When I was thinking about what to write for this month’s issue, I grabbed my old recipe book and found a very easy-to-make recipe, for Apple Bread Pie. You will enjoy this one because it’s so simple to throw together; you can do all the prep work for it in 20 minutes … More
Food & Ingredients
Flavorful focaccia
QUESTION: I’m interested in serving focaccia bread as a starter; do you have a recipe you can share? ANSWER: Focaccia is similar to pizza in that both are topped with various ingredients. As compared to pizza, focaccia is sparsely topped or accented with olive oil, herbs, coarse sea salt, and thinly sliced onions, tomatoes or olives. … More
Business & Marketing
Ready made
Dough—whether hand-tossed, rolled or sheeted into shape, whether thin-crust, deep-dish or pan style—is the foundation of a pizza and the pride on which many a pizzeria is built. And, while many owners rely on tried-and-true (in some cases, second or third-generation) recipes, with advances in technology and manufacturing, many premade dough and crust suppliers report that “frozen” … More
Food & Ingredients
Selling sandwiches
The true origin of the sandwich is murky, but one popular myth points to English nobleman John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who, during a lengthy card playing spree in the 1700s, requested a meal that he could eat without getting his hands dirty—or interrupting his game. In 20th-century America, sandwiches grew to be associated with different regions of … More
Chef Santo Bruno
Torta di noccioli
This type of cake reminds me of when I went to Palermo, Italy, to see my brother and his family. At the time, there was a wedding going on that was being catered. I walked into the kitchen and noticed that in the oven there were six little cakes. I knew they were … More
Food & Ingredients
On a roll
QUESTION: How can I make fresh dough or rolls last longer? It seems wasteful to throw them away at the end of the day. ANSWER: I’m going to assume that when you say “rolls,” you mean breadsticks, and that you are using a typical pizza dough formula to make them. Sometimes when we speak about preservation … More
Chef Santo Bruno
Zucchini and tomatoes
Zucchini is a vegetable that goes with everything. I love that it can be used in soup, salad, pasta and more. You can roast pieces of zucchini or bread them to fry. I also like zucchini with marinara sauce (just add to your sauce and cook for 10 minutes before the sauce is … More
Chef Santo Bruno
Brooklyn bagels
You may wonder why I decided to write about bagels this month. Well, here in New York, pizza shops are rapidly tapping into the breakfast market. Street vendors are starting to sell pizza at night, so why shouldn’t you offer breakfast? In these changing times, pizza sales sometimes need a boost. Especially for … More
Chef Santo Bruno
Ricotta spinach cannelloni
Cannelloni incorporates oversized rigatoni pasta that Sicilians enjoy because you can stuff them with many different ingredients. One of my favorite cannelloni recipes is one using eggplant, ricotta cheese and ground veal. The one here is stuffed with spinach and ricotta, and you can use your imagination to come up with additional … More
Business & Marketing
Winning menus
What if your top-line revenue remained flat and your bottom-line profit grew by 3% to 5%? How do successful independents and chains grow so rapidly? The answer: through menu engineering. Menu engineering is a sophisticated study that observes how restaurant patrons make item selections, and then designs or engineers the menu to encourage consumers to select certain items over … More
Chef Santo Bruno
Caponata
One of the most popular salads in Sicilian cuisine is caponata (eggplant salad). While eggplant is the main ingredient, the salad likely takes its name from one of the secondary ingredients—capers. You’ll find eggplant in many Sicilian dishes, and it’s used in many ways, including in both sweet and savory meals. I like to make caponata … More
Food & Ingredients
Breaking bread
A decade ago, if you thought of the word “artisan,” images of craftspeople and their trades—glassblowing, ceramics or woodwork, perhaps—might come to mind. But the term “artisanal” now, more than ever, applies to the culinary arts, including bread making. The artisanal trend has been growing for years, with an explosion of self-proclaimed foodies demanding everything from … More