Bottega Favorita for Susie!

I justify cookbooks like other women justify shoes.  Do I really need it?  Do I have one similar that maybe is a little outdated, stained, lose binding?  When will I use it?  Is it worth it if I only cook one or two things out of it?  Of course it is very easy to say yes, yes, yes.  A cookbook to me is like a novel.  I read it, I go back to it, I flag pages, plan recipes, admire the photos.  So last Thursday I went to Williams Sonoma and met Frank Stitts.  His new cookbook is Bottega Favorita and I probably would have bought it even if I couldn't have it signed.  

He made the Capellini Gratin to taste, it was very yummy, and scented the store like an Italian trattoria!  He is a genuine man, very kind to the staff and the customers, and really makes some of those celebrity chefs look like oafs.  I was chatting with the staff before the signing and we were talking about my blog, so he signed my book appropriately enough, "To Susie, Here's to Cooking and Blogging.  Frank Stitts"  I  gave him my card, so perhaps he'll drop by the blog sometime!

I had browsed the book before, but I approach a cookbook like a novel.  Start at the beginning. I am one of those people who reads the forward and the acknowledgments. Go to the movies with me and you WILL watch the credits to the bitter end!  So I started at the beginning of Bottega. The forward is pretty long for a cookbook, but I dove in without looking at the author. By the time I finished, it is four pages, I wanted to go to Bottega and The Highlands and I wrote down the author, Warren St. John to read one of his books.  This is a forward that really comes from the heart.  This is a patron, a foodie, a fan and he also has the gift of prose.  I am anxious to find one of his books.  So, not even past the forward yet, I have to say that Frank's wife Pardis has the most beautiful coat on in the photo in the forward.  I am not a clothes hound, so if it catches my eye, it's got to be darling!

The rest of the book, is a cookbook.  Lots of photos, original recipes. One chapter is called Cin Cin! and Cheers! (say chin chin, Chantal taught me that when I was 5!)  and is full of cocktail recipes, including homemade limoncello.  They look refreshing and sadly for those who know me, they look like hives on ice.  I have an alcohol allergy that seems to appear in the presence of citrus.  But alas, I will try Harry's Bellini on a spring day to celebrate something great!  Just one.  

There are dozens of recipes  I found inspiring.  I never use bottled salad dressing,  I sort of wing it in the blender every night.  I like looking to see other formulas, and use them as a guidepost.  I realize most people read a recipe, follow it to the T, and consider it finished.  I read a recipe, alter it to fit my taste and ingredients, make it from there and then consider how I will do it next time! I think chefs and cookbook authors understand to some they are the authority and people expect the recipe to be perfect as is, to others (like me) they are making suggestions and planting ideas to foster creativity of the home cook.

My first Bottega recipe I tried was Bucatini with Clams, Pancetta, Hot Chili and Rapini.  My finished dish looked nothing like this recipe, but it was certainly the inspiration.  I love Bucatini.  It brings me back to this restaurant in Rome.  We toured the Vatican and Palatine Hill all day in a downpour.  All 26 of my family members came into this restaurant and they led us to the banquet room.  We had great food.  Christina had the biggest Calzone, I had this spicy bucatini, my mom had marinara sauce that was divine.  I looked all over Memphis for Bucatini, to no avail.  When I found it at the Italian market in Florida, I bought 5 packages.  I can't make it without spice, it just wouldn't be right.  So the Bucatini in this recipe did not change.  I opted for shrimp instead of clams for Christina.  My grocer doesn't carry rapini, so I went for Swiss Chard which I love.  There is no substitute for pancetta, it is one of my favorites, so I kept that.  

The recipe also called for 2 dried chiles.  That was a little vague for me.  I have bags of dried chiles from New Mexico, but I was unsure if it would give me the heat I needed.  I brought home a large quantity of dried seasoning from Italy.  Crushed red pepper, dehydrated garlic, carrots, onions.  It is very colorful.  I was a little afraid the peppers had lost their zip since it is a little old, but thankfully no.  There was just enough heat in a tablespoon of this.  It turned out to be the perfect meal for the flu.  Garlic, olive oil, hot peppers, lemon...this is the Italian cure for sickness.  Chicken soup? How boring! 

