Pizzeria Mozza - Mozza2Go

Mario Batali is a genius.  Who else can get away with wearing orange crocs around?  This guy has given me a new re-found appreciation and a completely new perspective on Italian cuisine (not to be mistaken with Italian food - meatballs, lasagna, spaghetti).  Combine his talent working with fresh ingredients straight from Italy, most of which I've never heard of, with the amazing bread-working talent of Nancy Silverton (and also Joe Bastianich who often partners with Mario), and voila, you have the best pizza ever made...and Pizzeria Mozza, the smallest and busiest, but by far the best, pizza joint I've ever seen.

I've been twice now (required reservations both times), first long before this blog was born, and most recently in a more unusual fashion.  We actually made reservations for a wine class the restaurant was holding in the back room (closet).  They bring in the restaurant wine-director and six types (three white, three red) of wine that come straight from winemakers in a specific region of Italy, this time the Trentino-Alto Adige region, which is somewhere in northern Italy.  Of course, the whole point is to taste the wine, but they don't just give you a tiny tasting pour you'd get in Napa Valley, they poured almost half a glass of each wine.  Clearly, this is meant for people that don't get tipsy after half a glass, as you're expected to comment on and identify components of the different wines.  Given that this is not something I'm not yet sophisticated enough to accomplish even sober, I sipped my wine, nodded my head and smiled, letting myself go ahead and get tipsified.

Finally, I thought, they brought in some "antipasti" to demonstrate food pairing with the different wines - apples, asparagus, and speck (prosciutto-ish).  I really don't know if my judgement was yet altered when we received our food pairings, but I could swear those are the best apples I've ever had.  I think they had pepper on them actually...confusing, I know, but really they were amazing apples.  The asparagus was also phenominal, but that's because it was wood-grilled and topped with grated Italian cheese (not the parmesan substance that comes in a green carton at the grocery store, or even the stuff they dump on your plate using that turny thing at Olive Garden).

That was all to pair with the white wines, I later learned.  Red wine time = pizza time!  They generously plopped fresh wild mushroom and cheese pizzas on our table.  Funghi misti, fontina, taleggio & thyme, according to the menu.  Yum, according to me.  I don't care if there's funghi on my pizza when it tastes this good. They use shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, and a constantly changing third mushroom (we think this time it was oyster), along with a combination of cheeses, providing a perfect balance of sharp and earthy savory flavors.  The crispy wood-fired crust is absolutely amazing, and as the crust is my favorite part of all pizza, I was thrilled with the flavor and texture of this crust. 

As if we hadn't already had enough, we decided that some pizzas to go would be most necessary.  Since I didn't anticipate the need for more pizzas two weeks prior, we knew we wouldn't get a seat in the dining room, but thanks to the nextdoor Mozza2Go, we could order a couple Mario/Joe/Nancy amazing pizzas, wait 20 minutes and head home to gorge ourselves in the privacy of our home with our friends, and a cheap bottle of Trader Joes wine.  Ok, so the drive, with a detour, is long enough for us that we had to reheat the pizzas when we got home.  Nancy kindly leaves a note on reheating, pleading "Please do not microwave my pizza. Place in the oven at 350 for 12 minutes and enjoy!" (By the way, Pizzeria Mozza is kinda near Wilshire, and if you go far enough west on Wilshire, there's a Sprinkles - the detour I mentioned.  I did make this case and we did get cupcakes. That's what you do when friends are coming over...it's only appropriate.)

The first time we visited Mozza, someone nearby had a sausage pizza and the entire room filled with the incredible aroma of fresh fennel.  Desperate to try the homemade fennel sausage, we ordered the fennel sausage, panna (italian cream), red onion & scallions pizza, and the Coach farm goat cheese, leeks, scallions, garlic & bacon pizza because it sounded amazing.  Both are fantastic.  The fennel sausage is homemade, and therefore definitely worth trying, but sausage isn't usually my favorite pizza topping, and this didn't really change that for me.  The goat cheese, leeks, garlic and bacon pizza, however, might have changed my life.  This is a fantastic combination of ingredients, flavor and texture, and executed so perfectly, complete with lightly charred edges on the ridiculously thinly sliced vegetables and the crispy crust.

The only real trouble with Mozza2Go is that you can't order the gelatos they serve in the dining room.  It's a real shame, too, because they have the best gelato I've ever had.  Besides just the gelato, they do have a much more extensive menu in the dining room than on the 2Go menu, so if you absolutely need bone marrow or some other weird delicacy, make some reservations well ahead of time at Pizzeria Mozza!