Road Foodie

Posted By bbinns on January 6, 2009

1.2.09 Tomorrow we will hit the road again, up to San Luis Obispo for three weeks of sun, vines, ocean, and quiet time—and all in one place. But after a night of recovery from the excesses of New Year’s Eve, tonight is pizza night. We are in the hands of an estimable team indeed: Jacopo—also know as John Kassir, whose voice would be familiar to fans of “Tales From the Crypt” (if you could hear it) and visage to quite a few others—is a master of the pie, almost as serious about his crusts as I am (see “I’ll Fry For You Brigitina…” /Roadtrip: Italy, in the archives at left, for tales of our Italian wood-fired oven exploits—oh, and I wrote a little Pizza book for Williams-Sonoma).
We will be about 12 at table, so Jacopo whips up 87 pounds of dough, plus some gluten-free, biscuity stuff for his new pal Amanda, who seems to fit right in with the misfits that make up our merry band. (This here group of our friends knows one another pretty well, after having been thrown together on our 4-day wedding extravaganza near Siena back in 2004—when people like us still traveled to Europe.)

The sauce is a quick one, but it has that requisite tang of oregano, and I note that John is using a light hand with the toppings. (I get a tad het up when people put too much topping on a poor defenseless piece of virginal dough—it’s supposed to be a condiment, for God’s sake.) Chris Wright has brought, as usual, a bottle of wine per person, which he swears is the usual allowance (he has a special zipper suitcase to transport them safely). And these are Not Just Any Wines: There are two bottles of Gavi, to make me feel better about the fact that I have Not Been To Italy In Over Two Years, and lots of yummy Robert Hall Pinot Noir. Dutch has brought several bottles of the sprightly Syrah that he makes himself, in Malibu (Zuma Vista). I semi-wow the table with some New York State reds, about which I am meant to be writing (like, last year). John has offered to host this get-together for our friends, who are appalled at the brief time we are spending together in LA this winter (this is, sadly, due to Austerity ’09, but we’re trying to cram lots of catch-up into a small period of time).
John ends up working hard all night, rolling, topping, shifting pans in and out of the oven, and wielding his pro-pizza cutter while everyone else loudly enjoys wine, conversation, and his excellent pie. There is excitement about the upcoming inauguration, but this group of actors (and agents, acting/directing teachers, and actor’s dear friends and partners) is very worried about the chance of another actor’s strike. After the misery brought by the last strike, and in the face of everyone’s own version of Austerity ’09, what effect could such a posturing position possibly have?
We offer our huge thanks to John for his gracious hospitality, and promise to return the favor somehow, someday, somewhere….We’ll be back here again at the end of January, so there will be another excuse to gather and make merry before C jets back East and leaves me all alone. (Well, alone with Stella—one of the best companions ever in the history of dogdom.)

Stella and I have bigbigbig adventures planned for our six weeks of solo-time.

Category: In the West | Write To Me
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