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Ultimate Pizza New Year 2014

Jan09

Every few months, and particularly at New Years, we do another round of our Ultimate Homemade Pizzas. If you’re curious about how these components are made look here, otherwise just enjoy the food porn.

Before diving in, I’ll note that this time I am making further progress in that most difficult of pizza problems: the transfer. The most challenging part of making pizza at home is getting it into and out of the oven without messing it up. Into the oven is toughest because the dough is soft and sticky and the pizza is laden.

My new technique is:

Roll on the marble countertop with flour
Coat a peel with tons of white flour
Transfer the pie to the peel
Add toppings. Make sure they don’t get too close to the edge.
Scoot it off the peel using the flour as lube onto the pizza stone. Do not use cornmeal, which is inferior to flour as a lube and leaves an annoying texture on the dough
Scoot back off the stone onto the peel with my huge pizza spatula
Use separate cutting blocks for cutting (not the peel)

NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé (magnum). IWC 92. Light orange. Vibrant strawberry and orange zest aromas are complicated by notes of tea rose, smoky lees and chalky minerals. Bright, incisive red fruit flavors pick up a toasty nuance with air. Fresh, incisive and refreshingly tangy, with impressive finishing clarity and stony persistence.

Straight up pizza + corn.

My classic “Jewish Pizza”. First I bake the dough with rosemary and truffle oil, then top with my mix of creme fraiche, dill and chives. Then add red onion and capers and…

finally nova lox. Really a fabulous bit of pizza.

This pizza focuses on a few new toppings, namely spicy lebneh cheese as a “sauce”, sautéed broccoli rab, mushrooms, green pepper goat cheese.

A great mix with an intriguing blend of heat and the slightly bitter vegetable.

From my cellar: 1991 Etienne Sauzet Bâtard-Montrachet. 91 points. Dry and subdued, but very clean and nice. Drinking young for its age.

This pizza focuses on my new Ultra Ligurian pesto (pine nuts from Liguria, lots of garlic, very good parmesan freshly grated). It includes ricotta and parmesan, mushroom, tomatoes, almonds, and a bit of fig.

Here finished.

Today’s incarnation of my tikka masala pizza. Tikka masala sauce, smoked mozzarella, morels, almonds, basil, ricotta, mozz balls, red onion.

Topped with burrata and a bit of balsamic. Yum!

A new simple cheese pizza with mixed mushrooms.

Another spicy labneh, similar to the last but with slightly different cheeses, a bit of sun-dried tomatoe pesto, and even a little smoked mozz. This was actually drizzled with honey too before baking!

Baked.

From my cellar: 1985 Domaine Jean Grivot Echezeaux. 94 points. Great wine in great shape.

More pesto, with a bit of pumpkin, almonds, figs, blobs of garlic mint yogurt, and red onions.

Baked and topped with burrata.

A fresher pizza with a light pesto, tomatoes, onions, broccoli rab.

And topped with arugula and meyer lemon juice.

Tomatoes, pesto, garlic olives, basil.

And my final iteration on the pesto / afghan theme. Ligurian pesto, garlic mint yogurt, pumpkin, a bit of sundied tomatoe pesto, gorgonzola, figs, and sweet chili.

Baked.

And with burrata!

From my cellar: 1988 Domaine de Courcel Pommard 1er Cru Grand Clos des Épenots. 92 points. Full color. What a completely different animal from that wine-brambly black fruit and licorice, medium to full bodied for a Pinot and very meaty feel. I must say that you rarely find this much flesh in an ’88 Burgundy. Relatively speaking, a brute, and much less resolved than the Clos St. Jacques. Wilder and riper. I always find Pommard a bit rough and jarring, but this one was beginning to soften with its 22 years of age. Maybe my problem is that I don’t hold these wines for as long as they need to soften. Very attractive in this chunkier style.

A bit of the dessert spread.

The fudge cake.

Chocolate cupcakes.

Vanilla.

Iced cookies. I love these actually.

Boring sprinkle cookies (always left over).

A kind of strawberry cream fruit tart monster.

