An older adult female in a home setting, wearing a red garment with a high collar and dark turtleneck underneath, seated on a patterned couch with floral designs. 5:52
Great Depression Cooking with Clara channel icon Great Depression Cooking with ClaraOriginal creator 2.5M views Save

Clara's Great Depression pizza

"Welcome to my kitchen," says Clara Cannucciari. "I'm 94 years old." She's making pizza, one of her favorite foods, and remembering how her family got by in the Great Depression. more

The dough is left over from last night's bread. Her mother did much the same, taking a piece of the dough when she made bread so the family had pizza that night. "She'd kill two birds with one stone," Clara says.

She flips the dough, dusts it with flour and rolls it out, longer if you like it thin and less if you like it thick. A little oil goes on the pan so it won't stick. Their pizza back then was plain, just the dough with a little butter on top, none of the fancy stuff people put on it now. "Couldn't afford that," Clara says, "but we were happy with a plain pizza."

Clara, wearing glasses and hoop earrings, speaks in a red jacket over a dark turtleneck. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Clara remembers the plain pizza her family ate, with just a little butter on top.

Then comes about half a cup of tomato sauce, and after that the toppings are up to you. This time it's anchovies, broken up with her fingers, about three for a pizza this size. They aren't too expensive, she points out, so the whole meal costs very little. A sprinkle of Romano cheese follows, then small pieces of mozzarella.

Clara, in a red top, stirs something on a plate with a spoon next to a measuring cup. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Clara works on the toppings, which she says keep the whole meal cheap.

"I could eat pizza every day," she says. One piece for the kids and they're all set. People didn't care much for Italian food back in the Depression, she adds, but now it's popular all over. Torn basil goes on last, here and there to make it look pretty, and "that's all there is to it."

While it bakes, she remembers growing up with no electricity, just a lamp the family carried around with them. "My brother and I would sit at the table with the lamp in the middle and do our homework," she says. "It was kind of dim, but we got used to it." Her mother sat in one corner, and her father listened to the kids.

An older adult female in a home setting, wearing a red garment with a high collar and dark turtleneck underneath, seated on a patterned couch with floral designs. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
"Welcome to my kitchen," says Clara Cannucciari.

"It's kind of cozy in a way," she says, "and we were more of a family, I think, during the Depression. We're always together." Then she adds, "Sometimes too much." After the lamp came gaslight, and at last electricity with a 20-watt bulb. Each time, the family thought the new light was so bright.

When the crust starts to brown, the pizza is done. She cuts it into pie pieces with scissors, because that's easier than a knife, then takes a bite and calls it "yummy." "It's got the sauce, it's got the dough," she says. "So what else do you want?"

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Clara tastes her finished pizza and calls it yummy.

One viewer calls her the Bob Ross of cooking, and thousands agree. Most people in the comments call her just Clara, the way you would a friend. Before she's done, she says it once more: "I could eat pizza every day. I can, that's a fact."