Motorino Pizza – Williamsburgh and Other Burgs

[weinoo]

My wife and I had a pretty damn good 2 pies at Motorino this afternoon. The lunch special is $10, with choice of soup (today, a delicious fresh tomato soup) or salad (nice mixed greens with a sweetish balsamic vinaigrette) and a whole individual pizza - and these are not 7"-ers, either. Crust was puffy, charred and quite tasty. I had the speck, brussels sprouts and fior di latte, while she opted for the anchovy, olives and capers, which was disappointing in that there was one measley anchovy on it. Otherwise, the use of top-notch ingredients is apparent, and I don't know if there's a pie in the city approaching this one at this price level.

Here's the speck pie...

and here's what I called the putanesca pie...

[KennethT]

Staff note: Posts movede from the Cooking with Myhrvold and Migoya's Modernist Pizza discussion, to maintain focus.

 

On 11/2/2021 at 2:38 AM, Chris Hennes said:

Well, @weinoo, I'm afraid you're going to have to avert your eyes on this one as well, or risk annoyance once again! There is green on this pizza (and really, you can't include green peppers in your anti-green-ingredient list, can you?!). Like arugula, it requires pre-cooking. And like arugula, it is delicious, even if decidedly non-canonical on this now-two-day-aged New York crust. I am definitely improving on my crust making front: about half of the interior of this pizza was the thickness, or thinness, I was going for. I think the outer rim is still too puffy, though, so it's probably time to start downsizing the dough ball --- this pizza was every bit of 14" in diameter, and held its shape through enpeeling and delivery to the oven.

 

Mmmm. Brussels sprouts New York pizza!

 

 

While not necessarily NY style, Motorino, a NYC based (but now has a few far flung branches) neo-neapolitan place does an awesome brussels sprouts pie  - it's a white pie (no sauce) with fior de latte, pecorino and smoked pancetta.... https://www.motorinony.com/location/east-village/#menus/ - scroll down

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

While not necessarily NY style, Motorino, a NYC based (but now has a few far flung branches) neo-neapolitan place does an awesome brussels sprouts pie  - it's a white pie (no sauce) with fior de latte, pecorino and smoked pancetta.... https://www.motorinony.com/location/east-village/#menus/ - scroll down

We always ordered that pie at Motorino OG!  And a normal one too!!

[Duvel]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

We always ordered that pie at Motorino OG!  And a normal one too!!

I had it a couple of times at Motorino Wan Chai in Hong Kong - great stuff indeed. I think in general cruciferous vegetables benefit from a hard char (think charred broccoli with romesco sauce, or toasted cabbage with sesame/miso, or said pie), maybe because then they are not „green“ anymore ..?

[weinoo]

Wow; that special used to be $10!!

[gfweb]

On 11/2/2021 at 2:01 AM, Duvel said:

I had it a couple of times at Motorino Wan Chai in Hong Kong - great stuff indeed. I think in general cruciferous vegetables benefit from a hard char (think charred broccoli with romesco sauce, or toasted cabbage with sesame/miso, or said pie), maybe because then they are not „green“ anymore ..?

 

I think its important to have either a screaming hot oven or pre-roasted green stuff. Otherwise its a soggy mess.

 

Adding toppings that don't contribute grease is a slippery slope at best.

[Annie_H]

4 hours ago, weinoo said:

Wow; that special used to be $10!!

That's nuts. I remember 12$ in Williamsburg. Maybe 2015-16?. Could have been earlier. I lived with-in walking distance. Quality became all over the place but still pretty great. The salads went downhill. I've never said "I just had the best salad ever"---now it is just a really good salad. Service got a bit lazy or not trained properly. Great simple lemony dressing but if a server is filling the side container they should shake the mother load first and not rest it on top of the salad greens taking it to the table. The dressing containers are filled ahead of time on a countertop where they are leaning on and chatting and not thinking at all. 

The crust is still good but I liked it better when it was a bit thinner---not the occasional NY bagel sized small pie. 8 inch puffers to 11 inch perfection...then the occasional blond soup in the middle undercooked. 

 

I've worked in so many restaurants from 15yrs old through university I am mostly kind. 

The salads back in the day at Motorino were legendary. Sounds silly about a salad. Big glass martini-ish flared straight sided bowls. A bit tame now and smaller. All the changes have put me on the 'meh' list, but for a lunch with house guests out of town it still is a good destination. 

We just prefer a low carb thin crust with quality ingredients. Roman style.