The gory details on how to we made the dough, sauce and other components are available here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Buffalo mozzarella, Dessert, Pizza, ultimate pizza, Wine

Assaggi – not the first 3 letters

Jan14

Restaurant: Assaggi

Location: 4838 Bethesda Avenue. Bethesda, MD 20814. 301-951-1988

Date: November 27, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian

A night out with friends in Bethesda (outside of Washington D.C.) brought us to this modern neighborhood Italian.

A fairly typical menu.

I love Amarone. It’s made in the “ripasso” (rested) style. This means the grapes are sun dried into raisons on straw mats before pressing. This gives it a richer raison quality than otherwise.

Can’t beat the pig. This is a mixed large plate of prosciutto di parma, lonza, cacciatorini, salame nostrano, and capocollo.

And some cheese to go with it. From left to right: smoked mozzarella, mozzarella di bufala, and burrata. This is all not so different than Obika.

And some marinated veggies in case the above wasn’t healthy enough.

Salad of local beets, baby spinach, toasted pumpkin seeds, and lemon vinaigrette.

Bigoli pasta with “maple leaf farm” duck and porcini mushroom ragu. A nice winter ragu.

Orecchiette pasta with “path valley farm” punpkin, goat cheese, and toasted pine nuts.

After killing the Amarone, we switched to this Taurasi. Taurasi is from near Naples and made with mostly Aglianico which is a delicious southern Italian grape.

Some gluten free pasta with tomatoes and olives.

Agnello. Slowly cooked lamb shank, mint mashed potatoes.

And its beefier cousin, classic osso bucco.

Finish with a little gelato.

For Washington, which isn’t known for great Italian, this was a solid meal. Service was friendly, the food was modern Italian American (not the dreaded “red sauce” style) and everything tasty.

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Assaggi, Bethesda Maryland, Buffalo mozzarella, Italian cuisine, pasta, Prosciutto, Washington

Obika Mozzarella Bar – Mall Good

Jun06

Restaurant: Obika Mozzarella Bar

Location: 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Upper Level, Los Angeles, CA 90067

Date: March 3, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: It’s in a mall, but it’s actually pretty darn good

The day I took my Italian Wine Specialization exam a bunch of us went to lunch. I passed the test, but I didn’t know it then so was both stressed and in serious pain from my recently broken wrist.

One of the instructors, Diego (he’s not pictured, above is Stefano), took us to Obika Mozzarella bar in the Century City mall. I usually loathe mall restaurants, and I detest the parking at CC for sure, but this place turned out to be a surprise.

The inside is clean and modern, fairly small.

People brought wine. Big surprise! I wasn’t in the know before hand so didn’t have a chance to divest myself of some of my oversupply. These were all Italian, of course, and generally fall into the camp of really good terrior focused inexpensive wines. A few of these whites were really interesting. “The San Vincenzo is a fat, generous white with plenty of ripe apricots and peaches. The soft, caressing style flows through to the long, pretty finish.” It blew away your boring Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio.

This one is from Basilcata, a province in the insole of Italy I didn’t even know about before taking my class, but have recently become very fond of.

We began the meal with traditional meats and cheeses. Above is salami, proscuiotto, and mortadella di Bologna.

And the cheese, left to right, Burrata from Apulia, Buffalo Mozzarella from Campania, and smoked Mozzarella.

My plate. Good stuff. I love me some proscuiotto wrapped mozzarella (which I often had in Napoli), but truth be told, Burrata is best.

This Alto-Aldige white is pretty much in the Austrian style, but perhaps with a bit more Italian flair.

Because straight up mozzarella isn’t enough, we had both kinds fried with some fried artichokes as well. The smoked in particular was very yummy.

And this salad, a salmon, mozzarella, avocado, arugala salad. You’d NEVER see this in Italy, but it was surprisingly delicious.

You wouldn’t really see this either, burrata with beets, pine nuts, spinach, and balsamic dressing. It was great too, and you do find variants of these combinations all over LA. It’s typical that we American’s reinvent with Italian ingredients but without regard to their traditional pairings and forms.

A vegetable pizza. The crust was good. I would have liked to taste the sausage pizza, but such was not to be.

