The IReallyLikeFood team met up for a fun team meeting at
La Pizza & Pasta inside of
Eataly, Mario Batali's artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace.
From left to right: Ali, Eugenia, Stephanie, Susmita, and Jude. This was our first time eating at this specific place and it most certainly impressed us all. We were told we would have to wait 25 minutes for a table, but we ended up getting lucky and scored a seat after only 10 minutes.
We were immediately served thick pieces of bread that were nice and doughy alongside a plate of flavorful olive oil for dipping. I'm pretty sure these got devoured fast! We were all starving and ready to dig in.
For an appetizer, we ordered the Antipasto Misto. The plate, as you can see above came with roasted beets, grilled zucchini, assorted olives and salsify. What is salsify you ask? We weren't quite sure either, so we looked it up!
Taken directly from
Wikipedia:
Tragopogon, also known as
salsify or
goatsbeard, is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family Asteraceae that has over 140 species, including the vegetable known as salsify, as well as a number of common wild flowers, some of which are usually regarded as weeds.
All four were delicious! The salsify was sweet and the consistency reminded me of a fig or a date. The pistachios on top of the beets was a nice touch, they paired well together and I will be sure to use that combination myself in the future.
Stephanie: I ordered the San Marzano, which was the classic margherita pie. I like to stick with simple when it comes to my pizza, especially when trying a new place. I like to taste the sauce and the cheese and the crust before I add anything on top. This pizza was different though. They didn't load the toppings on, which I liked, it allowed you to taste everything separately, without being overwhelmed by the toppings.
The sauce is a huge thing for me, it has to be good if I'm going to like your pizza. The sauce was perfect, it had that exact combination of spicy/savory, with a very small hint of sweetness that made it delicous. We all shared our pizzas, so I got to try them all. I think I liked the 4 cheese pizza that Jude ordered, the best! I'm kind of a sucker for white, super cheesy pizzas so I will be returning for that.
Susmita: True to form, I was completely at loss on what to order. I decided not to be too picky and order the first thing that stood out. I ended up getting the Fiaschetto--and having remorse once I saw Jude's four cheese (see below). But I was really happy with my selection. The pizza had mozzarella, mushrooms, ham, artichokes, black olives and fresh basil. My only gripe would definitely be how hard it was to eat the pizza! It's too thin to successfully eat it with a fork and nice and far too runny to eat it by hand. I think all of us would agree that we ended up using whatever means that would result in successfully putting the pizza in our mouth. Since we all traded slices, I can definitely vouch that all the pizzas were delicious!
Jude (Bonvivante): Susmita and I were both overwhelmed by their list of menu;
everything sounded mouthwatering! On top of that, I simply can't cope with copious amounts of Italian (Reading Italian is almost as alien to me as reading DOS computer codes). But thanks to some knowledge of French, I understood "quattro" and "formaggi": four and cheese
And it was fantastic.
I found that all our pizzas were runny on the top, and as you can see, there were some patches of oil.
But this was nothing like the oil-dipped, runny pizzas you would find elsewhere! The aroma of olive oil, the texture of fresh mozzarella, the characteristic flavor of gorgonzola cheese, and hints of basil made a perfect combination. I highly recommend this dish on your next visit to Eataly.
Ali: I ordered the maruzzella pizza, which had mozzarella, tomato sauce, anchovies, black olives, and fresh basil. Wow was it good! The crust was super thin, just the way I like it. It was so thin, in fact, that it was a little difficult to actually pick up, so I used a fork and knife for the first half of every slice. Personally, I could have done with a lot more olives, but I'm an olive fiend so maybe I'm just bias! Other than that, the anchovy taste was throughout and gave the pizza a nice hint of saltiness to it.
I also tried some of Jude's four cheese pizza, and man was it delicious! The gorgonzola was the perfect touch, not overbearing but gave it a nice hint of pungency. The appetizers were also very good, especially the beets and zucchini. Salsify was good but a little strange, sort of had the texture of a fig almost. The eggplant pieces on Eugenia's pizza were also very good! I didn't bite into one seed.
Eugenia: I ordered the verduretta pizza, which had mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini, red and yellow peppers, fresh basil, tomato sauce and parmigiano reggiano. I'm normally a meatlover but I wanted to try something different; I've never had zucchini on pizza before. This pizza did not disappoint! The veggies were fresh and delicious -I didn't miss the meat at all.
However, if I had to choose a favorite I would say Susmita's choice, the Fiaschetto, was my fave pizza out of all of ours. Whatever you order, I highly recommend checking out Eataly in NYC! It's huge and there are so many things to and see!
Ali: I ordered the maruzzella pizza, which had mozzarella, tomato sauce, anchovies, black olives, and fresh basil. Wow was it good! The crust was super thin, just the way I like it. It was so thin, in fact, that it was a little difficult to actually pick up, so I used a fork and knife for the first half of every slice. Personally, I could have done with a lot more olives, but I'm an olive fiend so maybe I'm just bias! Other than that, the anchovy taste was throughout and gave the pizza a nice hint of saltiness to it. 
