Scowl, Nu?

Since we’re both suffering from a nasty sinus cold – so here is my recipe for my coldbuster pasta..

1 Lb of De Cecco Spaghetti, cooked Al Dente

Sauce:
1 large knob of butter
Olive oil of equal amount to the butter
3 tblsp pesto
3/4 pound chicken breast, diced
Hot Pepper Flakes
Dried Oregano
1 minced habanero pepper
10 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
Splash of white wine
Black pepper
Grated parmasan cheese

Over medium heat, melt the butter and then combine with the pesto and olive oil. Add chicken, pepper flakes, oregano and habanero pepper. Stir to keep it from browning or burning for 5 minutes. Add wine, garlic, tomato and put on low heat for 4 minutes. Add black pepper and parmasan right before adding to pasta and plating.

Perfect for breaking those clogged sinuses up!

We made a second trip to Pizzeria Delfina with friends from Florida, and as good as the pizza’s flavor was, the crust just couldn’t hold up. In comparison to Pazzia, which held up under a load of sauce and copopus amounts of cheese, Delfina’s crust didn’t just get limp, it broke down into nothingness. It’s wasn’t a one time issue, it’s a defective recipe.

At this point, they’ve been moved off of the top 10.

1) Pepe’s Pizza – New Haven, CT (white clam and garlic)
2) BruRm @ BAR – New Haven, CT (sausage or just plain)
3) Dolce Pizza – Berlin, Germany (margherita with salami and the best hot pepper flakes ever)
4) Gino’s East – Chicago, IL (sausage and pepper stuffed)
5) Luna Pizza – West Hartford, CT (ricotta and chicken)
6) Pazzia – San Francisco, CA (mushroom and sausage)
7) Casa Della Pizza – Munich, Germany (Pizza Diablo with arugula, provolone, hot salami and firey pepper oil)
Amici’s Pizzeria – San Francisco, CA (white clam or provolone/pancetta)
9) Caminetto – Cologne, Germany (tuna and cippolini onion)
10) Barb’s Pizza – West Hartford, CT (plain cheese pizza)

Pizza better than Delfina?

On the way home from a reception at the W, I stopped at Pazzia on 3rd Street to bring home dinner. The pizza was just like we had in Italy, down to the water cracker-flavored crust. Janet had the margherita and I went with the sausage and mushroom – both were fabulous.

Though nobody talks about it, Pazzia might be the most authentic pie in the city.

Dinner tonight, made from ingredients from the farmer’s market at the Ferry Plaza. Perfect for when you’re not feeling 100%….

The Pasta:
3/4lb dried Angel Hair pasta, tossed with a little butter, olive oil, roughly chopped garlic and flat parsley.

The Saute:
2 small yolo (sweet) onions
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Hot hungarian peppers, chopped
1 knob butter
1 splash olive oil

Sweat over medium heat

3/4 pound petrale sole
Place over pepper/onion mix

Add white wine (Sauv Blanc) until it just hits the bottom of the fish. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 bunch flat parsley (roughly chopped), black pepper and then cover for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, flake fish, season with more black pepper, hot pepper flakes, dried basil and oregano.

The Garnish:
Heirloom tomatoes, cut into large dice, dressed with olive oil and black pepper.

Serves 2-4 as a main dish (and there will probably be pasta left over)

In our quest for the perfect pizza, tonight we went to Pizzeria Delfina at 18th and Guerrero.

First off, the restaurant is tiny, maybe seating a total of 18 people inside and 8 people outside. When we got there, there were four tables ahead of us, but it only took a half hour before getting seated.

While waiting, they offered us drinks – Janet had the house red (a Moltepulciano) and I went with a Sudwerk Helles. The kitchen was constantly busy as they have a very, very strong takeout business.

But what is a pizza review without mentioning the pizza? The presentation was fantastic, as was their choice to provide a small plate of dried oregano, hot pepper flakes and shredded Parmasan cheese. The sauce tasted of fresh tomatos – simultaneously sweet and acidic. The cheese was excellent, and the flavor of the crust – lightly salted to bring out the flavor – was the best I have had in years. The sausage, peppers and red onions on the Salsiccia pizza? Perfect.

