The very first time that Rebekah and I went to lunch together we were just “friends”. That first meal was at a sidewalk restaurant on Sunset Blvd called Le Petite Four, and it was amazing. We both worked at the same TV/film production company in LA and this lunch was “totally professional”. The only problem was that I was insanely in love with her.
Porcini Powder
Chicken Cutlets Smothered in Mushroom Cream Gravy
When you have boneless skinless chicken thighs the most luscious umami dish you can imagine is just a simple one pan recipe, taking only 25 minutes. An umami feast and so easy!
Jumbo Pasta Shells Stuffed with Sausage, Spinach and Melty Cheeses
This dish is so much fun, and kid approved in our home. These jumbo pasta shells are stuffed with tasty Italian sausage and three of our favorite Italian cheeses… ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella.
Baby Potatoes Wrapped in Prosciutto with Creamy Cheeses
This insanely umami side dish is simple yet sumptuous, and it’s perfect for snacking, parties, family dinner or as a side dish for special family gatherings. And it’s so quick and easy… just gather up a bunch of baby Yukon Gold potatoes, smash them with a kitchen mallet so that they are slightly broken and a little bit flattened, to better soak up all the luscious creamy cheesy umami sauce, and then wrap each one in strips of Prosciutto.
Roasted Chicken Thighs with Orange Slices
This is a dish we love to make for its gorgeous look and amazing flavors. We use olive oil, Porcini mushrooms or cremini mushrooms, Giant Beans from Greece for their incredibly dense creamy flavors, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, Cara Cara oranges for their unique flavor, Spanish chorizo with its smoky paprika flavor, and we sometimes use Cajun Andouille sausage for it’s immense smokiness and depth of Cajun flavors.
Sloppy Joe’s
This bad boy is not your momma’s Sloppy Joe’s… no ketchup, yellow mustard or chili powder. This version is super umami, with wonderful complex flavors and by far the best one we’ve ever tasted.
Homemade Pizza!
Every once in a while we like to look back at some of our favorite savory homemade pizzas and share them. We love homemade pizza, it brings the family together like no other meal!
Shrimp Puttanesca
Of all the regions of Italy, the further South you go, the more things heat up. Our hearts are always with Tuscany, but other regions of our bodies and souls are more South, finally arriving at the epicenter of a dizzy feeling of ardor… Sicily. This dish, Shrimp Puttanesca, is ground zero in sexiness.
Roman Chicken with Roasted Peppers
Of the 14 regions in the city of Rome, my favorite area to wander around with Rebekah is Trastevere, arm in arm, taking our time… strolling within its maze of narrow winding cobblestone streets. We like to get lost there. First we go to the Coliseum, stare in awe, and then we head for Trastevere to eat.
Potatoes Au Gratin
This extravagant and decadent umami bomb feast is simple and quick to prepare but fantastically savory… for us, this is the ultimate comfort food. We have combined the cheesiness of Au Gratin with the creaminess of Scalloped Potatoes, along with smoked meats, wild mushrooms, and herbs of Provence like tarragon, thyme and rosemary.
Chicken Cacciatore
This is a taste of rustic Italy, where we first learned the meaning of the word “abbondanza”. This is the Italy of our deepest memories, authentic and imposing, like the looming Medieval fortified hill towns of Tuscany.
Clay Baked Chicken or Duck
For years we have returned again and again to this simple savory feast… it’s like an old trusted friend. We just tossed this chubby duck inside the clay pot along with tons of veggies, stuck it a cold oven, set it to 475 degrees and got back to the family fun. An hour later, time to feast. It’s that simple.
Pasta e Fagioli with Sausage and Kale
Pasta e Fagioli translates as Pasta and Beans but this dish is so much more than that. It’s a feast! This classic Italian dish is perfect when there is a bite to the air, and the dry leaves are blowing past the door. Build a fire in the fireplace and sit down to this classic rustic comfort food at the weathered kitchen table. This is an authentic Italian umami bomb, so rich and savory, often served with rosemary and garlic focaccia, or toasted Kalamata olive bread with cheese, and a rich red wine to stand up to it all.
Chicken Roulade (Roll) in Mushroom & Thyme Cream Sauce with Dijon Mustard
This is the Chicken Roulade of our dreams, the one we first experienced in Florence and the hill towns of Tuscany… the extravagant chicken roll that incorporates every savory ingredient we ever wanted to include.
Italian Meat Loaf (Polpettone)
We first saw this gorgeous meatloaf (named Polpettone) in Tuscany, when we came across one of those big glass storefronts you find on the main streets in Florence, and the hill towns, with endless mind boggling dishes of food stretching from the doorway all the way across the wall, behind glass cases, with the whole store a dizzying aroma of umami goodness. When I tasted the amazingly complex flavors of this meatloaf, I instantly realized this was not my mom’s meatloaf.
Chicken Thighs in Mushroom & Thyme Cream Sauce with Dijon Mustard
This feast is your ticket to Umami City. This is a fusion feast, as if it were cooked by two lovers, a lady chef from the South of France, bringing her thyme, cream, bacon, duck fat, Dijon mustard, butter and Chardonnay… and her chef lover from Tuscany, with his Porcini powder, Marsala, olive oil and garlic. It’s a magical dish for all lovers.
Turkey Thighs with Thyme Butter
Thanksgivings in our wild savory kitchen have been a memorable feast for many years, always featuring our Tandoori turkey. Sometimes twelve folks, sometimes eighteen or more, we always had two Harvest Tables that were eight feet long each. Side by side, we feasted with family and friends every year. And many times we had single guests with no families nearby, and sometimes new friends in need… it was all a joy, and we always have an attitude of gratitude.
Shepherd’s Pie with Mushroom Cream Gravy
We first tasted this classic New England meal, appropriately enough, in the food hall of Harrod’s in London, many years ago. It was a revelation. This feast has a timeless wildness to it, that speaks of a life lived outdoors and long ago, and of the fireplace and hearth, the warmth of home in a rugged country. This is a meal created by rural working folks and those who hunted and labored in the outdoors and in the garden.
Pulled Pork Sliders
Anyone who enters the fray about which region in America has the best Pulled Pork is in dangerous territory. Passions run high about BBQ and smoked meats, and from region to region, there is fierce competition. That being said, we’ll dive in anyway! We’ve always liked salty sour tangy flavors more than sweet, so we’re naturally drawn to the vinegar based marinades and rubs of Eastern North Carolina versus the sweeter stickier tomato based BBQ sauces of Kansas City or Texas.
Wild Rice with Roasted Duck and Smoked Sausage
This feast comes from the heart of the North Country pines… northern Minnesota, the place where I did my real growing up, from boy to man, hunting and fishing in the wilds. This iconic feast, legendary among the native peoples who live there, is the essence of wildness. When you prepare the ingredients, and then feast on it, you can almost hear the cry of the loons out on the lake, in the dusk… and again at first light, as you ease your boat into the lily pads, casting for large mouth bass and northern pike. It is so deep in my heart that every scrap of my DNA cries out to be there again, one day.