Today, 2 ideas for dinner all the way from Italy. We have culinary classics done right, the way not just Mamma but Nonna made it. Grab the recipes at http://www.DinnerDeeAs.com and if you make it, send us a picture! E-mail us at DinnerDeeAs@fox.com or @DinnerDeeAs on Instagram. Watch Dinner DeeAs every weekday at 1p ET on FOX13.
I’m Jeff Philbin. This is Dinner DeeAs with two ideas
for dinner all the way from Italy. Culinary classics done right
the way not just mama, but no, I made it. First. We learned how to make eggplant parm the way they like it in New York
and even Sicily. Then bucatini amatriciana with a sauce. So good. Even the Italian government
gave it a seal of approval. Here, on their ideas,
we only have the best. The best ideas for dinner,
the best guests to make them with. And today’s guest is also from the best
Italian restaurant in Tampa for the third year in a row,
according to Tampa magazine. Paul Barcelona is with us again
from Esposito, my friend. Bring it in. Nice to see you. It is so great to see you. Absolutely.
It is so great to see you today. We had a blast last Sunday. We’re going to have a blast today
because when he was last here, Paulie shared how he made a rigatoni vodka
in a veal dish, Zoltan Bocca Alla Romano, both of which
are still available at dinner dotcom. And today he has two recipes
straight for the menu at Esposito’s, which is also celebrating
the fifth anniversary this month. It is, yeah, five years,
which is absolute. So then three and a lot of fun. Best Italian like that’s that’s a big
that’s a big thing right. That’s that and over 500 I’ll take that. And yeah you’re going into
the Hall of Fame on that one my friend. And later
will be making a bucatini amatriciana a simple dish
which also happens to be a classic. But before that,
how to make one of your bestsellers? Because this is right here. You’re prepping away on these eggplant because we’re going to be making
an eggplant parmesan. Zorn. Tina. and we just made. What about Orleans? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you really went
for a quarter of an inch slicer. It’s a pretty much. Yeah. In the restaurant,
I slice it, a little different. I go a long ways.
You go a long ways for the restaurant. That because it’s just a presentation.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if you’re in Italy, they’re going
to give you medallions like this. Okay. so let’s get going. Right. All right. So we got a hot pan going on over here
a little bit of olive oil. It looks like you put it. You like to use olive oil for this. Yes. Okay. Yeah. The olive oil has Oh,
we get this out of here. Has, a little bit of a higher. What do they call that? Like, burn. Not burn. It heats up quicker. Okay. But for the flavor. Exactly. So. And this is exactly how my grandmother did
it, and, all my uncles, I had, from my family,
the Esposito side had ten great uncles or great aunts. That’s so cool, because it’s
always important to you, my friend. Absolutely. And all the uncles would, go to the my,
Aunt Susie’s, their sisters on a Tuesday night,
and she would make eggplant for everybody. They’d play cards, they’d hang out. So we’re going to let that
get a little bit hotter, I think. Jeff. Right. Okay. Yeah, I tested that with the flour. Now, if it sizzles right away, it’s from all of the family
that we’re speaking about. They’re coming to the picnic. We just had the picnic I missed it. It’s Memorial Day weekend. You guys did a memorial day
weekend? Actually. That’s why,
so the shirt that I have on is obviously the Italian flag
inside of the state of new Jersey. And that’s
where a lot of your family is all from. Yes, from up here in Jersey city. Okay. And, the little heart is where we have
the picnic, which is in Edison. I love that. I absolutely love that. How many folks keep together
for this one for this year? Seems like every year
we’re getting less and less. But, everybody’s getting a little older. At least 100. And. Lisa, this is weird. Nametags. That’s so cool. When I first started going,
I had to ask my father. I was like, who is who is this people coming over me? They’re like, hey, Paulie, how you doing?
I’m like, who the hell is that? Who the heck is that? I love that,
I love that so, so really a simple method, a simple, simple light. And you’ll see it also, I mean, is I mean you have to know
got to use good eggplant, obviously. And the care of it’s actually a fruit. It’s unbelievable.