Diego was very excited for this buttery Risotto Milanese. Just straight saffron, good rice, butter, and cheese. Very rice and tasty.

Primitivo is also a rarely seen wine here in the states. It’s a relative of Zinfandel (the red, not the white), and has an incredibly fruity/spicy lushness. Very typical of Apulia, on the heel of Italy.

And finally, this Barbera D’Alba. “The Barbera d’Alba Superiore offers up dark cherries, flowers and licorice. The Superiore has a little bit more mid-palate juiciness and presence than the straight Barbera, but remains very much a classically built wine. I especially like the plush finish for its sheer sexiness.”

Out front they show off the meats. Only a few compared to some places in Emilia-Romagna which are graced with about 20 pigs worth.

And tubs of mozzarella (smoked).

And “plain.”

We didn’t really try and entrees. This was a “light lunch” and the meat, cheese, and simple risotto were more tuned to show off the wines, but if you’re catching a movie in Century City you could do far far worse than catching a bite here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Apulia, Buffalo mozzarella, Burrata, Italian cuisine, Italian Food, Italy, Los Angeles, Mozzarella, Obika, Obika Mozzarella Bar, Olive oil, Wine

Hostaria del Piccolo – Pizza + Pasta

Sep05

Restaurant: Hostaria del Piccolo

Location: 606 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401. P: 310-393-6633

Date: August 27, 2011 & May 6, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Good new casual Italian

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Hostaria del Piccolo is a casual new Italian with a rustic Pasta/Pizza emphasis from the people that brought us Piccolo (my review here).

It’s located in a chic modern space at the corner of 6th and Broadway three blocks behind the Santa Monica Promenade.

The interior has a modern rustic quality.

And they have a lovely patio, which given that it was 5pm on an 85 degree perfect California August day totally ruled.

Given the weather, I decided to take a cue from my Italian friends and order a glass of Lambrusco Frizzante. Sparkling grape juice with a kick, what more can you ask for in the heat?

Very nice thick and buttery grissini.

The menu. Secondi are not numerous in quantity, but they have a lot of pizzas and a number of tasty sounding pastas.

Valpolicella Ripasso is something I found in my Sommelier course on Italy. Ripasso means rested and this is basically baby Amarone.

“CANTALUPO tuscan melon and Bresaola.” Artfully arranged!

“MESCOLATA organic greens, roasted tomatoes, sliced almonds.”

“RICOTTINA seared fresh ricotta, seasonal mushrooms, vincotto.” This is a very Southern Italian dish and really, is pretty much identical to one I found in Apicus, the 1900 year old Roman cookbook. The sweetness of the vincotto (must) plays off against the creamy sweet cheese.

“FARRO organic farro, heirloom tomatoes, basil pesto, walnut, arugula.” Farro is also very common in ancient Roman food. This being a rustic Italian, we have more of those old school influences.

“COSTICINE roasted pork ribs, cannellini beans.” Pork and beans of this sort is classic Tuscan. This is basically like Italian babyback ribs.

Rigatoni pomodoro for the boy.

“PAPPARDELLE tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, mozzarella di bufala.”

“RIGATONI italian sausage, tomato-cream, peas, parmesan.” One of those meat, cheese, and pea pastas that I love so much.

“SALSICCIA tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, sausage, bell peppers, Castelvetrano olives.” I actually ordered the FARCITA (which was a white prosciutto pizza) but he must have misheard me and anyway this was a tasty pizza. The sausage was very tender and flavorful. The crust was really yummy, and the whole thing not overly burnt like some wood oven pizzas are. If you want to see my Ultimate Homemade Pizza, click here.

A different sausage variant with broccoli, garlic, and fontina but no tomato sauce.

“QUATTRO PER tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, artichokes.”

“PARMIGIANA tomato sauce, breaded eggplant, basil, parmesan.” Looks like meat, but isn’t!

“AGNELLO Marinated and grilled New Zealand lamb chops, roasted garlic sauce.” Very nice tender straight up grilled lamb chops. Bone gnawing good.

The dessert menu. We were full and didn’t order any.

But they brought my 2.75 year-old this ice cream cone as a freebee and he was mighty pleased.

