Quick Pics: Pizzeria Ortica

Lunch today took me to Pizzeria Ortica, David Myer’s first Orange County outpost.

I don’t know how I feel about the way the restaurant is designed, especially when the restaurant gets crowded and you need to traverse from one end of the restaurant to the other.

This is your Rorschach test. Tell me what you see.

I decided to be healthy and start with the verdure al forno con burrata, or in English, burrata with grilled veggies.  About midway through this course, I decided that the dish needed at least two more mounds of burrata in order to fulfill my cheese quota.

The waiter called the insalata alla bagna cauda their “ceasar salad.” I call it a lonely looking salad, like it could use a few anchovy slices or some grilled chicken.

Ravioli di burrata e ricotta al pomodoro. This looked tasty, but I never got to try it. I was too busy sweating over my own dish.

Pappardelle al sugo d’agnello. Pappardelle is my current pasta crush. I fall in love with pasta the way I do with gadgets: an intense relationship early on that fizzles out, falls out of favor and is relegated to the gadget drawer, never to be touched again. While this dish looked simple, the lamb ragu and sheep’s milk ricotta was rich and give this dish a full, fulfilling flavor. (I just made my mouth water thinking about this.)

I shall call you: overkill. Officially: Budino di Cioccolato (chocolate creme layered with caramel).

My dessert: affogato.

Pizzera Ortica – unassuming, fulfilling, scrumptious.