Bottega Spicy Bucatini Susie's Way

Olive oil

4 cloves of garlic

2 fat slices pancetta, chopped 

Heat...dried crushed red pepper (1 teaspoon) or dried Arrabbiata seasoning (1 Tbsp)

1 bunch of Swiss Chard, chopped, with a little of the stem

Shrimp, about 1/2-3/4 pound

3/4 cup white wine

1 pound Bucatini

2 T butter (I misread this and 2 T made a wonderful sauce!)

Juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

fresh Italian parsley

Heat the olive oil and brown the garlic cloves.  Add pancetta and chiles,and cook until the pancetta begins to get a little brown.  Add the chard and cover to wilt.  Remove the cover and add wine and shrimp.  

Meanwhile cook Bucatini in salted boiling water until al dente.  Do not discard all the pasta water.

When the shrimp is cooked through, remove from heat.  Add the Bucatini, butter, lemon juice and toss.  Add salt and pepper and parsley to taste.  Add a Tablespoon or two of the pasta water to any leftovers to keep them juicy for tomorrow!

A few notes.  Bucatini is hollow spaghetti, you need a sturdy pasta for this dish. The dried seasoning, chiles or whatever, soften when added early and the flavor is much better than adding dried red pepper at the end like you would on a pizza.  Bake it on the pizza sometime, big difference!  Finally, pasta water.  This is good stuff.  It's a little starchy and salty, but adds depth to a dish that needs liquid.  I always save a few tablespoons to add before I store the pasta dish as leftovers.  

So, a wonderful way to jump into a cookbook.  I feel better, and the dish was spicy and flavorful.  Sorry Pasquale that you weren't here, it was right up your alley!  I can hardly wait to hit the dessert chapter.....Zabaglione Meringue Cake, this one will be made exactly to Frank's specifications, I'm adventurous but not dumb!   Buon Appetito!

Buy the book at Amazon.com

May I Have Your Autograph?

