years ago … I’d never seen a recipe for this before; it certainly hadn’t been written down by anyone in my family, and I learned the recipe orally from my mom only a few years ago. Like you, searches on the Internet turned up almost nothing, but I wrote our family recipe down a few years ago and the spelling I came up with is close to the one you found, so it’s good to know I was on the right track!

My Nanna, whose family was from Floridia, Sicily, but who grew up in Omaha, NE, used to make this for us as a way of using up leftover cooked vegetables. Our recipe is pretty different from yours, however, because our cudduruni is a filled bread, like a huge calzone, without cheese, rather than topped with vegetables. We fill ours with cooked broccoli, cooked potatoes, and sauteed onions and garlic. We serve it warm or at room temperature, and dip it in leftover tomato pasta sauce when we eat it.

By: Clorinda

Clorinda — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:22:21 +0000

Dear Holly – We did not use ricotta salata for sfinciuni, we actually used chunks and grated sharp cheeses, such as locatelli. However, we used cacio cavallo more than locatelli.

It is definitely true that Italian cooking is evolving in all parts of the world. I for one, always introduce dishes of the past and people love them. Some of them are stuffed sun dried tomatoes, pumpkin in a viniagrette sauce, fried cheese, panelle, croque’ and gratto’ di patate, pasta al forno, etc., Let’s keep our culture alive with foods we grew up with.