Nostrana - Visit #15

               Nostrana is an excellent restaurant with a long list of accolades. It is rare place where you can choose from an $80 steak or a $12 pizza. Every meal I have had here has been excellent. Everything is high quality, the service is the best you will find in any restaurant serving pizza, and it is all led by a very special person...Cathy Whims.

               Cathy is well known in the Portland culinary community for Genoa, Nostrana, Oven & Shaker, and Hamlet. She has been a James Beard Best Chef NW finalist six times. I won't claim to know Cathy well, because I don't. However, based on one interaction I had with her, she is a special owner and Portland is lucky to have her. 

                I was fortunate to have lunch with Cathy and a few others earlier this year. She and I had a wonderful conversation about baking, pizza, and about her philosophy at Nostrana. She is so down to earth, cares about her staff, the food they create, and she has a wonderful spirit about her. When she opened Nostrana, it was important for her to have pizza on the menu. Not only because she loves creating new pies, but because pizza is an affordable food for most people, which was a driving force behind offering it at Nostrana. She wants to share her team's creations with everyone. I love this. 

               Cathy and I also talked about their dough. She has cultivated Nostrana's starter since the early 2000's (2003 I believe), which she received from a friend in Nice, France. Cathy even offered me a sample of the starter to experiment with it. I was too intimidated to take her up on it, but one day I might remind her of that offer. 

              Let's get to the pies, and what we thought...

Alla Fiamma

             The Alla Fiamma is a really unique pie. It consists of tomato, red onion, Mama Lil's, wild oregano, spicy oil, black olives, and egg. That's right, no cheese. This pizza was a first for us for two reasons. First, no cheese. Second, we put an egg on it! The reviews at the table were mixed on this one. I enjoyed it because it was so different. As you would expect, the sauce shined on this pie, which was excellent. The addition of the Mama Lil's, onion, and black olives created a vinegar/bitter flavor, which I thought worked well. If you like pickled foods or kombucha, you will probably love this pie. If you don't, I would steer clear. The egg was a little disappointing though. It was cooked over medium, so we couldn't effectively drizzle the yoke over the pie, which I think would have made it even better.

Marga

             Pizza at Nostrana arrives to the table without being sliced. Each individual is given scissors to cut your own slices. I love this. It is a small thing, but fun, and I think adds to the experience. I now have scissors for my backyard pizza nights because of this.

             The Marga was very good. It was the second best pie of the night, and we thought held its own versus other Margas we have tried this year. These were the largest basil leafs we have ever seen! It's a small critique, but not every slice gets basil with leaves so large. I suppose we could have cut them up with our scissors though. 🤣

             If you love thin, crunchy crust, this is your place. Veggie and I gravitate towards the more airy, pillowy, chewy crust, which we felt Nostrana lacks. It is still a very good pizza, but the crust would be our biggest critique.

Diavola

           The Diavola was my favorite of the night, and obviously Veggie Doughboy missed out! This pie is made up of spicy sausage, mozzarella, provolone, tomato, and Mama Lil's. This was the best sausage pie I have had this year - official visits or otherwise. The balance of ingredients was perfect. I think they drizzled Mama Lil's oil over the top as well. It had a unique texture that I really enjoyed. 

Funghi Verde

         The final pie of the night was the Funghi Verde with shiitake and maitake mushrooms, mozzarella, garlic, arugula, pecorino, lemon agrumato. We like all the ingredients on this one, but we were not a fan of this pie. The mushrooms over powered this pizza for us. The arugula was moist, which created a bit of a watery flavor. We thought they missed the mark on this one. 

         All in all, we recommend you try Nostrana for the pizza and other items on their menu. We think you will be glad you did.