For Two Months of the Year, the Best Pizza Is in Connecticut
It’s called the native tomato pie, and it’s delicious
In this social media-ed age, it’s hard to believe that one of the greatest regional specialties in the United States could live on for decades in relative obscurity. But such is the case with Connecticut’s native tomato pizza, made for just two months of the year in and around New Haven County.
Unless you grew up nearby, you’ve probably never heard of this pizza, even though the pizza in this region is unquestionably famous. That is a travesty, because when you do find a pizzeria that makes a native tomato pie — meaning a pizza topped with summer tomatoes from Connecticut, which has been producing excellent summer tomatoes since southern Italian immigrants began planting them there at least a century ago — you are by default eating some of the very best pizza in the world.
Think of the native tomato pizza (native being Connecticut’s cute term for locally grown) like a litmus test. Those who still go out of their way to pay a little more, to find a local source, to stock a more finicky product — those are your real deal pizza makers.
They are people like Pasqual “Pat” DeRiso, the second-generation owner of Ernie’s Pizzeria, a neighborhood joint with dusty peach booths and brick…
