Italian Dishes | The Dish

I'm Dana Jacobson from CBS Saturday Morning. Welcome to The Dish. Today we're exploring the infinite world of Italian food from a pizzeria in New Jersey to a pasta shop in Italy. For our first course I met up with a culinary couple who have opened one of the most sought-after restaurants in New York City. We'll take the the sweet fennel sausage, one pound. For chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tassinelli their labor of love starts with hand-picked ingredients. Today's from a local Italian deli. We love to use that sausage specifically actually as the base of our bolognese sauce so this will be this will be perfect. Back at their restaurant Don Angie that personal touch has helped elevate Italian American food. Pick up calamari. To a kind of new age Italian cuisine. This is our Italian sausage bolognese sauce so. In trying to take a dish and make it your own how much fun how much enjoyment do you get from that? I mean a lot that's what the whole Don Angie menu really is I think. New takes on classic type dishes familiar flavors but like surprising. I think that was the only way to make this restaurant kind of stand out. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at where the magic happens. We use a lot of cheese at the restaurant I'm just letting you know like I really like cheese. Scott gave me a crash course in preparing one of Don Angie's signature dishes their pinwheel lasagna. So you're gonna kind of come in and you're gonna tuck it under like this and then you're gonna roll it really just go for it just roll it really fast like a burrito. Unlike the traditional version the pasta is pre-sliced then baked on its side invigorating the old standard. We kind of have an advantage because we're two chefs running a restaurant where if it's just one chef right they don't have the other person with the same creative knowledge to kind of help them. Yeah it's just always a it's always a conversation. But Scott and Angie aren't just partners in business they're also partners in life. Husband and wife and recent first-time parents. They met while working at the same New York City restaurant. Love at first sight or friendship at first sight? I think it was love at first sight on my part. They say love blossomed while traveling and played out across dinner tables throughout Manhattan. I would take her around to all different restaurants and then we started going to Italian American restaurants together like red sauce old-school red sauce restaurants. Yeah it's just everything about it that you know the nostalgia of it and so that's where we kind of really our love like flourished I think. Both have red sauce running through their veins. Angie grew up in Cleveland working in her grandfather's Italian bakery and specialty store and learning traditional recipes from her Neapolitan grandmother. Food was like the centerpiece of every family gathering always a lot of it. My grandmothers on both sides would just make you know copious amounts of food for everyone like way too much that anyone could ever consume but that's just the way it was and food was love. Yes of course. Scott says food was also love for him as a kid in New Jersey. His grandparents like Angie's also Italian American and avid cooks along with his mom but for Scott cooking as a career only came after a decade in ad sales. I kept thinking like I don't want to do this for another year let alone like another 30 years so I've always loved cooking I always wanted to try it so I went to culinary school and took some classes and fell in love with it and then just kind of went from there. At Don Angie the duo has combined their passion for food and for family. The inspiration has always been yes the food that we grew up eating that we're so passionate about but we also kind of want to do stuff that's surprising and unique to people like how do we kind of make stuff that's warm and comforting and soulful but kind of put some little spins here and there so it's so it's fun for people. Yeah like this familiar favorite spaghetti and meatballs but served in a frittata. I'm with you on a spaghetti and meatball. Like it's so simple and mortadella spiaggini topped with pickled garlic salsa verde. There's also the spicy baked clams Francesco. We call them that because they have a little kick from Frank's Red Hot in there. A local pizza joint in Angie's hometown inspired their Italian American wedge salad topped with creamy herb dressing and pepperoni and for dessert how about pinoli cookies with rosemary and lemon or Vietnamese coffee tiramisu. Vietnamese coffee is really delicious it's usually made with a chicory based coffee and then a lot of sweetened condensed milk so we make a cream filling that has sweetened condensed milk in it and then a custard with a sweetened condensed milk in it as well. That's phenomenal. And thanks to their new cookbook there is no reservation required to get a taste of some of Don Angie's most popular offerings. Why did you want to do a cookbook? We just wanted to to share our cuisine I guess with like a broader audience and and bring our cuisine into people's homes. We really