A symphony of textures and flavors that work beautifully, with a wood fired crust that gets a little too thin to support the charcuterie of toppings toward the middle.
We had an impromptu pizza night and got Passione (view on map) carry out. Honestly, I feel like I needed to redeem myself after yesterday's pizza - and I was craving something high brow and artisanal. Passione (formerly Passione Pane) is the perfect pick when you're in the mood for something quick that goes just as well with Diet Coke as it does with cabernet sauvignon. This wasn't our first time here, but our first time blogging about it.
Chris was feeling pizza'd out after yesterday, but with some arm twisting he admitted that if I brought him a pepperoni he would give it a good home.
After a quick spin through the online menu, I found the Ghiotta pizza with mozzarella, pepperoni, bresaola, mushroom, parmesan cheese and walnuts. I'm pretty sure I haven't met a pizza with nuts that I haven't liked. Oh, and I learned on the menu that bresaola is thinly sliced air-dried beef that comes from Valtellina, a valley in the Alps of northern Italy. I also learned that ghiotta translated from Italian to English means 'greedy' - does having walnuts and air-dried beef on pizza make me greedy? :)
After a quick trip to the pickup window, and a 10 minute ride in the pizza bag in the trunk of my car, it was time to eat. Well, not before a quick pizza photo shoot, haha! I'm not sure what face I'm pulling here, I think it's vindication and anticipation.
Here are my thoughts: In short the Ghiotta pizza is a symphony of contrasting flavors that all come together beautifully. The tomato sauce is super light on seasoning which is different than most pizza places that are heavy on the Italian spices. It tastes very fresh and almost minimalist like sweet tomato puree. I think that let's the other ingredients shine using their own flavors and provides a contrast to the saltiness of the pepperoni and the bresaola.
The bresaola itself is hard to describe, it's cut so thin it basically melts in your mouth. The flavor is more intense than prosciutto, and it has sort of a salty, earthy, even bloody taste to it (in a good way). It tastes like very thin sun dried tomatoes made of meat. The mushrooms sneak in with a texture contrast to the crunch of the walnuts.
The crust has sort of a warm pita pocket flavor to it and bits of char from the wood fire oven. It gets very thin toward the middle so some of my toppings fell apart, but I used the crust like naan bread to pinch and fold them up in envelopes of bread. Don't 'at' me, I know Neapolitan pizza is supposed to be thin, but the toppings shouldn't fall off. The Ghiotta from Passione left me feeling satisfied and sophisticated.
Chris loved the 'roni cups' from the curled up pepperoni, and agreed that the sauce was very light, simple, and sweet. I don't think he is as high maintenance as I am, and could care less about the hipster credibility of a real wood burning pizza oven. I dig that stuff and love the unique flavor combinations at Passione.