Pizzeria Mozza and the Mozza Cookbook

A few weeks ago I took a day trip up to Newport Beach with a friend to do a little Christmas shopping at Fashion Island and have lunch at the new Pizzeria Mozza up there.  It's an easy day trip from San Diego, and the food is just as good as the Los Angeles branch.  We started with the caprese salad and toasted bread - a first for me.  They roast the tomatoes lightly on the vine, and serve them over a bed of fresh burrata with pesto and olive oil.  This is simple enough that it is all about the details, and this version was divine.  I tried making it at home using the instructions in the cookbook a few weeks later, but the same magic just wasn't there.  The one thing that was just as fantastic was the bread - grilled in the panini press with garlic olive oil and sea salt.  HIGHLY recommend recreating it at home if you have one of those fabulous devices.

We split the salad and an order of the squash blossoms (a must) and moved onto the mushroom pizza.  I hadn't tried this particular one before - I've been stuck on the goat cheese, scallion and bacon pizza - but it was really good, with the same puffy crispy edges, an assortment of mushrooms, good cheese and lots of garlic.

For dessert we split two of our favorites - one of which is the Caramel Copetta.  It's a sundae of caramel ice cream, marshmallow fluff, caramel sauce and spanish peanuts with a pizzelle cookie on the bottom and a liberal sprinkle of sea salt.  I think that's why I like it so much - all that salt and caramel.

Our other favorite is the Butterscotch Budino - the most popular dish at either of their restaurants. It's a deep butterscotch pudding, topped with the same caramel as the Copetta, with a dollop of whipped cream and creme fraiche on top.  It's worth every bit of the hype.

Just after this adventure, a friend of mine went to Nancy Silverton's book signing at Chino Farms and got me a copy of the new Mozza cookbook (autographed to Alice Q. Foodie - awww!)   Opening it up, I immediately wanted to make everything in it.  I was thrilled to see that it included the recipe for my favorite cookies they sell in their to go shop - Chocolate Hazelnut Maltaglieri, the Torta Della Nonna, pizza dough, pasta dough, their composed mozzarella crostini, salads, etc.  It really is a complete compendium of almost every dish at Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza.

Unfortunately I haven't had the best luck with the recipes. The instructions for the caprese suggest roasting the tomatoes for way too long at too high a temperature.  Mine broke down during the process and I didn't cook them as long as the instructions suggested  (on the plus side, they're great in pasta!)  I also tried the budino right away for James' birthday last week, since it's pretty much his favorite thing ever.  The first time it set up too soft and super grainy. It calls for an outrageous amount of cornstarch (2/3 of a cup!) and three cups of whipping cream, where most pudding recipes call for just a few tablespoons of cornstarch and whole milk.  I tried again with a half recipe (which was plenty for us - it makes ten servings!) but as I cooked the custard it turned grainy and lumpy again.  This time I used a hand blender to smooth it out again - but the recipe doesn't say to do that, it just says to strain it.  It worked pretty well, but it still wasn't perfect.  The flavor wasn't quite right either - it was more "butterscotch" than theirs - not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was after.  I'm determined to get it right.  If and when I do, I will post a recipe.

The Chocolate Maltaglieri and the Torta Della Nonna were a success, luckily. Will post about those later.  The baking times were still off -  for the cookies it was too short and for the tart it was too long, but I was able to figure that out on my own.  I guess it also depends on your oven somewhat - there is a little natural variation there.  All in all, it's a lovely book and I would definitely recommend it - but my advice would be to take matters into your own hands if it appears necessary!

Amended:  I have made the pizza dough twice and it's fantastic!

Pizzeria Mozza
800 W Coast Hwy (toward Balboa Island)
Newport Beach, CA 92663
(949) 945-1126

parking is impossible, just plan to valet. It's not as hard to get a reservation as it is at the LA branch, but it's still a good idea - they are on Open Table.

Blue Ribbon Pizzeria - Encinitas

Last Saturday night, James and I got out of the house and tried something new. You might not think that would be such a big deal for someone who calls herself a "foodie" and writes about restaurants (even if it's just for fun) but it's pretty unusual for us. For the most part, we cook at home during the week, and we've been doing quite a bit of traveling (and entertaining) lately so fancy dinners out just haven't been in the budget. When we do go out, we have a short list of places we like to go where we know we'll have a good meal. I've been meaning to do a post about that lately, and update my places to eat in San Diego list as well as the 100 good things to eat and drink. It's a bit of a project though, so when I get through this backlog I'll tackle it.

I've liked Chef/Owner Wade Hageman's food since he was the opening chef at Blanca, back when the menu still reflected the go-go mentality of the aughts. The food was luxurious, simple but interesting, and very, very expensive. Luckily, Hageman is bringing the same level of attention to detail and technique to the much less expensive menu at Blue Ribbon. You can see it in the above-pictured dish of local albacore crudo with buttery avocado, ruby red grapefruit and lemon olive oil, and the simple but perfectly balanced plate of creamy burrata with arugula tossed with lemon olive oil and crostini.

