Name: Salisbury Beach Pizza (Tripoli-Style) at Home
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 14 min
Total time: 2 h 39 min
Yield: 8 square slices
Cuisine: New England
Ingredients: 500 g bread flour; 325 g warm water (65% hydration); 7 g instant yeast; 10 g fine sea salt; 15 g olive oil, plus more for the pan; 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 1 tbsp sugar (do not skip — this is the beach pizza signature); 1 tsp dried oregano; 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1/2 tsp salt for the sauce; 8–10 slices deli provolone (whole slices, overlapping — never shredded)

Salisbury Beach Pizza (Tripoli-Style) at Home

Regional guide — we haven't cooked this one yet

The thin, sweet-sauced, provolone-topped beach pizza every North Shore kid grew up on — recreated in a home oven with a sheet pan and a slightly sweet tomato sauce.

Prep

25 min

Cook

14 min

Total

2 hr 39 min

Rest / Ferment

2 hr

Servings

8 square slices

If you grew up anywhere north of Boston, you know this pizza. Thin, a little sweet, provolone laid on in slices, sold by the square at Tripoli’s and Cristy’s on the Salisbury Beach boardwalk. It doesn’t taste like any other pizza in America, and that’s the point.

The two non-negotiables: sugar in the sauce, and whole provolone slices instead of shredded mozzarella. Everything else is forgiving. Here’s how to make it at home.

This is a kitchen-oven pan pizza — a half-sheet pan won’t fit a compact outdoor oven like the Ninja Woodfire.

Instructions

Make the dough

Mix flour, water, yeast, salt, and olive oil until no dry flour remains. Knead 8 minutes by hand or 5 in a mixer until smooth. Cover and rest 2 hours at room temp until doubled.

Make the sweet sauce

Stir together crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano, garlic powder, and salt. No cooking needed — it cooks on the pizza. Taste it: it should read noticeably sweet. That's correct.

Pan and stretch

Oil a half-sheet pan generously. Press the dough to the edges and corners. If it fights back, rest 10 minutes and press again. It should be thin — about 1/4 inch.

Sauce edge to edge

Spread a thin, even layer of sauce all the way to the edges. Beach pizza has no bare rim.

Lay the provolone

Shingle whole provolone slices across the pie, overlapping slightly. Gaps are fine — the slices melt into pools, not a uniform blanket. That's the look.

Bake hot

Bake in your kitchen oven at 500°F on the lowest rack for 12–14 minutes, until the bottom is golden and the provolone is melted with browned spots.

Cut into squares

Rest 3 minutes, then cut into squares. Eat one standing over the pan like you're at the beach. Mandatory.

Ingredients

Instructions

Get the Ninja Woodfire Quick-Start Guide