bear clear evidence
of craftsmanship honed for more
than a century
From Legacy Pizza: Naples vs. N.Y.C. as it appeared in Hannah Goldfield’s feature, Tables for Two, in the New Yorker, 2/27/2023.
Ms. Goldfield writes:
The margherita and the marinara are successful imports, cooked here in a domed brick oven, with guidance from a fifth-generation member of the pizzeria’s founding family.
Though the pies are much larger than their Naples counterparts, they bear clear evidence of a craftsmanship honed for more than a century.
This is dough that won’t let you down: incredibly pliable and stretchy, floppy but more than sturdy enough for its toppings (all sourced from Italy), and flavorful to boot, fermented for forty-eight hours, then flash-cooked until speckled with bubbles and char.
The sauce lets the volcanic tomatoes speak for themselves, and the cheese captures the essence of the sweetest, grassiest milk.
The rest, for the most part, is noise.
It turns out that you can have too much of even the most wonderful cheese, as proved by a heavy-handed white pizza and by another topped with pesto, tomatoes, and a large, awkward ball of burrata that reads like TikTok bait.
Salads, including one with shaved artichoke and pistachio, and pastas (spaghetti cacio e pepe, maccheroni Bolognese) might be the best in town if the bar weren’t so high in this particular town; we’re certainly not in need of a Hamburger Italiano.
An attempt at world domination comes, unsurprisingly, at the expense of humble charm.
After Economic Columnists, it is food critics who get to use the best words.
No Haiku For You 