We toss the sauce with the swordfish and pour over al dente pennette pasta (“Always undercook pasta because it has more fiber and fewer calories”).
She approaches my pan, sticks her finger into the lavalike sauce and puts it in her mouth (“Taste everything, honey”). I tear leaves off a bunch of mint and toss them into the mix (“In Sicily they use mint with fish”) and a liberal dose of white wine (“There is no cooking without wine”), followed by a ladleful of Rosa”s marinara. (“Never six,” she says, “because of him,” pointing toward the floor. I remove the fish and add quartered grape tomatoes from the farmers market and exactly seven cloves of chopped garlic. I season the swordfish and sear the chunks in olive oil. As they eat, Rosa watches, almost urging them on, and it makes her proud and wistful - every time. For Rosa, cooking with love is simply cooking with care for the ingredients, for the process and for the final product that you set down in front of loved ones. The secret to great food is simplicity, she says, and paying attention to each step. To Rosa, a ripe tomato or a fresh loaf of bread are considered beautiful, and should be cherished and honored. For a while, a young Rosa Tarantino hid out with her family in area caves to escape harm. 7th Army”s invasion of Sicily, designed to beat back the Germans, her mother cooked for Gen. Growing up near Palermo, Sicily, in the 1940s, Rosa”s family often had little to eat.
I begin by cutting swordfish into chunks, slicing eggplant, chopping onions and listening to her stories. “You look too thin,” she says, which is either a complete lie, a cause for a new optical prescription or a ploy to make me eat like there”s no tomorrow. I had just finished breakfast why not grape juice? It”s 11 a.m., yet she asks me to pour two glasses of wine, for no reason other than ritualism I suppose. I arrive with eagerness and an appetite - all she requires. What I got was an offer I couldn”t refuse - to cook at her side in the kitchen at Cibo Ristorante Italiano, the Monterey restaurant started by Rosa and her beloved late husband, Johnny, a few decades ago. I expected an entr?e recommendation, a trick to make eggplant palatable or, if I”m honest, a scribbled-down secret recipe I would be required (happily) to take to my grave. Not long ago I asked Rosa for ideas about what I should cook for my wife for her upcoming birthday.
They have an unrestrained passion for food and its pleasures, and the knowledge they accumulate cannot be underestimated. I”ve always wanted to cook at the apron strings of an Italian nonna. “When I do something I do it with my whole heart, and it always turns out better,” says Rosa, a spirited, 81-year-old Sicilian-born beauty who sings in the kitchen, never measures, never compromises on quality, never overlooks a detail and never takes “I”m full” for an answer. What does it mean? Certainly preparing a meal for someone can be an expression of love, and someone can love to cook in much the same way they love to knit or love to sing.īut watching Rosa Catalano prepare a meal makes me believe in love as an actual ingredient, as much as pasta, olive oil or salted anchovies. For an elegant evening of cocktails and jazz, a custom private party, a special group event or quiet dinner for two, Cibo will accommodate.Ĭibo has been a favorite of locals and visitors alike since 1990.MONTEREY > > I”ve always dismissed the expression “cooking with love” as trite and ambiguous in a Rachael Ray sort of way.
Cordials as well as traditional and creative cocktails are available to complement your dining experience. Hand-selected from the finest Italian and California vintages, Cibo presents an extensive range of wines to enable the perfect pairing with your dinner. Fusing the best of old and new world Italian cuisine, Cibo offers an eclectic menu from gourmet pizzas to multi-course dinners. An intimate yet vibrant atmosphere is accentuated with expressive art in the form of photography, paintings, sculpture, hand-blown glass and live jazz. ✻ Experience a renaissance in music, art and fine Italian cuisine at CiboĬibo (pronounced chee-bo) means food in Italian, but it’s more of a feast for the senses.
0 kommentar(er)
