Watch Video Tour of A16 + Wine

Hands down, one of the most impressive cookbooks this season is A16 Food + Wine. The book is divided into sections on the wines of southern Italy, and a longer section on food served at the restaurant. In the food section it's particularly helpful to read the introduction to learn about chef Nate Appleman's approach to cooking Campanian style in San Francisco. A pantry section details the essential ingredients of the cuisine and then, finally, there are the recipes themselves. You'll find tripe, bruschetta, pickled peppers, roasted sardines as well as pizza and pasta. If you are a fan of this restaurant the book is a must.

For a taste of the food and wine, the Marin Jewish Community Center in conjunction with Book Passages presents chef Nate Appleman and Wine Director Shelly Lindgren. They will discuss their book, and share the source of inspiration for their restaurant A16.

What: A16 Food & Wine Tasting

When: November 13, 2008 7pm @ 7:00

How: $15 members / $20 public / $45 inc. book ($40 retail) Purchase tickets online.

Where: Osher Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Road , San Rafael

Why: Nate will be serving his wildly popular Monday meatballs and sharing other favorite recipes from the book. Shelly Lindgren will be offering wine tastings, advice, and a chance to order many of the featured wines for your holiday table.

Butternut squash is everywhere right now. Here is an easy recipe from the book that is a refreshing change from the sweet roasted version.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Pancetta and Chiles

Serves 6

1 (3 pound) butternut squash
Kosher salt
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 ounces pancetta, diced (about 1 cup)
2 Calabrian chiles, stemmed and chopped (or 1/4 teaspoon dried chile flake)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

Halve the squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Peel the squash halves and slice crosswise into 1/2 inch thick pieces. You should have about 8 cups.

In a large bowl, toss the squash with a few generous pinches of salt and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Divide the squash between 2 rimmed baking sheets, spreading the pieces evenly over the pans. Roast the squash, rotating the pans front to back about halfway through the cooking for about 15 minutes, or until cooked through and golden.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small pot over low heat. Stir in the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes, or until crispy. Stir in the chiles, remove from the heat and set aside.

When the squash is ready, remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, add the pancetta mixture, and toss to mix. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt if needed. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve immediately.

Recipe reprinted from A16 Food + Wine, copyright ©2008 by D.O.C. Restaurant Group, LLC, courtesy of Tenspeed Press.

corn on the cob

About two months ago, I was sitting with a friend at the A16 chef's bar. For me, it's really the only place to sit in the restaurant when you are dining solo or with one other person. From that vantage point, you can check out what the chefs are doing, and watch the rhythm of restaurant. My friend, Jenn, mentioned that she'd like to try the corn. "You can order it, but I won't have any," I told her. It's one of my quirks: I hate eating corn on the cob in public. In the privacy of my own home, maybe. But I avoid it when anyone is watching.

I should have known better than to think that the A16 chefs would give us a large ear of corn to gnaw on. Their preparation is usually rather elegant, and they had figured out the perfect way to serve it. Slicing each ear of corn into rounds about 2 inches in width made the corn into small bits that were easy to eat but didn't give up the flavor that you can only get from corn on the cob.

the A16 chef's counter

A serving of corn was placed into the brick oven so that each piece could cook and get a little charred. After a short while, it was taken out and placed into a large metal bown. Olive oil was added, along with salt and pepper. The corn was tossed around so it could be coated with olive oil, and it was served. Perfection.

I am in Southern California for a couple weeks, and we have had dinner parties at my mom's house for two weeks in a row -- last week a family barbecue and last night, a dinner party with about 12 friends. Both weekends we made a rendition of the A16 corn, and the guests devoured it. It's the simplest preparation and is delicious. I sliced it and mom put it on the grill with great results. We then tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper just like at A16. It was great for our parties because we could cook the corn earlier in the day and serve it room temperature with great results.

I know that this is a seemingly simplistic thing to blog about, but it was a revelation for me.

I entered the blogging community four years ago this month. It's almost trite to try and put it in writing, but I have really gained so much from this blog world. Aside from amazing friendships and tremendous personal growth that is a direct result of having my blog, I have had numerous food revelations -- too many to count -- from fellow food bloggers.

