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that made clear his appreciation for local, seasonal food. It
was about a visit to Italy when he was 18, and a simple but perfect meal he was
served consisting of farm fresh, just picked white asparagus and hard-boiled
eggs drizzled with olive oil. It was then that he came to realize how good fresh
food that’s particular to its place is. I haven’t had a chance to return to
Phoenix since Pane Bianco and Tratto opened. But, now I can create his style of
cooking at home since receiving a review copy of Bianco: Pizza, Pasta, and Other Food I Like
. Throughout the book,
he mentions the ingredients he uses, what’s special about them, and how using
the fresh, local, heirloom foods makes his dishes the best they can be. And, he
offers great advice like tasting your water to determine if it’s salty or sweet
or what it’s flavor really is. For pizza dough, he recommends using freshly
milled flour from locally-grown grain. He explains the value of using tepary and
emergo beans, Churro lamb, and I’itoi onions, all grown in Arizona, to bring
together the history of his current home and that of his family’s culture and food.
The book includes recipes for pizza and focaccia, salads, sandwiches, pasta and
grains, small plates, big plates, and sweets. There’s a no-nonsense kind of
approach to making sure every dish tastes fantastic. For instance, the
sandwiches are built with a balance of texture, acidity, and fat in mind, and
you can create new combinations based on that balance. I can’t wait to try the
Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Sandwich and the Frittata Sandwich with arugula.
As soon the lemons on my backyard tree are ready to pick, as Bianco suggests in
the recipe head note, I’ll make the Tagliatelle with Lemon and Polpette de
Ceci. And, the classic Lasagna al Forno with besciamella will undoubtedly be a
crowd-pleaser. Right away, I wanted to make the focaccia, and I had some
just-milled, locally-grown whole wheat flour to use. I also had some red bell
peppers from my CSA and decided to roast and marinate them like the Grilled Red
Peppers in the book. The Mushrooms and Beer recipe had also got my attention,
and I thought sliced portobellos with red pepper strips would be great on a
focaccia sandwich.
For the focaccia, the dough is the same as that for the pizza.
It’s made with a small amount of yeast and proofs for three hours. To make it
into focaccia, the dough is then spread on a baking sheet and drizzled with olive
oil. As it rests for an hour and a half, the dough expands and spreads to fill
the sheet pan. Before baking, the dough was dimpled, my favorite part, and
sprinkled with chopped rosemary and flaky sea salt. Since I wasn’t using the
grill that day, I roasted my bell peppers on top of the stove over direct
flame. After cooling, the charred skin was removed, and the peppers were cut
into strips. Garlic, basil leaves, olive oil, and salt and pepper were added to
the pepper strips in a bowl, and the mixture was left to marinate. As if the
baking focaccia and marinating peppers didn’t smell fabulous enough already,
the aroma of the roasting mushrooms in beer made the kitchen smell even more
delicious. And, I learned something here. In the past, I’ve never bothered to
remove the gills from portobello mushrooms, but since it was suggested here, I
did so. It convinced me it’s worth the effort because the end result is a
better texture. The cleaned mushrooms were drizzled and coated with olive oil,
seasoned with salt and pepper, sprinkled with sliced garlic and rosemary sprigs,
and then covered with beer before roasting. When the pan was removed from the
oven, the mushrooms were taken from the pan and set aside while the pan was
deglazed with a bit of remaining beer. I sliced the mushrooms and placed them
in a bowl and covered them with the pan juices.
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by Emiko Davies. Of course the subject matter made me happy but so did the pretty color marbling with bright orange on the book cover and the full-page photos inside of both life and food in Florence. The recipes are grouped by where you would find these types of food in the city. The Pastry Shop, The Bakery, and The Trattoria are some of the chapter names. Right away, I wanted to bake Sfogliatine or Budini di Riso or Bomboloncini to go with a morning cappuccino. There are stories along the way about how different foods became traditional like the Pane Toscano, the bread made without salt because it was too expensive. I enjoyed reading about Pappa al Pomodoro and how it originally would have been a porridge-like soup made with bread and no tomatoes prior to tomatoes being introduced from the New World. Naturally, there are pasta dishes, and one I want to try this fall is a pear, pecorino, and ricotta-filled ravioli. There are also several versions of crostini toppings and panini fillings as well as chicken and meat dishes, and every dish is simply prepared with proven, time-honored flavor combinations. The Schiacciata all’Uva is a grape focaccia made with wine grapes harvested in September and October. This slightly sweet rendition of the chewy flatbread appears just briefly in bakeries in the fall, and it’s typically made with concord grapes or more traditionally with canaiolo grapes. Sadly, I didn’t have access to either of those varieties and used black grapes instead. Usually, seeds are left in the grapes and give the bread some crunch, but the grapes I bought were seedless. It is noted that standard, red grapes aren’t deeply-flavored enough to be a good substitution here. You want a dark grape that will stain the dough. 
, and I received a review copy. The recipes include the focaccia and naan they use for sandwiches as well as all the condiments, pickles, and other items they prepare. A few of the sandwiches that jumped out at me were the Curried Rabbit which is a play on Welsh rarebit with cheddar, curried mayonnaise, apple salad, and currant pickle; the Spanish Armada with potato tortilla and pimenton aioli; and the Henry Hudson with fried green tomatoes, bacon, mayonnaise, and fresh basil. Then, from the Soups section, there’s a Cauliflower, Leek, and Gruyere Soup and a Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup I want to try. There are also salads with greens, grains, and bread in some cases. Every dish offers a fresh, savory mix of things you know will taste great together. For instance, I already had a thing for the combination of beets and hard-boiled eggs. So, the Scuttlebutt sandwich had to be my first stop in the book. It’s built on freshly-baked focaccia and layered with pimenton aioli, feta, and black olives. I couldn’t wait to taste it. 