set out with this book to make something that was approachable for home cooks. We wanted people to get their hands dirty and use it and cook. Get red sauce all over. And they've been doing it which is insane like every day multiple times a day we get like notifications on Instagram people posting pictures of the stuff they make out of the book and it you know it's really it's really heartwarming it's really cool. No matter the setting it's family traditions carried on one dish at a time. People have a great time here and a great experience and they love the food and that's all I could ask for it. I have to pinch myself sometimes because it's it's very special that we can sort of like contribute to people's lives and make them happy making them feel welcome and comfortable and having a wonderful meal here or or sharing some of our recipes with them at home. I think it's yeah it's a great feeling. Manhattan isn't the only place with incredible Italian. Up next a Los Angeles chef who's been around the world and back home again. This is the dish. Chef Zach Pollock originally visited Italy to study the country's stunning architecture but quickly realized his true passion was for its cuisine. He shared his culinary journey over a meal with our Jamie Wax. Mod sticks to go and 33 single pepperoni. To experience chef Zach Pollock's beautiful, flavorful, often whimsical take on Italian cuisine while sitting across the table from the chef himself. Wow. Is to be in the presence of something akin to a teenager discovering the joy of his life. That is not the cheese stick from the mall. Did you go ranch? I went ranch. Combined with a disciplined artisan studied in the skills, details, and techniques of ancient cultures as when he describes the cuisine in his pizza focused restaurant. When we opened 90% of the menu was kind of written already by what kinds of things a pizzeria has and the exercise here has always been executed as best as we possibly can. Use all the techniques that we've learned and you know bring it home and kind of keep it an honest portrayal of what it should be. Like his dishes, it all comes together perfectly when one considers that he found his passion for cooking while pursuing his passion for architecture as a college student studying abroad in Italy. I got distracted while I was there. The way Italians engage with food and wine was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Food is not just something that is consumed. It's a ritual. It's a part of life that connects them to their history. It connects them to their geographies. And that was just something that really blew my mind. You say the Florentine Central Market really pulled you in and all of the foods and experiences there. It was so overwhelming. It probably was like a kid in a candy store and I was just totally bowled over. And I had the little apartment there and I would buy whatever I could and bring it back to my apartment and on that little tiny like two-burner cook whatever I could cook. Do you remember the moment where you really shifted from saying I don't think I'm gonna be an architect anymore. I think this is gonna be my life. I remember being in that little apartment and saying this is something is going on here and I need to at least give it a try. After a brief return to convince his parents of the shift in his career focus, the Los Angeles native started a series of exhausting but meaningful apprenticeships back in Italy. I remember starting service and then literally, and this is not hyperbole, literally the woman that was running the station where I was dodging that night said okay it's time to break down. And I looked up at the clock and it was like 1145 and I was in total disbelief and that's when I knew okay like something about restaurant cooking that is that you're gonna find really fulfilling and I've always found it really fulfilling. You lost yourself and lost time in that first experience. First day. And after years of diligent work in the kitchens of respected chefs, the LA boy brought all his knowledge and creativity back home to both honor traditional Italian cuisine and to turn it on its head with the elegantly appointed and sophisticated Elemento and his inspired take on a classic pizza joint, Cosa Buona. The spot where the restaurant is has been a pizzeria since I think the 50s, so carrying on that tradition was really important. It was at Cosa Buona that he set up a spread for us that was nothing short of an architectural masterpiece. Just make sure you don't stab it with the fork. No, I'm gonna lift it. Italian soup dumplings, a complete reversal of tortellini and brodo. People have got to smile when this comes to the table. It's fun. Yeah. Crispy polenta with salmon roe. Mm. Yes. That's all I can say is yes to every bit of this texture. The flavors. Two chopped salads, one more traditional with salami and pepperoncini. The other with fried chickpea polenta and an emulsified vinaigrette. His irreverently reverent Hawaiian pizza. Just because there's a lot of, you know, pizza out there with pineapple that maybe isn't good, doesn't mean that pizza and pineapple can't be friends. You like