New Haven-ish Pizza

Thin, charred, chewy, and sauced with restraint. My take on the Frank Pepe's style, pressed flat and baked screaming hot.

Time: 9 min | Yield: 1 16 inch pizzas | Difficulty: Advanced | Serves: 3 | Published: 2026-07-24

New Haven apizza is its own religion: thinner than NY, charred harder, chewier, and topped with restraint. This is my version, which is why it's 'ish.'

The dough is its own project, 70% hydration with a tiny yeast dose and a 2-3 day cold ferment, and it lives on its own page now: make the New Haven-ish Dough first. This page is pizza day.

The signature move is in the shaping: you press the air OUT of this one, edges first, then work inward. No puffy rim protection here, the whole pie goes thin, and the sauce and cheese go on light. Bake as hot as your oven goes, broil the last stretch for the char, and slice it like a lunatic, irregular strips, not neat triangles. That's the New Haven way.

Ingredients

The Dough

• 2 dough balls from my New Haven-ish Dough (see recipe)

The Pizza

• Pizza sauce (crushed tomatoes and salt)
• olive oil (for the crust)
• slice whole milk mozzarella
• pecorino romano
• Parmigiano Reggiano

Directions

1. The trick with New Haven style pizza is pressing out all the air possible. You can try using a rolling pin but I don't think that's how they do it.
2. Start by pressing out the edges with a flat hand and then work inward. Press out as much as you can before you don't think you can make it bigger by pressing.
   You'll know it's right: Press from the edges inward with a flat hand until the dough is nearly air-free and even. This is the opposite of NY stretching, no rim survives.
3. Now stretch the dough like you normally would. I'm not trying to avoid the crust. We want that thin. Also, New Haven tends to avoid perfect cirlces.
   You'll know it's right: Sauce thin enough to see dough through it in places, then lay slices of mozz with gaps between them. Coverage is the enemy of char.
4. Since it's thin, you don't want to go too heavy on the the sauce. And Frank Pepe's uses sliced mozzarella.
5. Finish with grated pecorino and olive oil around the crust on top.
   You'll know it's right: Pull when the top has real black-spotted char, not just brown. New Haven without char is just a thin pizza.
6. Into a preheated oven at 550 degrees (or as high as yours will go). Bake for 7 minutes and broil for the final two minutes.
7. Optional slicing it like a lunatic and finish with Reggiano.

Troubleshooting

Crust puffed up like a NY pie

Didn't press the air out before stretching. Press edges first with a flat hand, then inward, until it's flat and even. New Haven wants the air OUT, this is the defining move of the style.

No char, just an evenly brown pizza

Oven not hot enough or skipped the broil. 550°F minimum with a fully preheated steel, then broil the last 2 minutes and watch it. Char spots are the point, not a flaw.

Middle went soggy

Over-sauced or over-cheesed. Thin sauce layer, sliced mozz with gaps. New Haven restraint is what keeps a pie this thin crisp.

Dough fought back and snapped thin spots

Not enough rest after the cold ferment. Pull the balls 5 hours before baking. A long slow warm-up makes 70% dough extensible enough to press paper-thin.

Slices fell apart

Cut too neat and too early. Rest 1-2 minutes on a rack, then slice in irregular strips. The lunatic cut isn't just tradition, smaller odd pieces hold together better on thin crust.

Nutrition (2 strips (about 1/6 of a 16-inch pie)): 270 calories, 11g protein, 38g carbs, 8g fat.