Mario Batali brings his 'Big American Cookbook' to Santa Rosa

Mario Batali, the award-winning New York chef whose signature outfit consists of a fleece vest, shorts and orange Crocs, makes no apologies about the comfort foods he seeks out when he’s criss-crossing the country on book tours and vacations.

The Seattle native, who got his start cooking at a stromboli restaurant while attending Rutgers College in New Jersey, likes to sniff out simple, mom-and-pop places where locals like to eat.

It’s the type of food that “tastes like the wind when it blows down Main Street,” he said. And it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

“When you grow up in the Pacific Northwest, your regular day includes Dungeness crab and clams and apples and plums,” he said in a phone interview from New York. “So when I travel, I think, ‘I wonder what they have here that is as happy-making as that?’”

After he returns home, Batali re-creates those pleasurable bites in his own kitchen for his wife and two sons - from the Pit Beef Sandwiches of Baltimore to the Fried Grouper Sandwich of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Over the years, the chef has amassed a raft of all-American recipes worthy of blue-ribbon state fairs, church socials and parking-lot tailgates.

Batali stuffed as many of those dishes as he could into his newest tome, “Mario Batali - Big American Cookbook,” featuring 250 recipes organized by regions and illustrated by mouthwatering photographs and circa 1960 retro maps.

Affectionately known as “Molto Mario,” Batali will talk about his recently released cookbook at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts as part of Copperfield’s Books author events. Having narrowly missed Hurricane Matthew in Florida, Batali said he is looking forward to hanging out with a few of his culinary friends on the West Coast, including Duskie Estes of Zazu restaurant in Sebastopol and fellow Food Network star Guy Fieri.

“What always knocks me out is the incredible length of the growing season in Sonoma County and the amazing things that people forage,” he said. “So when I get there, I will let it rip ... I tend to love the coastal seafood and the cioppino.”

The culinary mogul has 25 restaurants, from New York City and Las Vegas to Singapore and Hong Kong, plus 13 cookbooks, three “Eataly” marketplaces and numerous TV shows to his name. Yet he confessed that he fell into his latest cookbook project almost by accident.

“I didn’t even think I was writing a book,” Batali said. “This is a collection of stuff that I found was cool but did not come out of a four-star experience. And that’s more exciting to me.”

In “Big American Cookbook,” Batali interprets America’s melting-pot dishes - from Norwegian Lefse potato bread and Swedish Meatballs to Eastern European Pierogies and Chicago’s Italian Beef Sandwiches - with the same passion he brought to the traditional and regional cooking of Italy and Spain and to New York City restaurants such as Bar Jamon and Del Posto.

From the chowders of New England and New York to the red and green chili of Texas, Batali contends that there’s a lot of culinary tradition in America worth bragging about.

“The general American approach to things is that they don’t take a lot of time,” he said. “But if you want to trick someone from Europe, the intensely proud versions of North and South Carolina barbecue would blow them away. They are so enthralled by it because it’s so good ... but it’s just time and smoke.”

For busy home cooks who just want to get a meal on the table, “Big American Cookbook” also offers a raft of easy recipes made from humble ingredients like Ritz crackers and Tater Tots.

“I kept the recipes as simple and realistic as I can make them,” Batali said. “Everything is made with grocery store ingredients.”

The cookbook telegraphs the message that it’s OK if you don’t source organic ingredients from the farm market every night. But if you do want to give these traditional dishes a new twist, Batali often adds his own ideas for boosting the flavor - a dusting of chile peppers here, a sprinkle of fresh mint there.

For those with a sweet tooth, there’s a smorgasbord of regional desserts, from the simple Chess Pie of the Deep South to the peanut-butter-and-chocolate Buckeye candy of the Great Lakes.

“This is my biggest dessert presentation ever,” Batali said. “They are all so unique and remarkably easy to make.”

If you’re inspired to throw a party, Batali also sprinkles in a rainbow of cocktail recipes, such as the famed Mint Juleps of the Kentucky Derby and the bright pink Prickly Pear Margarita of the Southwest.

Spoiler alert: Those on a diet may not want to spend a lot of time with this book. If they fry it, this cookbook will try it, including Fried Cheese Curds, Fried Chicken, Fried Green Tomatoes and Chicken Fried Steak with Crispy Cornmeal Okra, the official food of Oklahoma.

