Catching up w/reports! Next, a late dinner at Osteria Mozza, from chef Nancy Silverton and Joe Bastianich, who also run the restaurants Pizzeria Mozza and the meat focused Chi Spacca close by.
I had dinner at the mozzarella bar. Started with a cocktail - a
Sculaccione ($15)
tequila, Campari, grapefruit, bitters
Quite nice, citrusy and a little bitter from the Campari.
And then
Nancy’s Caesar ($19)
egg, leek and anchovy crostini
A deconstructed (or maybe reconstructed?) Caesar salad. Pristine leaves of romaine lettuce dressed in a Caesar dressing, along with a crostini where the toppings are the components of a Caesar salad - eggs (hard boiled rather than raw), and whole anchovies. The leek on the bottom gave it a bit of sweetness as well. Pretty good, it tasted like what it was.
Next, from the mozzarella bar, the
Burrata and Bacon ($18)
with marinated escarole and caramelized shallots
Kind of have to get a mozzarella dish sitting at the mozzarella bar at a place called Mozza right? This was really great, interesting mix of textures and flavors - the slightly bitter escarole, salty smoky crispy thin slices of bacon, cool creamy burrata cheese, some sweet shallots on top, and the toasted bread as a base. Tried to get all of the components into each bite. Delicious.
For my main I had the
Ricotta and Egg Ravioli ($22)
with browned butter
A bigass ravioli (raviolo?) stuffed with ricotta and a barely cooked egg, sitting in a pool of toasty nutty browned butter with a sprig of sage. Super rich. After cutting into it the yolk made a buttery eggy sauce. Wish I had gotten some bread to mop it up. There’s a version of this dish served up here in SF at Cotogna, in which the raviolo is flatter so I think the pasta to filling ratio is maybe a little more balanced? Both dishes are great though.
And for dessert I had the
Peach Melba, Raspberries & Almond Sbrisolona ($16)
Which was quite nice and summer-y. A sbrisolona is apparently an Italian type of crumbly cake, and this was a little bit like a peach cobbler with a warm peach, crumbly bits, some vanilla ice cream and whipped cream that was just a little sweet, and a light drizzle of strawberry sauce.
