Il Viaggio Di Vetri

Book excerpt: In 1993, Marc Vetri boarded a plane with a note of introduction in one pocket and a few hundred dollars in the other. He landed in Bergamo, in northern Italy, where he spent the next eighteen months immersed in the soulful cooking and great-hearted hospitality of some of the region’s top chefs and restaurateurs. Four years later he was ready to open his restaurant, Vetri, in Philadelphia, where he continued to develop his style of authentic yet innovative Italian cuisine, gaining acclaim as one of the finest Italian chefs in the country. Il Viaggio di Vetri, Marc’s long-awaited debut cookbook, celebrates the core of great Italian cooking: a superb meal shared with family and friends. Chapters cover a full range of cold and hot appetizers; pastas and risottos; fish and shellfish; meat; poultry, game, and organ meats; vegetable side dishes; and desserts, giving the home cook more than 120 skillfully presented dishes to choose among, including: Foie Gras Pastrami with Pear Mostarda and Brioche Squid and Artichoke Galette Chestnut Fettuccine with Wild Boar Ragu Olive-Crusted Wild Bass with Confit of Leeks Pork Rib and Cabbage Stew Rustic Rabbit with Sage and Pancetta Fennel and Apricot Salad Mascarpone Custard with Puff Pastry and Figs Accompanying wine notes by sommelier Jeff Benjamin deliver lively lessons on both the classic and lesser known wines of Italy. Throughout, Marc Vetri shares tales of his cooking apprenticeship in Italy and, with generosity and passion, shows how to bring the lessons he learned there into the home kitchen.