You can now order chicken Parmesan pizza in Miami. And yes — chicken is the crust

After this last trying year, you probably thought you have experienced every type of comfort food there is.

But you have not yet tried the chicken parm pizza. As in: pizza that uses chicken as the crust.

Happily now you can, thanks to chef Nicole Votano’s new Italian delivery-only concept Mamma Parmigiana, which you order using your favorite delivery apps.

Votano, formerly of Dirt and Fooq’s, which recently rebranded as Eleventh Street Pizza, is working with NBRHD Kitchens powered by Reef to recreate the classics she learned to love via her Italian grandmother and father. In addition to that chicken parm pizza, Mamma Parmigiana will serve Italian comfort food: meatballs, pasta, chicken and eggplant subs and what Votano calls “a bomb Caesar salad.”

“I’m Italian — my dad is only one in his family who’s not living in Italy,” she says. “The meatballs are my Nonna’s meatballs. She taught me to make them, and I served them all over town in Miami. For me food is really about memories. ... Sharing them with other people and sparking that feeling in them when they take a bite — that’s my biggest pleasure.“

There was a learning curve to figuring out what works on a delivery menu, says Votano, who is also the director of culinary research and development for Reef. What travels well? What doesn’t? Mamma Parmigiana serves a side of tomato sauce with some pastas, for example, because it keeps the pasta from clumping together. You just pour it on when the food arrives.

The chicken parm pizza, available only on Sundays, is a marriage of two beloved comfort foods. You can order it starting March 21 (Mamma Parmagiana is open for other orders now). Just remember there are only 300 available, so plan accordingly.

“It made sense to do it in a larger form for people,” Votano says. “A family can share it. You get protein but also have the fun of pizza. It’s a communal event with pizza , everybody’s grabbing a slice. My kids were excited about it when I brought it home.”

Delivery-only options make sense, too, she says.

“People want to be able to eat quality food in their home,” Votano says. “There’s no question here in Miami people are going out regularly. But people want convenience. Women or men who work, parents with a busy job, they want to feed their kids well and don’t always have time to execute that. Delivery is affordable and there are so many options. It can bring a family together.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 1:54 PM.