Rolando Beramendi - Autentico: Cooking Italian, the Authentic Way

Cooking Italian, the Authentic Way

Rolando Beramendi
WITH
Rebekah Peppler

PHOTOGRAPHS BY
Laurie Frankel

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{ROLANDA TERUZZI

Fabrizio, Sandra, Saverio, and Aurora
and

Maria and Michelangelo Pistoletto,
for making me understand, believe, learn how toCOOKandSHARE
Italian food, and bestow upon me a life one should be so lucky
to have ever had.

NICOLINA PEDUZZI
(my Italian mother)
with
Gianluigi, Maria, Stefania, and Giancarlo
(my brothers and sisters)
and
Stefano, Carolina, Piero, Maddalena, and Giuditta,
for making me feel like I have a FAMILY .}

{ ALESSANDRO VALLECCHI,
who introduced me to
CHIARA MASSIERO,
and to both of them,
for making me feel atHOME
in Firenze.

BEATRICE CONTINI BONACOSSI
(a true sister)
and the entire Contini Bonacossi family,
for teaching me
aboutTRADITIONSandINTEGRITY .}

{ CARLO CIONI
(the father I never had)

for sharing with me whatAUTENTICOmeans
as well as to Franca, Delfina, and Riccardo,
for making me feelGROUNDEDatHOME ,
in PEACE , andALIVE .

ROSETTA CLARA CAVALLI DOLLIVOLA}
and
Paolo Salvadori di Weissenhoff,
for always beingTRUEandGENUINE .

{ LISA MIDDIONE
and
Carlo Middione,
for being the first toBELIEVEin me.

SARA WILSON,
Gustavo Houghton,
Tony Wilson and the entire Wilson Tribe,
for making and allowing me to
CARRY ON, EXIST, PERSIST , andINSIST ,
while nurturing
MANICARETTI for over thirty years until this day
and forever after.}

{ LAURIE FRANKEL,
for her amazing support, friendship, photographs,
and eye,

and for letting usBEinITALY
andSEE IT
on the following pages ofAUTENTICO .

And

CONNIE, PAULINA AND FABIENNE TERRANT,
for
putting my
HEARTback together and making me
want to goFORWARD .}

He doesnt just walk into a room, he bounds into it. When he talks to you, he envelops you with his conversation. Enthusiasm just leaks from every pore and its impossible not to be affected by it. I met Rolando thirty years ago when he came to Barefoot Contessa, my specialty food store in East Hampton, New York, to show me the products he was importing from Italy. I think I bought everything he was sellinghow could I not? He taught customers the value of using the best products availableextraordinary olive oils for cooking and for dipping bread, rich syrupy vinegars, the most flavorful canned tomatoes from San Marzano, and so much more.

Many years later, I was lucky to be invited on a food trip to Sicily with friends who knew Rolando. Rolando took us to so many of his suppliers and it was a week that Ill always remember. We visited women who made marzipan the way their ancestors had for centuries, we visited factories that harvested sea salt by hand, we joined cooking school teacher and cookbook author Anna Tasca Lanza at her fattoria and watched her make ricotta with milk from her familys sheep and wine from their vineyard. Each product was special and pure and beyond delicious. Rolando took us for lunch at one of his favorite olive oil producers and who served his own homemade limoncello after lunch. Ill never forget that fresh, sharp lemon flavor that warmed you down to your toes. Rolandos incredible enthu-siasm was infectious and touched every place we visited on that trip.

Recently, Rolando invited us to his friends house and cooked an amazing dinner for everyone. The food was incredibly delicious and, together with his enthusiasm for the ingredients, for laughter, and for his friends, he nourished everyone at the table. What I really love most about Rolando is that he does what he lovesimports and showcases extraordinary ingredients from Italy. But the by-product of that passion is that he has sustained dozens of small producers in Italy who make the finest handmade products by giving their products a market in the United States. Its that giving part that makes Rolando happythat hes doing what he loves and that love sustains everyone he touches, from the producers of the ingredients, to the customers who cook with them, to the families sitting down to eat together.

This book is imbued with Rolandos enthu-siasm. Its about honoring the people who have taught him about food and community and he is doing just what he lovessharing that joy with all of us.

How lucky are we?

Ina Garten
Barefoot Contessa cookbooks & television

I carry an Italian passport (which is my dearest and most prized possession), an expired Argentine passport, and have a United States Green Card. I always seem to be on an airplane, constantly commuting from New York to San Francisco to Florence.