Pizza Marinara

The older of the two original Neapolitan pizzas (the other being Margherita, 1889). Documented from the late 1700s in Naples, it was named alla marinara because sailors' wives prepared it for their husbands returning from sea — keeping ingredients (garlic, oregano, oil, tomato) that wouldn't spoil. Tomato itself was only adopted in Naples around 1750 after Bourbon-era openness to New World crops.

The original Neapolitan pizza — tomato, garlic, oregano, olive oil, no cheese. 1734 Naples sailor's lunch ("alla marinara" means sailor's-style). Predates Margherita by 154 years.

A Neapolitan disc, hand-stretched, with a leopard-spotted puffed cornicione (rim) and a thin center holding pulped San Marzano tomato, sliced garlic, dried oregano, and olive oil. No cheese, no anchovy (despite the name). The middle stays slightly wet — a true Neapolitan slice folds in half. Char marks under the crust mean the wood oven was at the right 460 °C.

Marinara is the test pizza for Neapolitan dough because it has nowhere to hide — no cheese to mask underbaked or oversalted dough. AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana) certification requires 60-90 second bake at 430-480 °C in a wood oven, dough hydration around 60 %, 24+ hour cold ferment. The garlic goes on raw; it cooks in those 90 seconds without burning because the tomato moisture protects it.