Holy Napoli Calabrese
Culture
REVIEWS
HOLY NAPOLI: MOMENTS OF WILD
EYES ON THE PIES
We’re living in a golden age of frozen pizza, where there’s no longer a need to sacrifice taste for convenience. And it’s our local dough tossers who are leading the way. by
Neal McLennan
When we look back at the havoc that COVID hath wrought, there will be two lasting memories of goodness that emerged from the mess: mRNA vaccines, with their insouciant capitalization; and finally being able to get a frozen pizza that doesn’t taste approximately the same as the box it came in. Pre-pandemic, the state of frozen pizza was so bad that the mid-1990s arrival of Delissio and DiGiorno (the Blur and Oasis of gastrointestinal distress) served as a high-water mark on the basis of one modest claim—it tastes just like delivery—and was greeted with something akin to joy. But this new crop of locally made pies aims much higher: the bar is set close to the taste you’d find in one of the good Napoli pizza joints that we’ve come to expect as the elevated norm over the past decade. And they’re from here. And made with real ingredients. We set upon the current crop of local heroes to find out which ones are truly making good on the promise of bringing the magic of artisanal pie to the home front.
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David Hawksworth’s entry into this game early last year was the first to show the possibility of translating the fare at Nightingale to the home market, and demand has been so great that production has still barely ramped up enough to satisfy the hungry masses. Nightingale’s Roasted Mushroom
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2022-03-21 10:54 AM