The menu is roughly divided into two parts, with the top half comprised of salads, snacks and small plates, and the bottom a list of composed artisan pizzas. Everything is sized for sharing, which allows for the option of a very inexpensive meal if you don't go overboard - like we did.

We didn't really need two pizzas, as it turned out, but we really wanted to try a white pie and a red one, and we figured leftovers would not be a problem. (In fact, they were eaten for breakfast straight out of the box the next morning.) We especially loved the white pie - called the "Signature" on the menu - topped with mozzarella, lemon zest, ricotta and basil. The kick of the zest was especially nice with the creamy ricotta.

The red pie was also good, but we wished we'd ordered the Knight Special instead of the "Classic." Topped with housemade fennel sausage and mushrooms, it was tasty, but a little wet and heavy. The Knight pizza, pictured at top, was made with sliced assorted salumi and looked like it might be a better balance for a meat/red sauce pizza. The Classic was great cold out of the fridge though, maybe even better than it was hot.

I snuck this blurry photo of our neighbors' butternut squash soup and salad with beets, oranges and hazelnuts. The soup looked velvety and rich (there's that attention to detail) and the salad was chock full of good ingredients.

From our seats at the bar, we had a good view of Wade tossing the pizzas and sliding them into the oven. I was impressed to see him all of that work himself. He's clearly taking not only pride but a leading role in producing what's coming out of the kitchen. The menu boasts that their dough goes through a three day fermentation process. These days, pizza is all about the crust - and while this one was good, it wasn't quite as good as Mozza or Pizzeria Delfina. It was thinner, flatter, less stretchy and chewy. There is bound to be some variation though since he's cooking them in a real, live wood-burning oven - even from one of our pizzas to the other we noticed one was more blackened around the edges than the other. I would need to go back and try a few more pizzas before declaring this the best in San Diego, but it's definitely up there.

They serve only one dessert, but it's a good one. Butterscotch pudding with caramel sauce, sea salt and whipped cream. I think it's easily as good as Mozza's, James said not quite. Either way, it does the trick. The espresso from their little automatic machine was pretty darn good too. At the end of our meal, we well understood the crowds gathered around the door waiting for tables, and we felt lucky to have snagged the two seats at the bar when we arrived. We left happy and sated, and we're already planning our next trip back - preferably with two other couples, so we can make a reservation (they only take them for parties of six or more) and try more pizzas!

Blue Ribbon Pizzeria
Lumberyard Shopping Center
897 South Coast Hwy (101)
Encinitas, CA 92024
(760) 634-7671

Pizzeria Delfina - San Francisco

I think my favorite thing about Pizzeria Delfina, is that the food just keeps on coming. At least, that's how I like to eat there. Order everything on the menu that sounds good (in other words, almost everything) and let it fly. They always pace the dishes just right, so when the last few bites of one are left on the table, a new one arrives.

I've had quite a few meals at these restaurants, in both the Mission and Pacific Heights locations, and in my opinion, there are few more satisfying dining experiences. You get a wide variety of delicious, uncomplicated but perfectly prepared food - in exactly the right amounts for sharing. It's not expensive (though certainly not cheap, if you do it up) and I never leave feeling overwhelmed or over-stuffed. The pizzas, like the margharita - pictured above - are very good, with a thin layer of rich toppings over a just crisp enough crust. My real favorite dishes though, are the rotating list of sides they offer.

These arancini, above, were piping hot, full of gooey cheese and rice - with a hint of saffron. The tuna conserva salad, below - is a dead on combination of rich, garlicky tuna with olive oil, radicchio,white beans and peppery watercress.

Every so often they feature fresh, house-made ricotta cheese. This was their baked ricotta with shishito peppers and garlic toast. I dream about those garlic toasts. They're saturated with just the right amount of oil, and crisp but not tooth-breakingly hard.

This past weekend, they featured baked Hog Island Clams - with olive oil, garlic and sweet chile pepper. I think there must have been some butter in there too. We were told to pick up the clams and slurp them out of the shells like oysters, to get the seasoning from the salt.

At the California Street location, they offer gelato for dessert. They don't (always) have it at the Mission location, but they do offer biscotti, a cannoli and one or two other rotating or special desserts. You might be tempted to skip dessert at the Mission location - what with Tartine and Bi Rite Creamery on the same block, but you might want to think twice about that. The cannoli is as good as anything I've had at either of those two places.

Our list of must-have items continues to grow - so far, it features the tuna conserva salad, the prosciutto and/or margharita pizza, the meatballs, the fresh ricotta, anything with shishito peppers, the cauliflower with chilis, and now the clams and the cannoli. It's not really a problem though, as long as we allow plenty of time for lunch, and order plenty of wine!

Pizzeria Delfina
2406 California St
(between Fillmore St & Steiner St)
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 440-1189

3611 18th St
(between Guerrero St & Oakwood St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 437-6800

Be prepared to wait, at either location, but the Mission one is much smaller than Pac Heights. We like to go for lunch and show up either after two or right at opening time. I'm sort of partial to the the Mission one because it's the original, but Pac Heights offers gelato and more desserts, and is smack in the middle of the Fillmore shopping area so it has it's charms too.