I've collected autographs from a young age. It started with an autograph book that everyone at grade school would sign (we didn't have yearbooks until high school). As I got older I would grab an autograph on whatever I had. Harry Caray on a napkin when I met him in a bar (where else?), Little Oscar (the Oscar Meyer "little person")on a Walt Disney World menu circa 1974,programs from PGA tournaments, NCAA tournaments and all sorts of sporting events. After I got married, my husband became sort of obsessed with signed objects. Pete Rose will never be in the Hall of Fame, does that make a signed ball more or less valuable? Baseball bats, home plate, golf balls, baseballs, footballs, helmets, jerseys. But seriously, who falls faster off the popularity scale than an athlete. One arrest, one bad season, one life changing injury. It all becomes nothing more than clutter.
I, on the other hand like culinary autographs. I'll never get Julia or James, and wouldn't pay out the wazoo for one for fear it would be a fake. I would have loved Richard Sax as I have almost all of his books. Jacques Pepin, Tom Colicchio, and Anthony Bourdain are on my current chef wish list to add to my small but nice collection.
My dad was a grocer and over the years we were very lucky with the people we met and places we would go.
In 1985 when I was planning my wedding, no one in Iowa knew who Martha Stewart was. I was introduced to her work by my florist who raved about her first book, Entertaining. I found it at the library and read it cover to cover. I rechecked that book out as I planned our wedding, and my cake can be found on page 269. Just after the wedding, my parents were at an event at a California winery, and Martha was a speaker. My mom bought a book and had it signed for me. Somewhere in the course of that day, somebody took it. (If you have that book inscribed to Susie, it could be mine!) When word got back to the hosts, they sent my mom another book and a hand written card from Martha to me, it says "For Susie, Be entertaining always! Martha Stewart". I taped it to the front of my book, and a collection was born.
The next book was also from an event my parents attended, this one hosted by Dinah Shore. Now very few people younger than me know who she is, but I was a big fan of the afternoon talk shows in the summer. I would sit on our huge screened in porch and watch Merv Griffin and Phil Donahue. Back then it was entertainment, not reality TV, and Dinah was a frequent guest of Merv's. She signed her book, American Kitchen, "To Susie, Have Fun Cooking! Dinah Shore". She was really part of old Hollywood and her recipes are dotted with little stories from her life. She was 70 when the book was published.
In the winter of 1994, Christina was a baby, Nic just a toddler, and we would spend a few weeks in the winter in Florida. One weekend I spotted a Shipwreck Party at a restaurant in Pass-a-Grille called the Hurricane. I dragged both kids and my parents, and met the cast of Gilligan's Island. I have seen every episode at least 3 times as it was a year round staple, every day 3:30. We used to play Gilligan's Island in the woods behind our house, what fun to be shipwrecked! They were there selling Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook. Bob Denver (Gilligan), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) and Russell Johnson (the professor) were there to sign. I bought one for my childhood best friend Barb Lingle, because she was most likely the one I watched every episode with and my high school best friend, Mary Beth, because it really was a part of all of our childhoods. This book isn't a culinary classic, but it is full of trivia, pictures, episode guide and, count 'em, 13 recipes for coconut cream pie!
One of my next books came from a real culinary icon. Chuck Williams. Many people know little about the man that founded my place of employment. He had a hardware store in Sonoma, CA and after a trip to France, he was enlightened much like Julia Child. He began to sell French copper cookware in his hardware store. As his product lines grew, so did his store, and the rest is retail history. I met Mr. Williams at the Williams Sonoma in Las Vegas in 1999. I was out there for my dad's 60th birthday, and popped my head in the store looking for someone I knew that had transferred to that store. I had only been working for the company a few years, and he couldn't have been nicer to me. There was no customers in the store, and I'm not exactly sure why he was there. I bought a book called Williams Sonoma Savoring Italy, and he signed it "For Susie, with inspiration to cook! Chuck Williams". He is a testament to living right. He is now into his 90's and has spent his life eating great food and drinking good wine. It has been my pleasure to work for him for the last 11+ years, I look forward to many more!

The last 3 are what you might consider television personalities. Ina, Giada and Wolfgang. Ina and Giada are being handled by corporations and networks. Their signings (in my experience) have rules. No personalization, no photos (although that rule was bent for the hundreds of people who complained), and because of their enormous popularity, you wait hours for a hello, sign and go. But hey, Back to Basics by Ina Garten and Giada's Kitchen by Giada de Laurentis are great cookbooks, and the autograph is just an added bonus!
Wolfgang Puck was one of the earlier celebrity television chefs. I would read about him in the cooking magazines and see clips of him on TV. When I would go to Los Angeles to visit my sister she would humor me and take me to the Wolfie restaurants: Chinois on Main, Spago, Granita and Postrio. I never saw the master at work however, but of course Scott, who runs smack into celebrities all the time (honest) was at Postrio and meets him. He introduces himself, chats up Wolfie and gets me a book. Adventures in the Kitchen, signed "to Susie, good luck, Wolfgang Puck".
To be honest, I did travel across the country for Ina and Giada, but I don't really hunt these things out.I simply take advantage of signings when they come.
Williams Sonoma in Saddle Creek is hosting a book signing by a Birmingham author and restaurateur, Frank Stitt. I am most impressed that he was on the PBS series, Great Chefs, I loved the program and its easy flow. He is most noted recently, however for Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham where he is famous for his French cuisine and he recently opened Bottega which focuses more on the Italian cuisines. He was just announced as a finalist for the 2009 James Beard Awards and has been featured in Southern Living. He will be signing his book Bottega Favorita, A Southern Chef's Love for Italian Food, Thursday Feb. 26, between 1-3pm. The book must be purchased at Williams Sonoma for the signing. Of course I will attend and blog!
So another autograph to add to the collection. Keeping my eye out for other signings, and feeling a little hankering for coconut cream pie....Mary Ann's? Ginger's? Maybe Mrs. Thurston Howell III's version, hell, she probably ordered it from the bakery! Until the next...