Pizza pies in Pittston

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PITTSTON — The Hando family doesn’t run Village Pizza in Duryea anymore, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped combining cheese, tomato sauce and onions to make a savory treat.

“If I was home, I’d probably be making pizza for supper,” Dennis Hando Sr. admitted as he spread sauce on a big rectangular of dough.

As it was, Hando and his wife, Linda, were busy on a Friday afternoon making pizzas at St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Pittston for a church fund-raiser.

“We use three cheeses,” Linda Hando said, teasing for a moment or two that she didn’t want to reveal them.

Then she relented and said mozzarella, provolone and cheddar have to go on top, just as oregano, garlic and basil have to be in the sauce.

Customers can order the pizza pre-baked or unbaked, with onions or without, on all of the remaining Fridays of Lent, including Good Friday, which is April 3. Quarts of soup are also available, thanks to efforts of Dennis Hando, who used a crate of broccoli florets in last week’s broccoli-cheddar soup.

This week, he’ll be working on clam chowder, Linda Hando said.

Any money raised through the food sales will go toward the church’s 100th anniversary dinner, set to take place later this year, Linda Hando said.

“We want to have a nice celebration,” she said.

And, to help the parish toward that goal, kitchen volunteer Bea Girman added, everyone has a chance to enjoy some nice pizza.

“My husband told me he wanted ‘mock lobster,’ ” Girman said as she arrived at the church last week, explaining that’s really a fish dinner she sometimes makes at home. “But I told him, he’s getting pizza today.”

The pizza and soup sale continues at St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church, 205 N. Main St., Pittston from 4 to 7:30 p.m. on Fridays through April 3. To pre-order, call 570-905-7387.