Osteria: Hearty Italian Fare from Rick Tramonto's Kitchen - Hardcover

Tramonto, Rick; Goodbody, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0767927710 ISBN 13: 9780767927710

Publisher: Clarkson Potter, 2008

Synopsis

Award-winning chef Rick Tramonto shows home cooks how to recreate the simple, flavorful Italian dishes he serves at his wildly popular Osteria di Tramonto.

Osteria means “tavern” in Italian. It is always a casual place, usually family-owned, where simple country cooking is served to accompany the local wine. In 2006, acclaimed chef Rick Tramonto opened Osteria di Tramonto on Chicago’s north shore. In this spectacular restaurant, he serves the kind of earthy, hearty fare so beloved by Italians—and Americans.

Now, Rick has written a cookbook showcasing the food from his osteria, with recipes ideally suited for the home cook. Osterias tend to be open all day, so Rick’s book features recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as for little snacks in between.

Breakfast and brunch recipes include omelets, frittatas, pancakes, crepes, and smoothies. Lunch includes salads, soups, pizzas, and simple pasta and meat dishes. Dinner offers everything from bruschetta and antipasto to fish, meat, and braised dishes, pasta, and desserts. There are small plates, too, and numerous antipasti, panini, and crostini.

Blood Orange Crepes with Vanilla Mascarpone, Roman-Style Omelets, Rick’s Mother’s Lasagna, Capellini with Six Summer Tomatoes, Wood-Roasted Mussels in White Wine Sauce, Braised Pork Shanks with Borlotti Beans, Lamb Porterhouse with Salsa Verde, Goat Cheese Scalloped Potatoes, and Italian Chocolate Pudding are just some of the more than 150 intensely flavorful dishes. This is an irresistible collection no true lover of good eating will want to pass up.

About this title

About the Author

RICK TRAMONTO has been cooking since he was a teenager growing up in Rochester, New York, as part of a large Italian family. He worked at some of the finest restaurants in the United States and Europe before settling in Chicago, where he is chef and partner of five restaurants. He was the founding chef of Trio in Evanston, Illinois, and then in 1999 opened the award-winning Tru restaurant, a Relais & Châteaux property in Chicago, which has received four stars from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Magazine. Rick has been featured in USA Today, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, and Conde Nast Traveler. He has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, and on PBS. Rick was named Best Chef in the Midwest by the James Beard Foundation for 2002. Tru was awarded the James Beard Best Service in America award in 2007 and was named in the Top 50 Best Restaurants in the World in 2000 by Conde Nast Traveler.

MARY GOODBODY is a nationally known food writer and editor. Her credits include Tru, Amuse-Bouche, Fantastico and Taste: Pure and Simple. She has contributed significantly to books such as Back to the Table, The Naked Chef, How to Be A Domestic Goddess, and The Morton’s Steak Bible, among others. She lives outside New York City.

Reviews

Tramonto, a partner in five Chicago restaurants, and author of Fantastico!, Amuse Bouche and Tru, returns to the food of his childhood in this homage to the osterias so common in Italy. Osterias, or taverns, offer simple and straightforward dishes designed to accompany the wine. Tramonto and coauthor Goodbody stay true to this tradition, including wine recommendations for most recipes. In addition to the usual categories, the authors include sections on breakfast, sandwiches, pizza, cheese, and side dishes. Recipes are hearty and by no means simplistic. Panettone French Toast and Sicilian Tuna Sandwiches whet the appetite, while Asparagus with Fried Egg Salad and Pecorino, and Roast Chicken Piccata-Style offer new twists to everyday ingredients. Sidebars on salmon, aged balsamic vinegar and how to cook pasta highlight ingredients and techniques to aid in the kitchen and help the cook make better purchasing decisions. A handsome and lavishly photographed collection, this will appeal to Tramonto fans and earn him an even larger following. (Oct.)
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Tramonto has established his credentials as a celebrity chef, and his innovative, high-end cuisine has earned national kudos. Now he has turned his attention away from haute cuisine to the simple, homey delights of an Italian trattoria. Americans’ tastes in Italian food have grown much more sophisticated and demanding, and Tramonto addresses just such an audience. His version of fried calamari features extracrunchy cornmeal and semolina coating. Vegetarians will revel in the many vegetable dishes including asparagus, red beets, squash, and zucchini. Plenty of mascarpone enriches creamed chard. Tramonto clearly favors long-braised meats, from veal cheeks to both lamb and pork shanks, all fragrant with herbs. Although Italians favor simple breakfasts, Tramonto concocts some complex egg dishes that could star at any brunch. Tramonto appreciates the savor of real Parmigiano-Reggiano, but instead of grating it over his creations, he prefers shards of it shaved onto the top. --Mark Knoblauch

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarkson Potter
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0767927710
• ISBN 13: 9780767927710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288