Pizza puff

A pizza puff is a deep-fried dough pocket filled with cheese, tomato sauce, and other pizza ingredients such as sausage or pepperoni.[1] Indigenous to Chicago, pizza puffs can be found at many casual dining restaurants there.[2][3][4][5]

An Iltaco pizza puff
A pizza puff made from scratch at a restaurant

Pizza puffs are similar to panzerotti. They are also somewhat like calzones, but calzones are baked instead of fried, and do not always include pizza sauce.[2]

Some Italian restaurants and casual dining establishments make their own pizza puffs from scratch. These pizza puffs feature a pizza dough wrapper, and tend to be somewhat larger than the pre-made ones.[6][7][8]

Commercial varieties

Some hot dog stands in the Chicago area serve mass-produced pizza puffs that they purchase from the Iltaco company. The frozen pizza puffs are deep-fried before serving. The dough wrapper of these pizza puffs is similar to a flour tortilla. Iltaco was founded in 1927 and was originally called the Illinois Tamale Company ("Il-Ta-Co"). It has been suggested that Iltaco invented the pizza puff.[1] Iltaco pizza puffs are also sold in the frozen food section of some local area grocery stores.[2][3][5][9]

Arco Frozen Foods is another company that mass-produced pizza puffs, and introduced a retail pizza puff circa 1968.[10]

See also

References

  1. Bizzarri, A. (2016). Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts. American Palate. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-1-62585-810-8. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  2. Kindelsperger, Nick (December 7, 2017). "Where Did the Pizza Puff Come From? Can It Even Be Considered a Chicago Classic?". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  3. "Pizza Puff: Your New Favorite Fried Pizza Product". American Fun Fact of the Day. July 2, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  4. Kuban, Adam (December 15, 2010). "What Is a Pizza Puff?". Serious Eats. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  5. Pirnia, Garin (January 26, 2016). "15 Foods Invented in Chicago Besides Deep Dish Pizza". Mental Floss. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  6. Zemans, Daniel (August 12, 2009). "Albano's Pizzeria in Cicero: The Biggest and Best Pizza Puff in Chicago". Serious Eats. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  7. Chicago's Best (May 19, 2014). "Chicago's Best Pizza Puff: Grassano's". WGN TV. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  8. Chicago's Best (August 14, 2017). "Chicago's Best Pizza Puff: Terry's Place". WGN TV. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  9. "Iltaco Pizza Puff Review". Burgers, Dogs, & Pizza, Oh My!. July 16, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  10. Quick Frozen Foods. E.W. Williams Publications. 1968. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
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