The story behind northeastern Pennsylvania’s pagach pizza

In NEPA, pagach pizza (aka potato pizza) is a tradition during the Lenten season. Learn about the carbs-on-carbs favorite rooted in the region’s rich Eastern European heritage.

Pizza is a convenient and family-friendly meal option for those who abstain from eating meat on Fridays during the 40-day Lenten season leading up to Easter.

For some in northeastern Pennsylvania, Lenten “pizza Fridays” feature a culinary twist rooted in the region’s rich heritage of Eastern European immigrants. 

During Lent, pizzerias throughout NEPA make pizzas based on pagach (or pagash), a traditional, meatless Eastern European dish featuring dough topped with mashed potatoes, cheese, onions, and fried cabbage. Though commonly associated with the Lenten season, the filling dish was a year-round staple for families who lived and worked in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region, and remains so today. 

Pagach pizzas, sometimes called potato or pierogi pizzas, often feature an Old Forge-style rectangular crust, topped with a layer of seasoned mashed potatoes and a blend of cheeses, usually including American cheese.

There are subtle variations to this carbs-on-carbs creation. Some pizzerias blend cheese with the mashed potatoes, and some top the pies with shredded spuds. Most bake their pagach pizzas, though some pan fry them. Some do pure mozzarella cheese. Some places do a round double-crust pie, not unlike a calzone. And still some others do a garlic butter crust.

However you dress it up, it’s essentially a handheld, open face pierogi.

While you can find pagach pizzas in other parts of Pennsylvania (particularly in the southwestern part of the state), the unique pie is very much a NEPA thing—so we should probably call it a tray, and not a pie.

These NEPA spots are well-known for their pagach pizzas:

• Arcaro’s The Next Generation, Pittston
• Cosenza’s Pizza & Restaurant, Bear Creek Village
• Ferri’s Pizza, Moscow
• Green Ridge News Min-Mart, Scranton
• Happy Pizza, Plymouth
• Magda’s Family Catering & Pizza, Wilkes-Barre
• Nickie’s Fabulous Hoagies, Clarks Summit
• Rosario’s Pizzeria, Clarks Summit
• Sicilian Bella Festa, West Wyoming
• Tuzzi’s Bakery, Berwick