that challenge? Absolutely. And a unique eggplant parm that cooks overnight. All of this is really very traditional in its construction and in its flavor profile. Totally. And like there, there's definitely is, like you say, a lot of inspiration from maybe techniques from other cultures at all. At the end of the day is hopefully paying homage to its roots. Everything here makes cohesive sense. It seems to be a guy having a lot of fun with his creativity and with with both his limitations and the fact that there are no limits really. It's funny you say that because I actually think that I worked much better when there are limits. When there are boundaries, those boundaries would force creativity. I think that's why I kind of went from architecture into cooking because they are both very creative fields, but they are also heavily bound by by rules, right? Now, at the end of the day, the house has to stand up. If it if it looks gorgeous, but it falls down, you haven't done your job as a chef. It can't just look great, certainly, and it can't even just taste great. Then we'll just make candy bars. It has to. It has to be nutrition. It has to nourish. And after a career spent bringing new ideas to the table, Zach Pollock is grateful that he can once again bring diners to the table. I've always loved, you know, entertaining and and and making people happy. And, you know, there is an ambitious program that comes with that, which is how do we bring more of these to other parts of Los Angeles? We're looking at possible other locations. Well, you need to put the new location near my house, please. That's all I very good because you've made this person very happy today. I can tell you. Salute. What would an Italian food themed episode be without pasta or, for that matter, a trip to Italy where it originated? As previously seen on CBS Sunday morning, Seth don't travel to a small town in southeast Italy where one pasta shape tops them all. The scene could not be much more Italian. A Vespa laundry on the line and women in the street making pasta to know which part of Italy, though. Just look at the shape they're making. That is, if you can see it, Nuncia Caputo's hands move so quickly that we've slowed down the video to see her forming or a Kete, which means little ears. It's the pasta of Puglia, a region known for all of trees, distinctive homes called truly and what a Kete, which Caputo says she's been making since she was six. Good thing. She sees it as more art than work. Because you see this mass transform, she told us it's magic in your hands. This pasta gleams like treasure on these streets where a number of women make or a Kete Caputo is the fourth generation in her family. Too bad there won't be a fit. She has sons. We must be quick. We have a new beer. The men here drink beer. They do not make or a Kete. What a pity. This is one woman, Nuncia. We've been going there, you know, for the last 20 years or so and buying our or a Kete from her and learning, actually learning how to make it. Can you make it? Are we being recorded? Elizabeth McKinley has written books on eating and dining out in Italy, and she and her daughter Sophie offer week in Italy food tours to visitors. So you'll see all the women with their tables outside in the region's capital body. They stop where Nuncia Caputo has set up shop or wealth stage. Viva Italia. Her show offers mystery and head shaking delight. She's not even looking. You're used to seeing pasta made in a past the feature inside indoors. Why on the street? Well, you know, originally the pasta that we think of is the original pasta was dried on the street. They used the sun and the wind. Caputo says passersby once asked her mother, who's still never far if they could buy some pasta and a business was born. It's for me. Is it the gold? The gold? Yes, but this is yellow at Ancora past the feature. Michele Fiore showed us how in body selling just one size of what I get. They won't do. This is a lesson. Small medium, medium and a half big one. We counted seven, which he better have in stock if he wants to keep his customers. You don't have a small. Okay, today don't really leave. Do you really need all of these different sizes of order? Get there? Yes, of course you do. In all seriousness, Elizabeth McKinley explains. Different sizes go with different sauces. How does a type of pasta become so connected with the region of Italy? Well, I think it has to do with every region. Every town has their own traditions, and they start out with certain kinds of flour. They start out with certain economic conditions, and then they start. And then they have the ingredients to go with that pasta. So it's the north. You have more cream and more butter and more cheese. Whereas in the South, it's a little bit poor, so you have more vegetables. Where do you rank what I get day on your list of pastas as a book? Oh, I'm not going to go. I'm not going to weigh in on this. I love all pastas equally from all regions. A dash of diplomacy can also be a key ingredient in a country where food means so much. You didn't think we forgot about pizza, did you? Up next, we grab a slice in New Jersey. There