They consider it a fruit. But and then you know how it goes
in the oven, which we’re going to show in a little bit. To prepare Paulie’s recipe for yourself,
grab a copy at our website dinner.com. We also have the details on the Bucatini
amatriciana. We’ll be doing later. Find us without typing and spelling
by using your phone to scan the QR code
in the corner of the screen, which is a fancy way of
just saying open up. The regular camera pointed at the TV,
as if you’re about to take a photo, and when your camera recognizes that box
in the corner, just zoom in on it. It’s all you have to
do. A link to us will pop up. Not there yet. Not there yet. So look at that
nice little cross going on that one. Yes. All right, well, this one gets a little
bit of that crust going over here. What can I do to help you with
what looks like some beautiful beautiful beautiful to. So we’re
just going to put this right in the pan. These are San Marzano tomatoes. Whole peeled. And this is again
a sauce that you can do easily at home. And it’s just whole tomatoes, salt, basil
We’re taking a quick break. When we come back, just equally
quick idea for dinner continues as we got our eggplant into the oven with a little help
from a few layers of cheese ahead. Identity is. Well, welcome back to dinner. Dinners where we’re eating Italian
with our friend Paul Barcelona, who’s from Barcelona. Oh, he’s not, but the world would be
a much more poetic place if he was. He’s actually from Jersey, but
with a very, very, very Italian heritage. Today
he’s here to make two classic dishes. Eggplant parmesan. Sorrentino and later,
Bucatini Amatriciana. And before the break, my friend,
we prep the eggplant. There was no salting,
no seasoning, no breadcrumbs, even for that, just slicing
into medallions the Italian way. Then did it have an egg in the coating of flour and cook them in
with a little bit of olive oil while they browned? Really, really nice. You can see all that deep colors
right over there. So we started on a sauce and this was just
whole San Marzano tomatoes right on the can with salt, basil,
a little more olive oil, very clean. And now this is going to be
a foundational sauce for us because we’re going to use it for one
dish, use it for another. So can I help you over here and reserve
some. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I need about, maybe six ounces. Okay. So then this is a three ounce label
here up and some nice old tomatoes also in there. Okay. Some of that basil in there too. And that’s it. That’s it. That’s it for the amatriciana sauce
here. Okay. So then we could use some of this now because we’re going to start
layering our eggplant. Absolutely. All right. The eggplant went in the saucepan
the saute pan. So we know that’s going to be warm
and hot and ready to go. Because we’re going to be using
that in a little bit. A little bit on top. And then what type of cheese. That’s Pecorino Romano okay. And I’m just fitting I don’t want it to to bleed out
too much okay. And that was going to be
a slice of mozzarella now. And you can get a pre sliced at the store. And you want to have a whole milk. Whole milk not part. Yeah. Yeah. One of the first things
I always learn from my father. And another thing
a lot of people don’t know what’s really interesting about whole milk
mozzarella. Not not fresh mozzarella,
but a sliced whole milk. The manufactured date needs to be 3 to 6 weeks
from the time you use it. If it’s too fresh, it’ll burn. Okay. Yeah. If it’s too fresh, it’ll. My father first told me that I was like,
what the hell is it? What’s what is he talking about? And, then, believe it or not, it was in a, it was in a magazine from Soho Foods. A food purveyor. And it said, use your mozzarella. Within 3 to 6 weeks.
