Last October my friend Michelle and I decided to celebrate our birthdays, which both fall in that month, at Osteria Mozza. We made our reservations a month ahead, as required, and waited with anticipation for October 5th to arrive. Mozza holds a special place on my restaurant list because Nancy Silverton is one of the owners, and I did my cooking internship for culinary school at Campanile, where I saw her every Saturday, for nine months. She is my culinary hero, whom I admire as a chef and business woman. Her book Desserts is my pastry bible and my go-to dessert recipe tome. So I was really looking forward to eating where she was one of the creators. And Mario Batali isn’t bad either. There was that little foodie groupie in me that was secretly hoping one of them might be there. Ya, right.

The Valet Parking and the beautiful front door

The restaurant is in Los Angeles, on the corner of Melrose and Highland, and a long drive on the freeway from Manahattan Beach, where we live. We overestimated how long it would take to get there, and arrived 30 minutes early. After valeting the car, we took a little walking tour around the corner to Pizzaria Mozza and the little Italian Shop inside it. The clerk said Nancy Silverton personally chose and imported all the items from Italy. I ended up buying a 17.5 oz. package of Fregola Sarda pasta for $12.00, which is about 2 cups of little pasta balls the size of Israeli couscous that have been browned in the oven. Ok, it’s a tourist trap and I caved. But I’m hoping to cook them in the future and do a post about them.

Finally it was time for the front doors to be open. We went in and the whole server staff was standing in the entry, with their striped shirts and long white aprons. They gave us a little bow, and one stepped forward and said, “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you!” They must have seen us hovering around outside. Oh well, we were tourists, after all.

Or server graciously agreed to seat us by a window so I could photograph the food. I had only had my camera for a month and was a total novice. The photographs are all out of focus, so don’t laugh, ok? I did my best.

The restaurant is black, white and chrome and has a very slick look to it. The mozzarella bar runs the whole length of the room and you can pull up a chair and eat there if you like. The liquor bar is against the far wall and it is all twinkly like a big Christmas tree.

We ordered our wine and it was served along with an amuse-bouche, a Kalamata Tapenade Crostini, which is obviously where I got the idea for the recipe in this post. I have made them numerous times and they are so amazing. The salty olives, creamy ricotta and La Brea Bakery sour dough bread topped with basil shards. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

We ordered our starters and entrées, and I took photos of everything. It was a Monday night, so there weren’t very many people there, although more arrived as the night went on. Finally our dishes arrived. They were so beautiful, I almost didn’t want to start eating them. Michelle had Burricotta with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants and mint pesto.

I had Burrata with leeks vinaigrette and mustard breadcrumbs. It was very intense with the flavor of the stone-ground Poupon-style mustard. Too intense, really, but I ate it any way. I was at Mozza! and I didn’t want to miss any of the flavor experiences.

We had also been served some great rustic bread that was full of wheat berries and seeds, which we dipped in the peppery olive oil. It was chewy and wonderful. That bread inspired me to try to make some of my own rustic bread about a month later, and it was a dismal failure. It turned out like a solid football, which could have been used for a doorstop. I’m not going to tell you that story though.

Then came the entrées. Big plates of meat. Perfectly medium rare the way I like it. Whoever was working the grill really knew their stuff. Michelle had Grilled Beef Tagliata, rucola and Parmigiano with aceto balsamico.

And I had the Grilled Leg of Lamb with insalata di Fregola Sarda, mint and yogurt. The pasta and minty yogurt were hidden under the lamb slices and was a wonderful sauce for the lamb. And, lo and behold, there was the Fregola Sarda, which I had just purchased in the little shop.

Well, we were totally stuffed by this time. You know, groaning with happiness. Michelle said we had to have dessert because it was our birthday, so she ordered Cannoli with caramel, pistachio and espresso gelati. When it came to the table it had a little birthday candle stuck to the plate. It was so cute!

We said our good-byes to our server, who had been very charming and helpful. The whole evening had been like living a fantasy. We walked out saying WOW, that was really something to remember. And I could hardly wait to get home and look at the photos. And think about writing this post, which turned out to be five months later.

So here is the recipe for the Kalamata Olive Tapenade Crostini. When you eat it, you can pretend you are at Osteria Mozza, just like I do!

I have taken a number of cooking classes at Williams-Sonoma from a wonderful teacher, Linda Steidel. I look forward to her classes, not only for the recipes, but to watch her cooking techniques and see what equipment she is using. The thing about cooking teachers is they have to get everything prepared and cooked within a certain time limit, so they have to be as efficient as possible. Linda is the epitome of efficient. She has economy of motion and a less-is-more style that I find fascinating to watch.

And now Linda has a new book coming out called For Every Season There Is a Salad. She worked on it for a year, creating the 100 recipes, doing the food styling and assisting the photographer. On top of everything else she does, I think she must be Super Woman. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy so I can tell you all about it.

EXTRA! EXTRA! April 27,2010. Linda’s Book has been released! Find out more about it and see photos here.

