Mille Grazie

My ever-generous neighbors - the ones that live below us, the ones that live below us and have suffered through my son's love of cowboy boots and trucks, thundering lacrosse balls, basketballs,  wii games, and now the rare but occasional temper and rage of a 7th grader - those neighbors that are so giving and forgiving, so other wordly nice and warm - recently bequeathed to me a cookbook.  A really nice cookbook.  A cookbook that they swear by, which means everything to me. 

And this cookbook happened to be Nate Appleman's A16.

A16 is both a restaurant/wine bar in SF and also the highway that runs east and west, through the Campania region in Southern Italy.  I have not been on A16.  I've been on A3 and was lost on SS145, when we took a trip to Sorrento and Massa Lubrense. 


The recipes are not your basic how-to's, although there are some very simple ones. They are more complex, but not complicated.  They require some studying and some homework.  And all this effort is completely worth the outcome.  Particularly, if the outcome transports you to the warm and delicious Naples and Puglia. 

And after thumbing through this cookbook, I hope I can get lost on A16.