I was like, oh, look at that. He was like, he was right. He wasn’t. My father knows best. The way he would teach me was like, yeah,
what do you mean you don’t know that? Like I was supposed
to, 25 and 26 years old. I was like, no, I would
I know that I would. You do, you do. He knew. Yeah. All right. So. That’s one order. Okay. And I do need the basil. All right. I got your basil right here. Thank you sir. Okay. That’s a in the sauce. San Marzano tomatoes, Basil salt, easy olive oil. And what makes it the sauce? Tina, that’s just from Sorrento. That’s that’s, that’s the style. I mean, the whole tomatoes,
it doesn’t get any garlic. It is, your own. When you taste it later, you’ll see,
it’s like a burst of flavor. It’s almost like a it’s almost like an, the sauce that goes on a Neapolitan style
pizza. Okay,
so just the subtle sweetness behind it not going to hit you with the garlic
because, like, you think Italian. So it’s going to be garlic, garlic,
garlic and Italy. They cook with a lot less garlic
actually when we make the amatriciana, there’s a debate. And the mayor of a mattress
where the dish came from, actually chimed in on the debate and said, no garlic,
there is no garlic in amatriciana sauce. And like, and this was, this is like, if you look up the sauce,
it talks about that. And I mean, if the government
is getting involved in a sauce like which has been like the dish,
right, like this is there is. Yeah, yeah. And that is beyond
just saying it tastes really good. Just like Italian wine, gets classified, you know, Doc Dog, with different, higher classifications. Yeah. So does food. So an amatriciana sauce has the highest qualification
for traditional. It’s like a patty stamp for the,
for traditional Italian cuisine. I love it to make this authentic eggplant
parmesan. Sorrentino for your dinner. The details on
everything we’ve done is in the recipe that you can grab at our website.
Dinner desktop. Scan the QR code in the corner of the screen
to find this on your phone while you walk. We go in the oven. Let’s go for it. Oh, I need to do one, two. And now you’ve got. This is what’s interesting
about the sauce also. But one slice of cheese. That’s it. Just one slice of cheese going in there
with what’s left. And I’m making a unpleasant little scraping noise here. Just move it around like that. No, this is I mean, I love cheese,
I love cheese, and I love the this is the parmesan cheese to that sauce
to just kind of this is a trick. And what will this do for well thickens it
up and incorporates into the sauce. Okay. You can turn it off the flame. Turn the flame off. Oh yeah. In the restaurant I also have, and Yoki Sorrentino
and made the same way with Enoki. Yeah. And it gets the. You can look at that and it’s delicious. It’s got a little, I mean, that melted
cheese right there, too. It. All right, so I hope it brings out
a nice little goes right on top. So. There you go. Now we are ready. All right. So the last bit had that she’s mixing
the sauce on top and has all those beautiful layers
of that mozzarella the parmesan a little more parmesan going on top here. And then this oven. Andiamo 500 degrees. My friends like that’s hot. That’s what we cook in the restaurant. Yeah. So, 500, you could go less at home, but,
it just cook it a little bit longer, okay? The cheese just needs to melt. The cheese just needs to beat.
So that’s it? Just a few minutes
is what you’re looking for that. Yeah. That’s it. Yeah. 4 or 5 minutes. What’s next then. Okay. We are making my favorite Italian dish from the other side. Okay. My favorite
Italian American dish. Rigatoni. Vodka. Yeah. This Italian dish. When I say from the other side, really? Restaurants just started making it
within the past ten years, I would say. And now cacio e Pepe, of course. So cacio e Pepe is the beginning. That is cheese and black pepper. Essentially with pasta water. You add guanciale to that, which is what we’re putting in right now,
because what is gone, Charlie, for come pork
cheek to just the cheek of it. This is the job of it. Yeah. And you have a greasier sauce. And then from the greasier sauce,
if you add, egg, you have carbonara. Yeah. And if you add tomatoes, you have amatriciana. And so this is the classic
because those are the four pillars. Those are the four pillars of the sauces
for we’re an Italian cuisine. Now we’re rolling for Roman. Oh beloved. For those four shots lower that a little
easy to find here in the States. Now. Not too easy. You can use pancetta,
so pitch head is a good substitute. That 100%. But guanciale I mean really again if you ask, you know, a person on the other side,
they’re going to say, you know, no, absolutely no pancetta, no garlic. But here
I put a little bit of garlic in mine. And and then it’s 5050 on chili flakes. I put a little bit of chili
flakes as well. Okay. Okay. Dinner idea one is in the oven. Dinner I still do is get you going
or almost done. So we’re going to take another break
and we come back. We make our second simple sauce and
see how our eggplant looks one day ahead. Identity is. Welcome back to dinner Dinners where we’ve been making
double the dinner ideas. Stay with Paul Barcelona. Who wants Esposito’s in Tampa celebrating
its fifth anniversary this month. And he’s sharing a how to make two of their most popular
dishes an eggplant parmesan Sorrentino, which we finish before the break,
and Bucatini Amatriciana, which we’re making right now
before the break, we used one sauce for both dishes, saving
some for the amatriciana and using the Rus in our eggplant parm layer with cheese
and the eggplant slices we fried earlier. Adding a little basil
and mixing cheese into the sauce just before we added the final layer
and got it all into the oven. Well,
we cooked up guanciale for our other dish. Are much excuse me amatriciana,
which has just taken on beautiful colors and I think it’s ready
to meet its friend over here. Some pasta. So can I help you with that?