A few of my very favorite revelations? I started going to to My Tofu House on a regular basis after Brett posted about it last year. Every time I de-seed a pomegranate, I want to kiss Elise for mentioning that some people peel it under water. Earlier this summer, Stephanie wrote about Catherine's method of cooking okra, and I've repeated this recipe many times this summer. When Patrick and Holly posted their recipe for preserving lemons a few years ago, I tried it out and have done it many times since. I hope to have many, many more revelations in the next few years in this tremendous food blog world.

My friends and colleagues don't really like to bring up the subject of pizza in front of me. I have quite strong opinions when it comes to the topic, and some people might even think that I have a tendency to go off the deep end. Okay, well, most people. But truly, what is better than a perfect pizza? To me, when it's perfect, it is the perfect food.

A perfect pizza comes fresh out of the blistering heat of a wood- or coal-fired oven (often around 800F!) and should be eaten as soon as possible (while avoiding the burn!). I am partial to the Margherita pizza because I think it shows off the best qualities of a pizza: a crisp chewy crust, fresh tomato sauce, just the right amount of top-quality mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil. Of course, housemade sausage, roasted peppers, and sometimes anchovies are all welcome on my pizza too, depending upon my mood.

Over a decade ago I discovered this perfect pizza on a trip to New York City. John's Pizza on Bleecker in the Village became my gold pizza standard. (It is how I have described the perfect pizza above, although covered with crispy-edged slices of meatballs.) Unfortunately I live on the west coast, where finding a good pizza, much less the perfect pizza, is painfully difficult. Yes, you can get a great thin-crust pizza at Oliveto and Chez Panisse, but I'm talking about the real deal pizza place. A pizzeria. (And I'm not talking about one of those by-the-slice places. As far as I'm concerned, only a place that sells whole pies, no slices, is serious about their pizza. More on that in another blog.)

When I first moved here, I started looking for pizza. This was back in 1994. The best pizza I found back then, and which I still love to this day (although it has been surpassed as my ultimate Bay Area pizza), was Tommaso's. Tommaso's is a family-run Italian restaurant in North Beach that has been around since 1935. It's a great, casual, old-school kind of place. In the last few years, 3 other fantastic restaurants have opened that offer pizza as the main draw: Pizzetta 211 (well-known by any pizza hunter worth their salt), A16 (true Napoli-style pizza at its finest), and Dopo (beautiful thin-crust Roman-style pizza). I could go on and on about each of these places, the different styles of their pizza, how I love all three but for very different reasons, but that's not what I'm getting at here. I still want a pizzeria. A real deal pizzeria, old-school pizzeria. Like you find in NY, New Haven, Rome, and Naples. Must I go to the east coast every time I want this experience? Fly to Italy?

Oh no. As I discovered last weekend, you can remain on this coast and still find fantastic NY-style pizza perfection. Unfortunately, it is not in the Bay Area. Nor is it in California. No, my friend, you do have to get on a plane and fly to Portland. I know, I had my serious doubts too, but when my brother's girlfriend Amy (sister pizza hunter) started raving about this place, and became a weekly regular, I knew I had to try it.

Apizza Scholls started life in a small town outside of Portland as Scholls Public House. Recently (in January), due to a variety of reasons, the pizzeria relocated to SE Portland. The owners and pizzaiolos of Apizza Scholls take their pizza very seriously, as it should be. They strive to make the best pizza, using the best-quality freshest ingredients, and make only as many pizzas as they have dough. They even have rules: only 3 ingredients on one pie, and only 1 meat per pie. No meat-lovers pizza here. I love this place. And when this much love and determination goes into a pizza, everybody wins.

We ordered one of their amazing Caesar salads, 2 Margherita pies, and 1 sausage. Both pies had the ideal balance of crisp-chewy, thin-but-not-too-thin crust; fresh tomato sauce; and a blend of high-quality cheese, all topped with basil or housemade sausage. The pies come directly from the blistering 650F-900F oven and are so hot you will hurt yourself if you try to eat it immediately. Not that that stopped us. It was so amazing that it was hard to get the picture of it (above) before everyone was digging in.

So, I've found my gold standard. I wish it was in the Bay Area. But until a pizzeria of this caliber comes to my town, I'll just have to start building up my frequent flyer miles.