The Day Before

Los Angeles

Today we went to lunch at Mozza's, the wait-in-line-for-seats-at-the-bar Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich pizzeria on Highland and Melrose. There were four of us and we each ordered an appetizer and a pizza. Our reservation was at 12:15, the restaurant opened at 12, and there was a line out front but we didn't have to wait for our table.

First came the glasses of light Rosato Bastianich Refosco, a refreshing rosé after coming in from the 105° Labor Day weekend heat wave. A cup of Farro alla Toscana with feta arrived not long after - an ancient grain tossed with ripe halved cherry tomatoes, bits of feta and olive oil. It was cool and refreshing, like a big cousin to tabouleh, the ingredients shone on their own.

White beans alla Toscana with extra virgin olive oil and saba came next on what tasted like a whole wheat (hand made Roman Meal?) toast. This was a hit all around, it was not a mock hummus as some are, this was sophisticated, smooth and light with a coffee spoonful of olive oil and saba (a juice made from cooked-down grape must, fruitier than balsamic vinegar although made from the same Trebbiano grapes. Like verjus, it is mild enough not to ruin an accompanying wine. )

The restaurant was full by the time our final two antipasta arrived: Fried squash blossoms and a Lamb straccotto with polenta - a divine comfort food, the lamb was warm, succulent, redolent with spices and perfect on top of the creamiest polenta, so creamy it surely must have had marscarpone whipped in. The squash blossoms were exactly like a kettle chip wrapped around ricotta, fried to perfection, salty and crunchy but one was enough.

The first pizza was the priciest and our one disappointment, clams oregano, parmigiano & pecorino came together with too much of the taste of tidepools for me. It is a highly rated pizza so perhaps it just wasn't the one for such a hot day.

Second was an egg, guanciale, radicchio, escarole & bagna cauda that came with the egg perfectly sunny side up in the middle - a tough item to split four ways but tasty. The guanciale is an unsmoked bacon that was crispy, making me think of a good dish of bacon and eggs.

An oregano salami (that is oregano salami, no comma) mozzarella, tomato & fresno chili pizza was a crowd pleaser. All the pizza crusts were crispy on the ends and thin beneath the ingredients, and lighter than usual, heading in the direction of a pâte feuilletée, the puff pastry used with french tarts, or Indian Parantha bread, puffed with air and crispy. The oregano salami and fresno chili's atop a tomato sauce was all wonderfully concentrated in flavor, salty, herby and smoky from the brick oven baking.

Speck, burricotti, olive tapenade & oregano was the final pizza. I was wild about it since I love juniper and speck is an Italian prosciutto from a region near Germany that is flavored with juniper, as is jambon de Vendée in France. The burricotti - ricotta filled mozzarella was dolloped on the top and its lightness was a blessing after as many other dishes we had already been through.

When there was no more room in our bellies or in the restaurant, and people were standing around waiting for tables, we shared the famous Butterscotch Budino with two little rosemary pinenut cookies. The cookies were like the pastry dough cookies my grandmother use to make, light little rounds that she brushed with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Here they were the size of a silver dollar and topped with a few sprigs of rosemary and several toasted pinenuts that adhered to the cookie by virtue of of some sweet thing, maybe just melted browned sugar. The butterscotch was fantastic, smooth like a great gelato but room temperature. The flavor went off the scale of delight by a dusting of fleur de sel. Wow.

Later, when the day had cooled a bit and we were able to move again, we took 3 dogs for a walk in the 'hood and snapped a few shots of our first landmark, which Judy lives just beneath.