O is for Osteria and M is for Mozza.

Brace yourself friends, after reading this post, you may find yourself salivating, drooling at the corners of your mouth and/or hungry. You may also wish to sue me for taunting and teasing, but let's hope that's not the case. And being that I am a legal professional, I'm confident that taunting and teasing is not a felony or misdemeanor, but you take that up with California statutes.

If you follow Madame Munchies you are aware of the "list". This isn't just any list, it's my restaurant list, which I started well over a year ago. It's where I keep track of restaurants I want to try out and last night I crossed Osteria Mozza off that list. I hate to admit that it's been sitting on that list, dusty, like an old pair of shoes, but it wasn't for not. This joint is so popular, getting a reservation is like going to war.

The benefits of going to OM with a party of seven is getting to taste a variety of dishes and we definitely ordered a larger variety of dishes, some of which will be pictured but I may not write about. I will focus on the dishes I ordered for time management's sake.

To start, I ordered the red endive, fennel and parmigiano reggiano salad with an anchovy-date dressing. It's the stacked salad pictured above. A beautiful presentation, the crunchy endive was layered with paper thin slices of sweet fennel and rectangles of a nutty parmigiano.

Prior to visiting OM, I had spent a considerable amount of time studying the menu and scheming exactly what I would like to order and when I scrolled to the pasta section, I knew I wanted to try the gnocchi with duck ragu. The last place I had gnocchi was at Angeli Caffe and I had a hard time believing that OM's gnocchi would surpass my expectations. The gnocchi were miniature and were lovingly dressed with a rich, comforting duck ragu. The gnocchi weren't necessarily better, they were just different. The best way to describe them is ultra-potato-ey. They were hearty, but not heavy.

The sauteed broccolini with vinegar and chiles were addictive. Tart, bright flavors with a splash of heat, easily devoured by all sitting at the table. For dessert, I had to go with the bombolini with a huckleberry marmalade and vanilla gelato on top of a lemon mascarpone cream. The bombolini are fried donuts tossed with sugar. The warm fritters of dough with the tangy huckleberries and lemon mascarpone were amazing.

It was definitely a night to remember, I'm looking forward to trying out the pizzeria next.

A Blissful Marriage of Eggplant and Cheese.

A couple of weekends ago, a girlfriend and I went to see a matinee of Sex and the City II. Guilty pleasure you could call it (I loved the series). Anyway, prior to the show we grabbed some grub to go from Buca di Beppo. I happen to think they do a fantastic eggplant parmesan and I thought to myself, "Self, have you ever made eggplant parmesan before?". I couldn't recall if I had taken on that challenge, so this week I took it on. The eggplant, cheese, tomatoes and I duked it out in the culinary ring, so to speak.

I did a little research online and pulled up a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan from Epicurious. With a rating of 4 forks, I had to give it a go. Mind you, I did not cook for 8 people, I cut the recipe in half and managed to put away several servings in my freezer. Not too sure how well it will hold up but I will find out soon friends.

All I can say about this recipe is LABOR INTENSIVE. This is not a recipe you just pull out of your hat on a weeknight (of course I made it on a weeknight, but that doesn't mean everyone will want to make this on a weeknight). It definitely required patience and time, but it was well worth the hard work and the wait! The eggplant slices were battered with a 3 step process: flour, egg and panko bread crumbs (which were seasoned with a little grated parmesan). I think the panko bread crumbs really took it a whole other level too. The sauce was simple - peeled and pureed roma tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, red chile pepper flakes and torn up fresh basil - simmered for about half an hour. The only downside was that I should've made the entire batch of sauce instead of only making half a batch. There just wasn't enough sauce for my liking. Lesson learned. Next time, if there's plenty of leftover sauce, I'll just freeze it for pasta or another dish. Regardless this recipe is fantastic and is a great dish for entertaining, especially if you have any vegetarians over for dinner. I would serve it with a simple green salad and maybe some roasted garlic bread.