Lucano Origins of Chicago-Style “Stuffed Pizza” and Possible Outfit Links

[Frank]

I looked up "deep dish pizza" on Newspapers.com and the earliest entry goes to 1955. It was a combination pizza and hamburger casserole. Most of the next entries are for deep dish tuna pizza. Tuna? Appears to have started in the South. Ike Sewell, founder of Pizzeria Uno, claimed he invented Chicago-style deep dish in 1945. The chef who worked there Adolph "Rudy" Malnati, claimed to be the actual inventor. Whatever the case, it appears to be an American invention. Stuffed pizza seems very similar.

My Mom who was half Italian had relatives that were first or second generation Italians. At Easter they made, what they called Pizza, and it was a Stuffed Pizza. This would have been pre Giordanos. Sauce was not on top of pizza, but was served on the side. The first time I seen it, I was kind of puzzled. Up until then I was only familier with Chicago Cut thin crust. These people were still very Italian and if they called it pizza thats good enough for me. It tasted fantastic, as all her cooking was. I believe it had ricotta and mozzarella for cheesebut dont know for a fact. Sausage too.

Yes, that’s clearly a variety of scarcedda/scarcella, Lucano/Pugliese stuffed Easter pizza. Rocco Palese I’m sure saw the already growing popularity of deep dish and decided to tweak his mother’s scarcedda recipe accordingly (eg putting sauce on top).

Traditional recipes that I’ve seen for scarcedda have it filled with a mixture of ricotta (or other cheese), soppressata (or other meat), tomatoes, and often eggs.

Thanks for the info. These people have pasted a while back. Should of picked their brain about history and recipes back when I had a chance to. This cousin of my Moms grew up in Chicago and was taken off the streets by my Grandfather, who set him up straight in legitimate business. His wife was a great cook. She said her Mother taught her to cook. He was technically my second cousin, but we called him uncle, because of a big age differance.

[Antiliar]

I always thought the deep dish/sicilian pizza was basically an Americanized sfincione

Interesting article about the origin of sfincione. Originated in Bagheria and tomatoes weren't added until after World War II when prices dropped. Tomatoes, first grown in South and Central America, were small, golden yellow, and considered ornamentals. They were thought to be poisonous and weren't considered food in Italy (apparently) until the late 1600s. Even then, tomatoes weren't commonly eaten. At any rate, it looks like the sfincione with tomatoes developed too late to be the ancestor of deep dish pizza.
https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/italia ... efresh_ce=

From the September 21, 2016 edition of the Chicago Tribune, Rocco Palese invented the Chicago stuffed pizza when he worked at Guy's Pizza with his wife around 1971. The first ad for stuffed pizza was for Guy's Pizza in March 1974. According to Annunziata (Nancy), his widow, Rocco invented it on his own, apparently experimenting like many cooks do. She said it was nothing like what they used to eat in Italy. So basically, it was invented in the USA by an Italian immigrant using his creative ingenuity.

[PolackTony]

I always thought the deep dish/sicilian pizza was basically an Americanized sfincione

Interesting article about the origin of sfincione. Originated in Bagheria and tomatoes weren't added until after World War II when prices dropped. Tomatoes, first grown in South and Central America, were small, golden yellow, and considered ornamentals. They were thought to be poisonous and weren't considered food in Italy (apparently) until the late 1600s. Even then, tomatoes weren't commonly eaten. At any rate, it looks like the sfincione with tomatoes developed too late to be the ancestor of deep dish pizza.
https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/italia ... efresh_ce=

From the September 21, 2016 edition of the Chicago Tribune, Rocco Palese invented the Chicago stuffed pizza when he worked at Guy's Pizza with his wife around 1971. The first ad for stuffed pizza was for Guy's Pizza in March 1974. According to Annunziata (Nancy), his widow, Rocco invented it on his own, apparently experimenting like many cooks do. She said it was nothing like what they used to eat in Italy. So basically, it was invented in the USA by an Italian immigrant using his creative ingenuity.

Good find on the sfincione. Given that chronology and the fact that both of the Italians responsible for its initial popularization are northerners, I don’t think there’s any evidence to conclude that it had Sicilian origins.