But if you are of a certain age, “Big American Cookbook” is guaranteed to induce nostalgia and a hunger for simpler times, when you could enjoy such frugal feasts as Boston brown bead and baked beans, Kentucky Hot Browns and the famed Red Beans and Rice of New Orleans.

The book also offers a pantry’s worth of preserves, from the Orange Marmalade of Florida to the Fig-Lemon Jam of the Southwest, plus all kinds of puckery pickles, including Chow-Chow relish and Pickled Jalapeños.

“When I grew up, we pickled and preserved everything,” Batali said. “It turns out we just were not as rich as I thought we were.”

The following recipes are excerpted from “Mario Batali - Big American Cookbook” by Mario Batali and Jim Webster, with permission from Grand Central Publishing. If you want to throw a Southern tailgate party, Batali suggests roasting oysters as an appetizer.

Slow-Cooker ?Carolina BBQ Pork

Serves 6 to 8

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 boneless pork shoulder, 3 to

4 pounds, cut into 3-inch chunks

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

- Hamburger buns for serving

- Chopped coleslaw for serving

In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. Add the oil to form a paste. Toss the pork in the mixture, cover, and refrigerate for an hour. Remove from fridge and pat the pork dry with paper towels.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the pork on two or three sides. Move the pork to a slow cooker. With the skillet still over the heat, add 1 1/2 cups water to the pan and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to dislodge any pork or spices. Add the tomato paste, vinegar, tamarind paste, and Worcestershire and bring to a boil. Pour that over the pork, cover, and set the slow cooker on Low to cook for 8 to 10 hours.

When the pork is cooked, pull the chunks out and shred with two forks. Transfer the cooking liquid to a saucepan over medium-high heat. (Or just remove the insert on your slow cooker and put in on your cooktop if yours is so equipped.) Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by one third and thickened. Add the shredded meat to the pot and toss.

Serve on hamburger buns with a coleslaw of your choice.

Collard Greens ?and Potlikker

Serves 8 to 10

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 pounds smoked meat (ham hocks, turkey wings, or neck bones)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning

3 large bunches collard greens (about 3 pounds), stems removed and discarded, leaves rinsed and cut into inch-wide ribbons

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons hot sauce

- Freshly ground black pepper

- Pepper Vinegar (see below) for serving

In a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat.

Lightly score the skin on the ham hock or turkey wing (if you use necks, you won’t need to score) and place in the pot. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add 8 cups water and the salt. Bring the water to a boil, then cover the pot, reduce the heat, and simmer for about an hour.

Add the collards, vinegar, sugar, and hot sauce. Stir until the collards are wilted into the liquid, then cover and simmer for 11/2 to 2 hours. Check occasionally for tenderness, and replenish with a cup or two of water if it seems dry. The greens are ready when they’re tender, but still have some texture. Remove the hock, wing, or neck. Pick any meat from the bones, chop it and stir it into the pot. Discard the bones. Season with salt and pepper to taste-I like a lot of both. Serve with the Pepper Vinegar (and cornbread for sopping up the likker).

Pepper vinegar: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm 2 cups white wine vinegar but do not boil. Meanwhile, with a sharp knife, poke a slit through a few small chile peppers (serrano, Thai bird or Tabasco) and drop them, one by one, into an empty wine bottle, preferably a clear bottle from white wine. Whisk 1 teaspoon of kosher salt into the warm vinegar. With a funnel, pour the vinegar into the bottle and top with a pour-spout. It should sit at least a day but will be better after a week.

Woodford Pudding

Serves 9

For the pudding:

2 pints fresh blackberries

11/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3 large eggs

½ cup sour cream

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

For the sauce:

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup bourbon or sherry

2 tablespoons cream

For the pudding: In a bowl, toss the blackberries with ½ cup of the granulated sugar. Set aside for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the remaining 1 cup sugar and the butter.

Add the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.

Still beating, gradually mix that into the butter mixture until well incorporated.

Fold the berries and their juice into the batter and pour the batter into the baking dish. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile make the sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the brown sugar and butter and cook until the sugar melts, then until it starts to caramelize, about 8 minutes total. Off the heat, add the bourbon and cream. Return to the heat and whisk until smooth.

Serve the pudding warm with the sauce on top.

Staff writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56.