are so many ways to make a delicious pizza, but according to Dan Ricker, it all comes down to ingredients and technique. I hopped over the Hudson to learn more. What isn't there to love about pizza? Nothing. Pure happiness. That is the essence of Dan Richard's new cookbook, filled with lessons learned creating his own pies here at his Jersey City restaurant, Razzapizza Artigianale. I want it to be the best bite of pizza that they ever have, and this becomes their barometer for pizza. With his recipes, home cooks can become pizziolas. This is how we launch a pizza into a wood-fired oven. QR codes even lead readers to instructional videos by Richard himself. Take one corner and pull it over itself and just gently pat it in the middle because there's only so much you can learn by reading words. This is a very tactile experience. When I was learning pizza making and bread baking, I was reading books and I always wished that I had a master bread baker right next to me. Now you can. Saying you need to work it a little bit more, you know. We're gonna coax it out of the dough tray. I joined Richard in the Razza kitchen for a few pointers. It all starts with the dough. Knead it with a soft touch. With the amount of pressure that you would tap somebody on the back. Then stretched just so. Okay, and then just pull your hands apart. Next, the toppings. Just under a ladle of tomato sauce, 70 grams of fresh mozzarella, and 24 pepperoni slices. What happened when it was 25? It's too much. Getting it into the wood-fired oven is harder than it looks. Go in. I spoke too soon. Do it. Yeah! Yes! Champion. That I got. The top of the oven should be a little bit warmer. But the real test is judging the pie according to Richard's 56-point pizza evaluation rubric. That means when a guest takes a bite of this, it's not gonna fall apart. It's not gonna fall apart, okay? Beautifully baked, structurally sound pizza. And the flavors of fermentation should be real floral and complex. It's really good. Yeah. You crushed it. Richard's pizza obsession had a bittersweet beginning. It started during a post-college graduation trip to Italy. I tasted this food that was so fantastic and better than any pizza or pasta that I've ever tasted. So you come back from Italy and it's like your everything is opened up. Your taste buds, everything. Opened up but also closing down. As soon as I got back, my mom was very sick and I remember crying on the airplane home because I was just off this adventure and I knew that it wasn't, it wasn't gonna end well. Robin Richard died of cancer in 2002. Richard says he got through his grief by channeling his mom's work ethic as he attempted to recreate the tomato sauce he tasted in Italy. So I made batch after batch after batch and I started visiting farmers markets to buy the ingredients and that's where I really, it just all clicked. It's the ingredients. It really comes down to ingredients and technique. Eventually, Richard raised enough money to buy a failing restaurant where he worked at perfecting pasta before turning his attention to pizza. But pizza is alive. It's a living, breathing thing until it's consumed because what makes pizza pizza is that it's bread. So I started studying bread making and learning about fermentation. So we have to understand the science in order to create a really amazing pizza on a consistent basis. In 2012, Richard opened Razza, serving up artisanal pizza so good it soon earned this headline in the New York Times. The best pizza in New York is in New Jersey. It was important because it broke through the location factor. You put me in Arizona or Arkansas, I'm gonna make fantastic pizza because your location does not dictate its merits. Richard made us some of that fantastic pizza like the Project Hazelnut with hazelnuts from blight-resistant trees developed by his alma mater, Rutgers University. I love this. Next, the Funghi, featuring chanterelle and maitake mushrooms. We have a forager that we work with. He just brings us a certain quantity of mushrooms, whatever is the best. Isn't that good? Oh my god. The guancia is Richard's love letter to Rome. Yeah, we sat with a piece of guanciale, a caliper, which is a measuring device for very specific thicknesses. We cut 12 different size pieces and we got just the right one so that the edges get a little bit crispy but the bottom of it stays a little pliable. The perfect saltiness too. It's a journey in taste, much like the creation has been for Richard. He writes this of pizza in his book, no other food is so perfect in its imperfections, so forgiving on its way to mastery. And the joy is in the journey for me. Of creating whatever that of learning and meeting people along the way. This is a flour miller, a wheat grower, a mushroom forager, a cheesemaker. We just put it together. Your obsessions keep channeling to new things. What's the next obsession after pizza or does it stay with pizza? There's always something to learn in the process, always. It's For more stories like these and live coverage of breaking news 24-7, stream us right here on CBS News. I'm Dana Jacobson. We'll see you next time for another helping of The Dish.