While growing up in an Italian restaurant business family, and tugging on the apron strings of the best cook in the world, my mother, food was obviously a big part of our livelihood and our social situations. Like the Italians say: ” A tavola non si invecchia. Translation: At the table with good friends and family you do not become old.” So beautifully said.
This horrible injury didn’t just affect the use of my legs, but also my hands. I lost the function in my left hand, and have very limited function in my right hand. There are some days that i feel like i have dog paws rather than hands. You never realize how important fingers and hands are until you don’t have them. Without hands functioning, it is pretty much impossible to do the things in the kitchen that I used to do. I’m not talking about making a roast or cooking a chicken. I’m talking about very complex recipes that require fine motor skills just do the mise en place and the agility in the kitchen to work on 3 things at once. Outside of walking, not being able to create in the kitchen was probably one of my greatest losses.
A while back, I had promised our friend Bob Serpantini that I would give him a lesson on how to make an old family recipe called Pizza Nostra. I made this pizza just about every time I had people over. It was my go-to appetizer, snack or main course. I haven’t met one person who disliked it. It was like crack. People could not get enough of it. I’m not ashamed to say that I would often times have it for breakfast the next day, even after it was left out on the counter all night, unrefrigerated. I wasn’t about to waste this precious treat and wasn’t afraid of a little bacteria. Although the pizza itself was very simple and called for only a handful of ingredients, there were many nuances to the technique, and the specifics to the ingredients could not be deviated upon. Bob said he would do all of the prep and I would give the step-by-step pizza making instructions.
The plan was coming together. Bob got the dough from my brother’s restaurant in Akron and flew it down with him, and I had my very old and seasoned pizza pans (previously used in our family’s restaurant) FedEx to me. These aged and beautifully seasoned pans were probably just as important as dough itself. Ross made sure that I had all of the very specific ingredients on-hand: canned San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes, freshly grated Pecorino Romano, fresh basil, purple onion, dried oregano, garlic powder, and really good olive oil. We scheduled an evening to make the pizzas, and my much anticipated opportunity to get back in the kitchen was finally coming to fruition. Bob and his wife Kathy, their son Ryan (who lives in Miami), and Ryan’s roommate Jeff came over for the Nostra lesson. Our friend Jason who is also our attorney, was staying with us that weekend and doubled as our videographer. There was a lot of wine flowing so the lesson most certainly needed to be documented.
The finished product
We had loads of fun that evening, and I was actually able to forget for a bit that I had these major obstacles to overcome. The next installment to the Italian cooking series will be how to make perfect meatballs and Sunday sauce. This session might require a little less wine and a little more instruction!