While the 2016 article has Annunziata Palese stating that the stuffed pizza was a de novo invention, I believe that others have stated that Rocco Palese himself credited it to a re-adaptation of his mother’s Easter scarcedda recipe. Either way, it shows clear similarities to scarcedda, and as Frank has noted other Lucani in Chicago may have been making a very similar pizza for Easter independent of the commercial version.

[Villain]

I always thought the deep dish/sicilian pizza was basically an Americanized sfincione

Interesting article about the origin of sfincione. Originated in Bagheria and tomatoes weren't added until after World War II when prices dropped. Tomatoes, first grown in South and Central America, were small, golden yellow, and considered ornamentals. They were thought to be poisonous and weren't considered food in Italy (apparently) until the late 1600s. Even then, tomatoes weren't commonly eaten. At any rate, it looks like the sfincione with tomatoes developed too late to be the ancestor of deep dish pizza.
https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/italia ... efresh_ce=

Thats the style i was previously talking about regarding my memories from eastern Sicily.

[Frank]

Some pizza places deep dish is Pan Pizza, which is another version of Pizza. Burts and Pequad are pan style pizzas. Pan, stuffed and Chicago style deep dish are all made and cooked in a deep dish. These styles kind of burst on the scene all at once in the Chicago Suburbs in around 1973. Some of the food critics and even pizza restaurants use the term deep dish for all 3 of these styles. So you could want to order what is commonly called chicago style deep dish like what is served at Unos and Malnatis and at certain places it will be a different style, called pan pizza. The line between Stuffed and Chicago style deep dish is really blurry and are often lumped together. I had just been looking this up recently. Giordanos stuffed pizza is technically a different style than say Malnatis or Uno, but is lumped in as a Chicago style stuffed deep dish.

[PolackTony]

Some pizza places deep dish is Pan Pizza, which is another version of Pizza. Burts and Pequad are pan style pizzas. Pan, stuffed and Chicago style deep dish are all made and cooked in a deep dish. These styles kind of burst on the scene all at once in the Chicago Suburbs in around 1973. Some of the food critics and even pizza restaurants use the term deep dish for all 3 of these styles. So you could want to order what is commonly called chicago style deep dish like what is served at Unos and Malnatis and at certain places it will be a different style, called pan pizza. The line between Stuffed and Chicago style deep dish is really blurry and are often lumped together. I had just been looking this up recently. Giordanos stuffed pizza is technically a different style than say Malnatis or Uno, but is lumped in as a Chicago style stuffed deep dish.

Needless to say, the nuances were lost on me for much of my life, as I rarely ever ate any of these variants of deep dish growing up in Chicago. Pizza by default was Chicago-style thin crust; deep dish/stuffed/etc was like its own category of food.

[Frank]

Some pizza places deep dish is Pan Pizza, which is another version of Pizza. Burts and Pequad are pan style pizzas. Pan, stuffed and Chicago style deep dish are all made and cooked in a deep dish. These styles kind of burst on the scene all at once in the Chicago Suburbs in around 1973. Some of the food critics and even pizza restaurants use the term deep dish for all 3 of these styles. So you could want to order what is commonly called chicago style deep dish like what is served at Unos and Malnatis and at certain places it will be a different style, called pan pizza. The line between Stuffed and Chicago style deep dish is really blurry and are often lumped together. I had just been looking this up recently. Giordanos stuffed pizza is technically a different style than say Malnatis or Uno, but is lumped in as a Chicago style stuffed deep dish.

Needless to say, the nuances were lost on me for much of my life, as I rarely ever ate any of these variants of deep dish growing up in Chicago. Pizza by default was Chicago-style thin crust; deep dish/stuffed/etc was like its own category of food.

Ive seen and heard people on the internet an tv say chicago style deep dish is not pizza. But with me being introduced to a different type of home made pizza in my youth and it was called pizza by people of strong Italian ancestry, than in my book its pizza. Its a different style of pizza, but its pizza. I know I have the proof that its pizza. They can think what they want, but its just another style of pizza. With that said over 95% of the pizza Ive ate is Chicago Cut thin. Theres no shortage of great pizza places in Chicagland area. Havnt tried the Neopoltan and the fired pizza that is popping up more and more here.