had a terrific dinner outside at the “piazza mozza.” lovely, quiet, exhaust and mosquito-free atmosphere with spaced out tables behind the restaurant @CiaoBob. the same can’t be said for the “strada mozza” and “corsa mozza” experience which are tables set up along the narrow sideways along melrose and highland. reserve the piazza, order the anchovies.
pizza fritti with prosciutto di parma
I’ve had this before with gnocco fritto but this newer version with pizza fritti is incredible. they fry the pizza dough so that it’s light, crisp, and airy and then umami-ized™ it with spices and powdered parm so that it was like a savory funnel cake.
sagne e pezzi with breadcrumbs, pecorino romano, garlic & anchovy
had me at anchovy. this shape reminded me of the new pasta shape being invented by the sporkful, but without the half tube down the middle. the dish itself was great, loved the slices of garlic, plus anchovies make everything better.
I saw Pizza Fritti on the first episode of Stanley Tucci’s CNN show (Naples). I wonder if it inspired Mozza to start making it. It certainly inspired me to start eating it.
Thanks for the anchovy shoutout. I need inspiration for all the tins now in my cupboard.
Very anchovy forward dinner. It would be great if you could combine the best of Chi Spacca, Osteria and Pizzeria. Mozzarella bar, chopped salad, pizza, pasta, grilled meats then gelato/budino.
This is a variation on the Emilian dish gnocco fritto (aka gnocc frett / gnocchi fritti / torta fritta / chisolino / chisulén / pinzino / pinsìn / crescentina Bolognese), fried dough served with cured meats. That’s been a regularly recurring item on Osteria Mozza’s menu for years. Seems like in their current situation they’re making it with pizza dough instead.
Neapolitan fried pizza (montanara) is a different thing.
So we’ve come up with a new dish for the pizzeria, a pizza fritti dish where we’re taking fried dough, and we’re rolling it the next day in cheese and Italian herbs and spices, and it’s a great little antipasti. And they’re using up the old dough for that, because they don’t want to throw it away. Now they’re working too hard to waste it.
Definitely not Tucci, then. Interesting that pre-Covid they outsourced the dough.
Because of the amount of pizza dough we go through at our pizzeria and at Mozza2Go, we haven’t had the space to actually make the dough and shape the dough ourselves. It’s done for us at one of the local bakeries, with my formula. But the bakery had to shut down because of COVID, so we’ve been making all our dough here.
Sadly, this week they are returning to the Pizzeria (both indoor and outdoor) and Osteria (same) format(s). Without Chi Spacca representation
I had a rez for Thursday night, and they called me asking me to choose my preferred “experience.”
I asked if either will be including Spacca dishes:
“We will be doing the Osteria Menu Indoors, so unfortunately no Chi Spacca menu items. Chi Spacca will be opening the middle of April.”
I loved the ability to have items from all three experiences on my Piazza visits.
