Ciao! Pizza & Pasta: An Update

Two months ago, I raved about Ciao! Pizza & Pasta in Chelsea, noting: "Ciao is producing killer house-made pasta and wood-fire pizzas, far better than the average takeout pizza joint. Chef Posada is working big magic in a small restaurant, and this is the type of place that every community should have." Since then, I've returned multiple times to Ciao, trying some of their other dishes as well as enjoying my favorites, such as the amazing Campanelle with Chorizo Bolognese. I wanted to give a short update on this new restaurant, and reiterate my prior high recommendation.And I'll start mentioning a couple delicious pizzas you will find there.

The Sopressata Pizza has large, thin slices of tasty sopressata (basically one piece covers a whole slice), big cloves of garlic confit and plenty of mozzarella. Your breath will slay vampires once you're done but it will be more than worth it. I love garlic so this pizza really appealed to me, and I wouldn't mind adding that garlic confit to some of their other wood-fired pizzas too.

Their new Uovo Pizza is basically a Breakfast pizza, with thin sliced potatoes, bacon, mozzarella and a soft egg. This is how you should start the day, much better than a meager breakfast sandwich from McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts. I love the gooey yolk that spreads across the pizza, covering the potatoes and bacon. It was absolutely delicious and I don't know why more pizza places don't add a breakfast pizza to their menu.

Ciao has also started selling their house-made pasta in small containers so you can cook it at home. Currently, Spaghetti and Rigatoni are the only available options but I suspect other types will become available in the near future. They cost $4 each and as they are fresh, they strongly suggest you use them with several days of purchasing. Each container also states the appropriate cooking time is 3 minutes. I picked up a container of the Spaghetti to check it out.

Over this past weekend, we made a dish with Chicken and the Spaghetti, in a oil & garlic sauce. We prepared the pasta for 3 minutes and it came out perfectly, with just the right amount of texture and bite to the spaghetti. It is that texture which differentiates it from most dry spaghetti and it worked well with the oil and garlic, so well that we finished the entire container. No leftovers for us. The next time I stop at Ciao, I'll be sure to pick up more pasta and hope they sell the campanelle in the future.

Ciao has some other interesting plans for the near future, though I can't mention certain items yet. I will just say that if the changes come to fruition, they will make Ciao an even better restaurant. I'll continue regularly dining here and highly recommend that you check it out too. Chelsea is very lucky to have such a restaurant.