However, there were issues. Surprisingly, service was not one of them – we had a stream of constant but non-intrusive queries from the waitstaff about the food, informing us that the kitchen was a little backed up if we wanted to have an appetizer first, offering desserts and beverages. The crust was, however the weakness. Seriously. Making a paper-thin crust is an art that requires an almost exacting knowledge of the dough and the oven, and in this case there was no such mastery. The result was that the sauce weakened the pizza at the center, giving it the dreaded “drooping point”. On the margarita pizza, this was just a mild annoyance, but with the weight of the sausage, I needed to support the crust with my knife to get it from the pizza pan to the plate. Get an inch in and it was fine, but the pizzaolios need to either crank up the heat (to give a harder crust at the center), adjust their stretching to give the center a little more dough, drop the amount of sauce in dead center or something. The crust flavor was amazing, so I would not change the recipe, but there is certainly room for some improvement.

As pizzas go, it is certainly in the top 10 spots…

1) Pepe’s Pizza – New Haven, CT (white clam and garlic)
2) BruRm @� BAR – New Haven, CT (sausage or just plain)
3) Dolce Pizza – Berlin, Germany (margherita with salami and the best hot pepper flakes ever)
4) Gino’s East – Chicago, IL (sausage and pepper stuffed)
5) Luna Pizza – West Hartford, CT (ricotta and chicken)
6) Casa Della Pizza – Munich, Germany (Pizza Diablo with arugula, provolone, hot salami and firey pepper oil)
7) Delfina Pizzeria – San Francisco, CA (fennel sausage)
Amici’s Pizzeria – San Francisco, CA (white clam or provolone/pancetta)
9) Caminetto – Cologne, Germany (tuna and cippolini onion)
10) Barb’s Pizza – West Hartford, CT (plain cheese pizza)

A Night of Debauchery

Since we finally moved all of our extra stuff from the apartment to our storage unit thanks to the amazing work from Two Gals With a Truck, we decided to take a break and enjoy the weekend with a night of good food and drink.

We started the night with a Trumer Pils, a Pilsner from Salzburg, Austria’s Trumer Brauerei – but produced in their new Berkeley brewery. It’s a great pilsner if you make sure to pour it into a glass instead of just drinking it out of the bottle. Properly served, it’s a perfect example of a continental pilsner beer.

Finishing the beer, we jumped onto Muni to the Castro to sample Gelateria Naia‘s wares. I had the Fior di Latte and Pistachio, while Janet tested the Mr. Espresso and Pistachio gelato. With time to spare, we decided to walk over to Mecca for cocktails. I had a Flor de Noche , a Sugar Cane Vodka infused with Lavender and a sprig of rosemary, and a Whisky Slip, while Janet stuck with a Spicy Green Apple Martini.
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As the clock hit 7:30, we left for dinner at Winterland Restaurant, a new eatery on the corner of Sutter and Steiner. We started with cocktails, Janet having a Campari Cooler while I went for a Free Man in Paris, a perfectly mixed whisky drink.

After the Amuse Bouche (a melon soup with lime foam), we ordered a carafe of Grüner Veltiner for our appetizers (Tai Ceviche with jalapeno and watermelon and two bowls of White Corn and Dungeness Crab Soup.
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Janet stuck with an Austrian Grüner Veltiner with her main course, a bass with roasted peppers
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However, I moved to a Gösser beer from Austria

with my duo of pork belly and cheek with amaranth grain and edamame.

Dessert started with cappucinos, though I couldn’t pass up a glass of 2003 Lillypilly dessert wine to compliment my carmelized brioche with olive oil ice cream. Janet had cornbread with blackberry chutney.

As the night ended, we both were satisfied, having had a dinner that could have competed with the 1 star Michelin restaurants in the UK.

I promise to edit this better on Sunday, but I’m off to bed…