Chapter One

Introduction
I wrote this book from my heart. Nothing inspires yet comforts me as much as the homey family-style Italian cooking presented on these pages. It is the food I grew up with and
it is the food cooked at osterias both here and in Italy. It truly is the food of my childhood, the refuge of my adult life, and the key to my heritage.

I revel in the honest, robust flavors, the straightforward cooking techniques, and the emphasis on seasonal, fresh food all celebrated by this style of Italian cooking. This is how I like to cook at home for my family, and it's how I learned to cook from my Italian-American parents and immigrant grandparents. But because I am a professional chef, I did not think about compiling a book of osteria-style recipes until now. Perhaps I thought them too uncomplicated or unrefined, or perhaps I simply had to reach this point in my culinary odyssey. The time is right for me to turn my attention to more casual cooking, and it's right for this book.

Believe me, learning how to cook these dishes is a delicious and stimulating journey well worth taking! I hope you will join me.

A little about me
Currently I devote my energy to owning and managing a group of restaurants in Chicagoland, which is what we midwesterners call the greater Chicago metropolitan area. One of the restaurants is Tru and the other is an osteria. When I am not running from one of my professional kitchens to another, I like nothing more than to spend time in my home kitchen, cooking alongside my wife for our family.

I am best known as the executive chef and partner of the award-winning restaurant Tru, one of Chicago's high-end restaurants located a block f