Hacking Roma Pizza

Behind the Scenes at Roma Pizza: The Cheese Debate and a Hamilton Classic

I don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited for a field shoot than when April, one of our producers, pitched this idea:“Jess visits a beloved bakery and asks the people of Hamilton—is pizza still pizza if it doesn’t have cheese?”

Um, yes please.

When Simon and I first moved to Hamilton in 2021, April immediately gave me a food tour hit list. Top of the list? Roma Pizza. Alongside Sam’s Bakery and Nardini, of course. April grew up in Stoney Creek, and like many locals, she’s basically made of Roma pizza—having eaten it at school, at parties, and probably at every family gathering since birth.

Roma has been a Hamilton institution since 1952, when founder Philip Di Filippo began baking bread in his Barton Street backyard and delivering it door to door. Fast-forward to today, and their signature Roman-style pizza slabs are everywhere: at local grocery stores, on dinner tables, and at every potluck that’s worth going to. They clock in between $12.99 and $14.99 for a full slab, and bonus: they’re vegan!

Let’s get this out of the way—Roma pizza is best at room temperature, straight from the box. That’s the classic way. The right way. The way April eats it. (Okay, she sometimes warms it up a little—but only just.)

Simon and have been known to get a little... fancy with it. Roma slabs are a blank canvas for your topping dreams. You can sliced it up and treat each square like a mini pizza project: use up leftovers and all those nearly emptied jars of peppers, olives, and artichokes you might have in the back of the fridge. No fighting over toppings. No food waste. No notes.

Here are some of the ways we’ve fancified a Roma slab at home—but really, this is a choose-your-own-adventure situation:

Proscuitto + bufala + arugula

-add torn-up bits of mozzarella di bufala or fior di latte and bake for about 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven. When your cheese is melty and gooey, drape on some slices of proscuitto and let some arugula rain down on that pie

Salami + parmigiano + artichoke + green olive

-add all of these ingredients to the pizza, and then bake for about 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven.

Mozzarella + basil

-add that cheese and bake that pie. Sprinkle on bits of basil when it’s out of the oven

Anchovy + red pepper

-don’t be a baby.