94. Margherita Napoletana From Luigi's Coal Oven | Clean Plate Charlie | South Florida | Broward Palm Beach New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Broward-Palm Beach, Florida

100 Favorite Dishes

94. Margherita Napoletana From Luigi's Coal Oven

We're counting down to New Times' Best Of Broward/Palm Beach 2012 issue in June by serving up our top 100 favorite dishes. Click here for a full archive. If you have any nominations of your own, please add them to the comments, or visit our Facebook page.


94. Margherita Napoletana From Luigi Coal Oven

I swoon for a Neapolitan pie. When I'm craving pizza close to home, my go-to is Luigi's for good service, beautiful greens, and the Margherita Napoletana. Though DiMeo allows no substitutions on that pie, it's not authentic in the first place, as a coal oven breaks VPN rules.

Slice curator Adam Kuban delineates two types of Neapolitan pies. One, the Neapolitan standard,

is baked in a wood-burning oven. This pie is ten inches across and

features a puffy cornicione, San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh

ingredients, used sparingly.


The second is a New York Neapolitan,

a variation on the pie adopted for hotter, coal-fired ovens. The defining characteristic of New York Neapolitan is a

larger, thinner, crispier pie.


Luigi's falls in the latter camp. It's a nostalgia pie for transplanted New Yorkers.



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Food Critic
Contact: Melissa McCart

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