Dough so good it’s sublime

Oh dough: Corzetti stampati with a pesto of walnut and genovese basil with green summer beans for $14 is one of many quality dishes available at flour + water, where the dough expresses much more than its basic ingredients. (Bret Putnam/Special to the Examiner)

Provocatively chewy and elastic with crunchy fire-licked edges, the pizza crust at flour + water tastes so exciting you can’t believe it’s made of, well, flour and water. How does dough become so expressive? Yes, it’s baked in a wood-fired oven, the blaze visible from the dining room, but the magic of this crust goes beyond the cooking method. Some alchemy has taken place between yeast and time, kneading and resting.

The toppings, applied with restraint, pay homage to the crust. A miraculously still-runny farm egg acts like a second sauce on top of pizza uovo ($15), strewn with crisp bits of pancetta that season each bite. Pizza biancoverde ($16) is light and engaging, a summery melange of mozzarella, fresh ricotta, tender squashes and a handful of arugula. You can taste every delicate ingredient.

No one should be surprised by the quality of this pizza. The pizza chef, John Darsky, worked at Pizzaiolo in Oakland and Delfina Pizzeria in The City. Executive chef Thomas McNaughton is an alum of Quince and La Folie. Each night they create a small menu of simple but perfect dishes made with fine ingredients for moderate prices.

Tortelli filled with ricotta ($16) is scattered with sweet peas, lubricated with butter, scented with mint and Meyer lemon, and dusted with breadcrumb-size pork cracklings, the latter just surprising enough to make this dish feel new. Free-form fresh pasta called maltagliati ($15), roughly cut into triangles, is coated in a gravelly, bolognese-style meat sauce of chicken giblets and livers melded with brown butter and brightened with favas and nepitella, a minty Tuscan herb.
 
The antipasti celebrate vibrant seasonal produce. Shaved raw summer squashes and ribbons of duck prosciutto and parmesan become a salad with red basil leaves and arugula ($10). A pastiche of lemon cucumbers, marinated summer beans of all sizes and colors, two juicy pink langoustines with head and tentacles, and a lush roasted red pepper relish looks like a still life.

Meltingly tender braised pork cheek ($19), one of three main courses, was lavished one night with peas, asparagus and pea sprouts.

The desserts can be a little too constructed for me, unlike the rest of the food. But I loved the cherry-ricotta tart ($8), whole pitted cherries bound in sweetened ricotta piled into a hard, buttery crust. Take care or you could end up ordering an all-ricotta meal.

The trade-off for this dreamy, affordable food is a noisy, not terribly comfortable dining room with purposely minimal service and tacit pressure to eat and leave because so many are hungrily eyeing your spot.

The restaurant is a small, warehouse-like conversion of an older building with concrete floors. Wooden structural beams stretch across a concrete ceiling affixed with ineffectual soundproof panels. The look is pure SoMa — clean, modern and natural, with lots of gray-green shades of paint and wood. Dishcloth napkins underscore the utilitarian ethos.

Many diners share dishes, but the waitstaff doesn’t bring serving spoons. No bread is available — save those pizza crusts. Pre-opened wine bottles are set on the table without tasting pours, fair enough when the bartender takes a tiny taste of each bottle before she sends it out.

These are quibbles, because given the choice, I’d rather eat at flour + water than almost anywhere else these days. It’s that good.

Patricia Unterman is author of the second edition of the “San Francisco Food Lovers’ Pocket Guide.” Contact her at pattiu@concentric.net.

flour + water

Location: 2401 Harrison St. (at 20th Street), San Francisco
Contact: (415) 826-7000, www.flourandwater.com
Hours: 5:30 p.m. to midnight daily
Price range: Antipasti $8-$12, pizza $12-$16, pasta $14-16, main courses $19-$20
Recommended dishes: Little gem salad with avocado; cucumber and bean salad with shrimp; pizza with egg and pancetta; pasta with braised giblet sauce
Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express
Reservations: Accepted