I believe so, yeah. Salt. First and then we do a. Oh you got a pound there. So one and a half tablespoons. What I’ve got will go a little bit
more than the sides and know exactly like what does it tell you. The ocean. You have to just kind of
and one and a half tablespoons. I’ll keep an eye
and keep moving this around. because we got our eggplant there. Eggplant came out of the oven and it doesn’t need much else of anything. I mean I’m
going to put a little bit of parsley. A little bit of cheese back on top. I mean so quick, so simple. It’s a beautiful
I mean that looks absolutely. I can’t wait for that to cool down
for us to get a bite into that. But we have our Guan Charlie here. So we’re going to finish the Amatriciana sauce first,
I’m adding my tomatoes. Okay. Now I’m adding
these are just Roma tomatoes. like I said some debate. We’re putting a little bit of garlic. We’re going to add
a little bit of pasta water. Now that also is going to have
the starches from the pasta which is going to help thicken. It is going to help thick in the sauce. making today. Go to our website dinner.com,
or you can read along on your phone. If you Then we can add the tomatoes now. So then they can sit there and soak up all that flavor as well. I’m gonna. back, we finish up one more dinner ahead of dinner days. Welcome back to dinner ideas with two ideas for dinner
with the same sauce from Paul Vassallo, an owner of Esposito’s
Italian restaurant in Tampa. Before the break,
we finished up our eggplant parmesan. Zorn. Tina. Now we’re about to finish up
our bucatini Amatriciana. During the break, we add a little crushed red pepper flakes,
but otherwise a very, very simple sauce. Very few ingredients. I mean, five, six. That’s it. So simple. How do we bring this all together? So it’s ready in the pan. And we take our bucatini. Could even find that
it’s coming right out of. You still have some water
because that’s going to lend to the sauce. Also. In this dish is traditionally with bucatini
you can make it with rigatoni. That you know,
you’ll see that is a variation. But the bucatini is my favorite
because it’s like a little giant straw that, like, just takes
all the sauce inside. Like you got a little hole at the end,
like, it’s just all ready for this. Like, this is perfect for it. Give it a little flip.
Let me get more. Is. Oh, here we go. Just move it around in the pan. Sorry for the unpleasant sound on the flip. Flip? Oh, yeah. You got that guanciale
mixed with your diced Roma tomatoes. This is one of those that also,
like, comes together when you played it. And when I say that is because you’re also relying on the flavor
of the Pecorino Romano, which is going to bring a nice saltiness
behind it. Yes. I always plate the pasta first. I’m going to add a little bit of pasta water, and that’s just to help it
just a little bit. So it has a little bit more a little more
a little more behind. Exactly. Okay. This cheese is going to go in right. That just to get another bit of that
Romano cheese. Yep. Another little layer okay. And then you’re just taking that guanciale
and the tomatoes on top like that. Oh that’s a pro move right there. That’s it okay. That’s it. Oh now Pepper and you’re not shy with it. Just like we talked about earlier this dish derived from cacio e Pepe Carbonara has the egg. And then the tomatoes is amatriciana. So since we have
pepper then we need cheese. That literally finishes the dish. That’s it. Oh, come on now. Now you’re teasing me with that little
fresh parsley right there. That parsley. That’s it, that’s it. Oh thanks again to Paul Barcelona. Grab his recipe for both his ideas
for dinner at dinner deals.com, where we also have a link
to his restaurant. Esposito’s. I’m Jeff Philbin. Thanks for watching and see you next time with more ideas for dinner,
as we call them. Then it is,
let’s try that bad boy. Got it?
Dining and Cooking