Welcome to Spring! There is nothing like the Spring air to energize you, get you out in the world and enliven the senses. It’s been a long cold winter and the cold is behind us now. Time to gear up for the season, start thinking about the garden, the sun and warm weather. This time of year there is nothing better than freshly grilled meats, fish, chicken and vegetables. Grilling is a typical Italian way to cook food in an uncomplicated manner. The secret is in the marinade. Olive oil, spices such as, rosemary, basil, fresh ground black pepper and garlic, bring out natural flavors. Adding in a small amount of acid, such as lemon or balsamic vinegar breaks down the proteins and tenderizes the meat. No heavy sauces are necessary, just the natural juices to complement what we grill. Roasted potatoes with red onions are a must accompaniment. Our new blackboard menu will run through the season featuring “Verdure alla Griglia”; grilled fresh garden vegetables or “Pesce”; fresh locally available fish, served over capellini pesto. Or try our “Petti di Pollo”; grilled boneless breast of chicken or Bisteca; Grilled Skirt Steak, served over roasted potatoes and vegetables. A Spring favorite is “Scampi alla Griglia con Linguini Pesto”; jumbo shrimp, grilled to order, tossed with pesto, olive oil, lemon, fresh tomatoes, and homemade linguini. Chicken and Skirt Steak are grilled and topped with gourmet greens, fresh tomatoes and drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. Zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, red onions and portabella mushrooms are grilled and served over angel hair pasta tossed with pesto and topped with gourmet greens and balsamic vinaigrette. Locally available fish are grilled and served over pesto pasta and topped with an arugula and fennel salad with lemon vinaigrette. What an exciting time to cook and eat! Why not join us soon and bring a friend.
Ciao for now, Chef Tomasso.

As the chef, owner and buyer for our small Italian Trattoria, I meet with sales people and inspect all the food I order. This hands on approach helps control the quality of the product we produce. “Fresh foods cooked to order” has always been our motto. With the trend towards “Real Foods” becoming more popular and people looking for more value for their dollar, I wanted to let the customer know what makes the food at Fazio’s special. The popularity of chain style Italian restaurants has grown. Let’s face it, they are inexpensive so you can feed the whole family and it tastes good. So why would you pay more? The educated palette will insist on fresh produce, fish, meats, as well as freshly prepared soups, sauces and foods cooked to order.

Fresh foods prepared to order have a greater value to the consumer  because you are getting more nutrition for your dollar and not just empty calories from the processed foods that these large chain restaurants use. Just like the a fast food cheeseburger, they are cheap, taste great, but twenty minutes later your body crashes. I am not talking about some fad food trend, it’s an old-fashion common sense approach to food: “fresh food cooked to order”. At Fazio’s our bread and pasta is produced daily on premise using the finest raw ingredients. Our produce is always fresh, as well as the meats, poultry, and fish. Salad dressings, soups and desserts are all made in house. Very simply, we buy fresh foods and  prepare them in house and cook them to order. Primal cuts of meat, whole fish, fresh locally grown shellfish, local produce in season are our mainstay.

The truth is, it is hard to tell (even if you are at a fine dining establishment) if the food, like mashed potatoes, is freshly cooked or comes frozen in ready-serve bags. When food is precooked and frozen like this it is stripped of its fiber and some of its vitamins when it is processed and preservatives are used. Somewhere along the line the foodservice salesman has convinced the chef that he can save money on labor, and this is just this tip of the iceberg. This is when it all start to go down hill. Convenience over quality. Prepackaged grilled chicken, loaded with nitrates- dead food. You know how delicious freshly grilled chicken and meats are with their natural juices flowing. Why would you pay for precooked chemically altered chicken on a salad? Escoffier would turn over in his grave. Frozen alfredo sauce, frozen meatballs, precooked pizza shells, vacuum packed soups, bottled salad dressings, precut salads soaked in preservatives. This is not “fresh food cooked to order” it is something else entirely.

Be knowledgeable when you dine, spend your hard earned money wisely, be kind to your body and “eat well”.

Chef Tomasso

Tags: real food

Tags: wine

When I opened Fazio’s Trattoria on Main street in Hyannis in 1989 after leaving San Francisco, it became clear that there were no bakeries producing the rustic loaves I was used to using in the North Beach where I ran Italian kitchens for ten years. I began the process of developing the rustic loaves that I bake today.

Flour is the key to my success. I use only King Arthur Special Blend, “Never Bleached, Never Bromated”. This is hard red spring wheat from the great plains 12-13% protein. All purpose flours simply do not come near this level. High protein is necessary to build strong gluten. We’ll get to to that later. The second element is yeast. I use a natural yeast in my bread combined with a commercial yeast. Natural or “wild” yeast is a naturally occurring spore found in the air. Not found in sterile environments, it thrives in well-used bakeries. Fazio’s is housed in a former bakery, making it an ideal environment for baking bread. The commercial yeast, which is basically a sugar-eating fungus, provides a strong and predictable method to make the bread rise. The natural yeast, although unpredictable, gives our bread large holes, light texture, and great flavor. Back to the gluten. The gluten produced by the high protein content of the flour provide a strong elastic web to contain the large CO2 air bubbles produced by the wild yeast, and the alcohol produced in this process gives our bread a slightly sour taste. Temperature is the last leg of our process. When I work with wild yeast it is important to control the temperature. The ideal temperature is 75 degrees F, ensuring a slow rise. This means averaging the temperature of the room and flour, allowing for the friction of the mixer, and adjusting the water temperature to get a final product that is 75 degrees. Salt is an important part of my bread. However, because salt kills yeast, it must be added last in the mixing process. What I have described here is a combination of commercial yeast bread and a sour dough levan method. If you are interested in baking rustic bread “The Village Baker” by Joe Ortiz is a serious start. Also, check out www.kingarthurflour.com

Next time you eat out, take a moment and consider the bread you are being served. You would be surprised to know that the majority of restaurants serve frozen par-baked breads. These products are so processed that they provide less nutritional value. We bake our bread fresh daily. Come taste the difference. Bread, after all, is life.

- Chef Tomasso