The Panzanella is back.... torn and charred focaccia croutons, today’s farmer’s market stone fruit, stracciatella, with shaved red onions, calabrian chiles, fresh mint, 18 year white balsamic, finished with basil oil and koroneiki olive oil... dine in only for now...
A few weekends ago, I got really inspired by Justin De Leon's pesto... It's rustic like a nonna with a mortar and pestle, more coarse and less emulsified, so you get little pops of garlic, chunks of pine nut, and little chunks of parm reggiano, and it's more basil-y too. Better in every way, I thought... So, I came home and reworked our pesto, and it's the base for this pizza... The New Pesto Pie, with, yes, our new recipe pesto genovese, fresh mozzarella, slow-roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes from @jrorganicsfarm , finished with parm, coarse black pepper, toasted pine nuts, stracciatella, basil oil, and fresh basil
Mother's Day at the Hillcrest Market with my Mom, a story in five photos...
Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there, you make the world go round. xoxo
Hands on pizza & prints. We’ve been enjoying pizza from Matt @ Tribute for over 10 years now and on this project we made some thank you cards for their special guests.
A few nights ago, a longtime guest asked me what happened to the Kevin Mccallister... and I realized it just kind of disappeared and I never actually explained... See, the Kevin was our plain cheese on the original menu, and it lived on there for like eight years plus. It was our tribute to "a lovely cheese pizza, just for me," and for years, the menu had a Macaulay Culkin icon next to the name... It was my best effort at channeling some core memory nostalgia of a pizza lunch on a Wednesday half day in elementary... And I think we nailed it, but over the years, my notion of the platonically perfect plain cheese has evolved, a lot to do with my visits to NYC... I'm into a little more rustic and brighter of a tomato sauce, and sauce on top of the cheese (instead of under it), mozzarella deli sliced the long way so every slice gets even coverage. It's the same archetype, but more refined? Like the Kevin grew up, and got a mortgage... Now, we just call it the "plain cheese." But between you and me... if you've gotta have the Kevin, just ask, we'll still make it...
Existential questions: Basil pre-bake or basil post-bake? Both? What about torn or whole?
On our standard margherita, we go pre-bake and whole leaf, but I can see the argument for the other way, too... So, we're asking ourselves the question, and you too... Bianco does post bake whole, Razza does post bake and mostly torn, and those are two of the best margheritas you could ever have... And we want to make sure nothing we do is ever taken for granted... What do you think?
The Cadillac Margherita is on our 'secret menu', and I'm just over here telling secrets because you deserve to know, and also, it's what I made for myself for dinner tonight...
New today, the "Untitled Za'atar Project" with housemade fresh farmer's cheese, house za’atar, cracked olive salad with garlic, lemon, peppers and thyme, marinated sweet onions, finished with fresh parsley, mediterranean olive oil, and served with mike’s hot honey labneh…