Oh, and did I say she is calm. The night of the class when she did this Corn Bread Tartlet, there was also a Lobster Pot Pie on the menu. Linda was making the pie dough in a food processor provided by the store and half way through it stopped working. The poor store employee assisting Linda was horrified and kept trying, unsuccessfully, to open the processor and turn it back on. Finally, Linda stopped her, and calmly said it didn’t matter, she would just finish it by hand. Which she did. Calm.

Also on the menu at this class were a beautiful Peach, Mozzarella, Fennel and Prosciutto Salad and a Nectarine-Raspberry Crisp. Linda always makes her food look really beautiful, as you can see from these photographs I took. I used my Sony point and shoot camera and Linda was very gracious about stopping the show to let me get these shots.

Linda has been teaching cooking classes at Williams-Sonoma for fifteen years at their various stores in Southern California. She teaches custom designed classes in private homes for friends celebrating birthdays and special occasions, and has worked with such well-known culinary figures as Jo Bettoja in Italy, Anne Willan at La Varenne, New York’s Peter Kump and experts at the CIA at Greystone. She has also led her students on culinary trips to Provence, Burgundy, Tuscany, Tahiti, Africa and Mexico. You can check out her website at LindaSteidel.com. She has a new thing called The Underground Restaurant that could be very interesting.

These little Corn Bread Tartlets are not only cute, but they make a wonderful appetizer. The corn bread muffin is sweet and crunchy, along with the creamy ricotta cheese and the zing of the tomatoes. I love the way they look. Linda set them out on a cake platter with a pedestal and I could just imagine them on my buffet table. In fact I went home and made them the next day. I hope you give them a try, too.

I was trying to decide what to blog about next and realized that I have no deserts in my recipe index! So I decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, by writing about a desert that is also one of the slide show photographs.

I made this Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for my 2009 Thanksgiving Day feast. I had been seeing recipes for various renditions of this cake since back in the day and always thought to myself that I would like to make it. But never did, until now. I didn’t want to make any of the tired old recipes like pumpkin, apple or pecan pie for my feast. I wanted something new and different that my family had never had at my house before.

This particular recipe caught my eye because of the ground almonds in the cake batter, which would give it a great flavor and texture. Also, cooking the cake in a cast iron skillet was a new approach for me and I knew the pineapple would caramelize beautifully. Give me a new ingredient or technique and I’m all over it.

I did bow to the traditional with the whipped cream dolloped on the cake, which was delicious with coffee at the end of the feast. And it was just as good the next day warmed up in the microwave.

Actually, the next day I was wondering what I was going to do with the cake that was left over, besides eat it all and gain ten pounds, when lo and behold, my neighbor, Gourmet Larry, came knocking on the door to borrow something. I asked him if he liked Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. His eyes lit up and he told me he had pinned a photo of a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake over his wife’s computer in the hopes that she would make him some, as it is his favorite. It had been hanging there for quite some time and nothing had magically happened yet. So I gave him a big chunk of the cake and the rest of the whipped cream. He hurried home to have some…a very happy man.

Thanksgiving is the one holiday of the year where I cook a big feast for the whole family, which can vary from five to twenty people, depending on who is in town. What makes cooking this meal a challenge are the dietary quirks of just about everyone. Some people don’t drink alcohol; some don’t eat cheese; one can’t eat fat (no gallbladder – I know, too much information); some are diabetic. But the biggest challenge is the group of vegetarians. I am a die-hard carnivore, and I like to plan a meal around the meat, with the vegetable dishes as a complement to it. With no meat, I flounder around trying to think up enough dishes so that everyone will be full and satisfied.

This year it turned out that all the vegetarians came on Thursday, and the carnivores came over on Friday, so it worked out great. Friday I roasted a turkey, with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, and all the beautiful vegetable dishes from Thursday. Everyone got stuffed to groaning both days, and I was so happy to have put them into that state.

So my Thanksgiving 2009 menu was:

Crostini with Kalamata Olive Tapenade and Ricotta Cheese
Cheezy Mini Biscuits with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

Mushroom Soup
Cheesy Onion Bread

Carrot Salad with Moroccan Spices
Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnut Butter
Leeks Au Gratin Parmigiano
Corn Spoon Bread
Green Bean Casserole with Fried Onions

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Pumpkin Cheesecake

I didn’t serve the Carrot Salad in those little shot glasses. It was in a big bowl. But the little glasses are much more fun for the photograph. And, yes, that was their real color.

I have been getting some questions about the photos in the slide show, like, did I take the photographs; are there recipes for them; and am I going to post the recipes? The answers are yes, yes and yes. The first photo is of Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, then Cold Cucumber Soup, Mini Corn Muffins, Crostini with Kalamata Olive Tapenade and Ricotta, and Moroccan Carrot Salad.

I chose the Cold Cucumber Soup for this post because all of the other recipes in the slide show have a story about them, and this Cucumber Soup has no story. It’s just a really good recipe.

You can serve this soup as a starter at a formal dinner, or in a rustic bowl in the afternoon for a pick-me-up on a hot day. You get the tang of the yogurt, the zing of the lemon and lime juice, and the crunch of the cucumber, with notes of garlic, mint and basil. Topped with sweet tomatoes and salty pistachios. Perfect.