Overall, Hostaria del Piccolo is a very nice new contemporary Italian, with a heavy pizza/pasta focus. This is sure to make it a crowd pleaser. They could use to beef up the variety of anti-pasta and secondi a bit, but what I had was very nice.

Click here to see more LA dining posts.

The open kitchen inside.

Or for a legion of great eating in Italy itself, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Bresaola, Broadway, Buffalo mozzarella, California, Dessert, Hostaria del Piccolo, Italian cuisine, Los Angeles, pasta, Piccolo, Pizza, Santa Monica California

Villetta – More Italian in Brentwood?

Aug10

Restaurant: Villetta

Location: 246 26th Street. Santa Monica, CA 90402. 310-394-8455

Date: July 30 & Nov 18, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Very good, but prices are steep

One of the great mysteries of the culinary universe is how Brentwood in general, and San Vicente in particular, is able to support so many Italian restaurants. Every time someplace closes and resets it comes back Italian! The only other option in the entire town are 3 Japanese and a couple chains (CPK and Cheesecake — but you all know I don’t eat chains).

This gorgeous 1920s space used to be Chez Mimi, an old school French place that my wife and I used to eat at quite a bit.

It’s still very cute with a little bar inside.

A quaint dining room.

And most importantly a lovely patio. I had been trying for about three weeks to get into this new place but it was always booked on opentable.com, so we just showed up at 6:15 and had no trouble getting a “bar seat” in the patio.

They give you to start faggioli (Tuscan white beans) mashed with garlic and salt, and drizzled in olive oil. For such a simple thing, it’s surprisingly delicious. You can see the old school version here in florence about half way down the post.

The bread, two types.

The wine list was a bit odd. Three quarters New World. Which for an Italian restaurant is strange. They also had no half bottles (boo hiss) so I had to get glasses, which is expensive. The pours were generous though. This is a decent Amarone (but $25 a glass!).

And a Pinot Grigio from the Venato. I’d never drink Ca wine with Italian when there are so many great wines from the boot.

The menu.

“Villetta ‘Caprese’ with heirloom tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, basil pesto and grilled bread.” Villetta claims to be farmer’s market driven, and you can see that here in this lovely caprese. Very high quality ingredients.

Same goes with the “burrata, prosciutto, cherry tomatoes and bruschetta.” These were good enough tomatoes that I was able to put aside my nightshade aversion and eat half of them. Nice prosciutto too, probably from parma.

“ravioli with zucchini and chive blossoms and sweet corn.” Also very nice homemade pasta. Very straight up but delicious butter-sage sauce. Note though that this is the large ($25) portion.

On a different night, a very similar pasta filled with slightly different vegetables as was more appropriate to the season (late autumn).

“Mezze maniche with hot and sweet sausage, peas, tomato, and cream.” This is basically a sausage ragu. The pasta was very al dente (good) and the sauce was pretty wonderful.

“Santa Barbara spot prawns with salad of borlotti beans, mizuna and orange citronette.” These were pretty darn delicious. Even the beans underneath were incredibly good with garlic and olive oil. Again this is the large ($50!) portion. You can see the Ligurian version of this same dish here.

“Grilled Sonoma lamb leg with fresh flageolet beans and eggplant caponata.” The meat itself was pretty spectacular and cooked perfectly.

I had to order this red from Campagnia to go with it too.

A little free watermelon sorbet to cleanse the palette.

And on a different night it was orange sorbet, much like a granite or Italian ice.

The dessert menu.

“Chocolate chip cookie sundae with vanilla and chocolate gelato, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.” This was delicious. I don’t think the ice cream was actually gelato though — but it was good. I’d put good money on it coming from Sweet Rose Creamery across the street as it had the same kind of consistency.

Overall, the food at Villetta was first rate. Really good actually, and the service was very friendly too (not super fast, but warm). The prices however are high. They also have what looks to be some really good pizza, as they have a full wood fired pizza oven and a chef from Napoli, but we didn’t try it. So I’d put this in the same category with Capo, Georgio Baldi, and Vincente of excellent but overpriced westside Italian.

Click here to see more Italian than you can shake a stick at.

Or more LA restaurants.