Recipes By Pierino
9 recipes found
French Toast for Total Flakes
I love breakfast. I love pancakes and I love good French toast. This is a technique I discovered having my morning meal at one of my favorite breakfast hangouts. I didn’t ask the chef for her recipe I just started fooling around with it myself. This is what I came up with. I used stone ground wheat bread dipped in milk and egg and dredged in crushed frosted flakes. You can use another flakey cereal if you prefer. Simple and delicious.
Bunga Bunga
Still another concoction in our tribute series to the antics of Italy’s adorable former head of state, Silvio Berlusconi who has done everything but erect a stripper pole in Palazzo Chigi where Italy’s lower house meets. When he was entertaining his huge entourage his meals always included meals in the colors of the “tricolore”, Italy’s flag; green, white, and red. Here comes the red part. E basta cosi.
Dirt Water Dog
Wha'choo lookin' at? Ah, the things we do for food52. The Dirt Water Dog is the epitome of New York City street food. It's been sitting there simmering in its bath of grayish water for days maybe on someone's cart on 6th Avenue. This is not your Papaya dog, which has a satisfying snap to it. And unlike the Chicago hot dog it's permissable (even desirable) to lay on the ketchup and bright yellow mustard. The only food that might be as typical of eating on the street in New York is pizza by the slice with its odd orange color, not to mention plenty of oregano and red pepper flake. But then you get into your falafels... Everything perfumed by the aroma of taxi and bus exhaust. Of course, we could venture in the direction of the Coney Island dog, which is unspeakable except as an object of horror.
Trumpafella Skank (The Donald on the half shell)
You are cheap, poor and lazy. And you can afford one oyster just to live like the Donald for about 5 seconds. One taste is all you get. Now back to your double wide. I wrote up this recipe four years ago but it seems more relevant than ever.
Roman Holiday Granita
In Italy they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. But they have plenty of holidays and saints days of their own. In Rome they’ve seen plenty of pilgrims, fortunately not the ones we got stuck with. As a card carrying member of the Calvin Trillin Spaghetti Carbonara for Thanksgiving Club, I chose granita as dessert. The first time I tasted this was in Tazza D’Oro in Rome. As you approach Piazza Rotunda from the east the most heavenly coffee smells surround you. Your nose will lead you to Tazza D’Oro, so you don’t need directions. At TDO you will be served this refreshing coffee based confection in clear plastic cups, but if you want to tart it up for the holiday serve it in glass mugs. Now, back to the via Veneto… - pierino
Laptop Fennel and Radish Salad
First of all I will say up front that I haven't prepared this yet, but I have a cooking job scheduled next week and I'm working from my laptop in a hotel room. I work like this frequently. I'm preparing a porchetta which I can make in my sleep but I must have a salad to satisfy the vegan sect (I've heard they are going to be burning copies of "Nose to Tail" this weekend). But I think fennel and radish will complement the porchetta straight off the food truck. Here's what I'm thinking:
Lobster in Distress with Lemon and Thyme
A few months back I was having a late lunch at Bar Pinxto in Santa Monica. Tiny place with an open kitchen, I was able to watch the chef do his dinner prep, and basically crucifying lobsters by trussing them to long wooden spoons. Vegans should now avert their eyes. The reason for doing this is that as they're cooked the tails are held straight. But as a humane cook I prefer to give Monsieur Homard a quick and fast demise. So, I turn him on his back and with a wicked, sharp knife make a fast cut between the eyes, all the way back.
Fragole Modenese al' Pavarotti
First of all, Pierino loves strawberries. In high school we had a summer job picking them. But now I have to add that the supermarket variety is just about the most toxic fruit you can buy. Forget about "certified organic" lables, which is a term designed to benefit big agribusiness. Why toxic? Typically large farms use systemic poisons in the soil, which of course get into your berries. If you can, then buy berries at a farmers market from a small outfit where they may just raise other plants between the rows which attract beneficial insects. But ask. Now for the rant on balsamics. Most are crap. The most misused condiment of the nineties unless you count sundried tomatoes. An aged Spanish sherry vinegar is usually way better. For this very simple dessert use an authentic aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena. That might set you back more than $100 but it might just have taken 75 to 100 years in the aging process.
Frogsicle Pops with Basil and Meyer Lemon
Pierino realizes that whatever credibility he has is now probably in tatters. But this is based on a dish I tasted at Stokes Restaurant in Monterey last year. The key technique is "frenching" frog legs. French kissing the frog will not make him turn into a prince. Don't ask me how I know that. Frenching the legs however will cause the meat to ball up at the end of the amphibious tibia like a lollipop.