Italian Table for Two

Y'all, today I've got somebody very special stopping by

My friend Frank is coming all the way from New York to bring a little Southern Italian flavor to Southern Lady with his homemade marinara

I'm undeserving. No, you are more than deserving. Which will be fabulous with my Southern chicken cacciatore

Perfect. We're a great team, Frank. And finally, I'm showing Frank how dessert is done with this ultimate tiramisu cake

Yum. What the hell is to look at me

On a stage, I am Frank. Brandon, I hear the door. Let's see who it is

Hey, Frank Brandon. Hi, Brandon. How are you? Good. Come on in. I was just showing Brandon your tape

You're prettier than my tape. Believe me. Frank is a great guy

You would probably recognize Frank from The Sopranos, Goodfellas. His restaurant is probably the hardest restaurant to get a seat in here in America

Well, let's go into the kitchen. Okay. Well, I brought you some Southern Italian to the deep south

Southern Italian. I came down here to visit Paula because I think there's a real kinship

You know, she does Southern cooking and I do Southern Italian cooking

Well, Frank, I'm going to make you a tiramisu cake. And I will help you get tied up

That's it. You're precious. You know who you remind me of? Al Pacino

Oh. Yum. All right, I want you to put in one cup of hot water in this bowl

Dilute this two tablespoons of granulated espresso. Okay. And then one cup of vegetable oil

And then we've got three eggs. We've got a cup of sour cream

And I'm going to come down here, and I'm going to put our dry ingredients. And then you and I are going to meet in the middle

Okay? And I'm going to put in two and a half cups of all-purpose flour

I'm going to add one and three quarters of sugar. One and a half teaspoons of baking soda

One teaspoon of baking powder. And a fourth a teaspoon of salt

Now, you can go ahead and add the eggs to that, and the sour cream's going to be last

Okay. We'll stir that into our batter. What we're going to do now is if you would just add your wet to my dry

Look at that beautiful, milky, chocolatey-looking batter. So if you would, just whip that together

Okay. And I'll be getting our sour cream ready to go. And there you go

I may have wished I joined you with the aprons, because I don't know if you noticed, but I really dressed up today for you

My Aunt Anna, who was the head chef at Reyes for many years, she would wear white cashmere sweaters, silk blouses

No. White wool slacks. In the kitchen? And she'd work all night in the kitchen to come out and out of spot on her

No. It was unbelievable. How did she do that? No one knows

It's still a mystery, but she did it. After you blend in our cup of sour cream, I've got three buttered cake pans over here waiting

And what we're going to do is try to evenly distribute our batter

And that looks great. You ready? Yes. So there we go. So there we go

Perfect. We're a great team, Frank. Now these are going into the oven, Frank, at 350, 18 to 22 minutes

And I kind of have a feeling with all those beautiful ingredients you just brought

you're going to teach me how to make a marinara sauce. A quick, easy

Rayo's way. Rayo's quick, easy marinara sauce. How old is your restaurant

How old's Rayo's? Rayo's is 115 years old. Oh, come on. Same family, same place

Who is the most famous to come into your restaurant? Bill Clinton

We had a great time with him. Uh-uh. Yeah. How did Bill Clinton get a table

I'm not telling you, but... So I'm tearing up some basil, and Frank, I see you're chopping the three cloves of garlic

Paula, we need about less than half of that onion. Less than half. I need diced. Okay, Frank, and what do you got there

Salt pork. Yeah, we got a little salt pork. You score it

So I'll do a little bit of this fat pack. You put it in, you know, skin set down, low heat

and you let it render. I see you got some oil and your garlic already in there You know what I think I gonna do I think I gonna come over here and just see if I have an apron I don want to get grease on my top

This is turning a little golden brown under there. It's already... Yeah, and you can already get a little bouquet

I'm gonna take this out now. Okay. And I'm gonna add now a little bit of that onion

We're gonna saute that. Okay, we give that about a minute or so

What do you need, baby? I've got to crush these tomatoes. Oh, okay. So let's lower that

Okay. I'm actually just going to take that off the heat for a minute

Yeah. All right. That's the same way I crush mine. Okay. This is what we do

The way I add, you know, ingredients. I'm a believer in when you get the perfect aroma, when it's released its bouquet, that's when you add the next ingredient

so that you capture it at its moment. Okay. And it'll kind of stay

Have you ever been to chef's school? Never. Me neither. Okay, yeah

I learned from my grandmother. So did I. My grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, my mother

Those are the best teachers in the world. Absolutely. Raise that heat. When I put the tomato in, I like to add salt

We're just going to bring this to a boil. Then we're going to reduce it to a simmer

And believe it or not, this will only take 10, 15 minutes. Oh, I smell the salt pork

This will smell even better when we finish it with the basil Oh my gosh

Up next, Frank's marinara may just be too good for words, y'all

I love this stuff And later, Frank's bringing a little southern Italian charm to the Georgia South

Oh, Frank It couldn't be better than this So, Frank, the marinara is smelling wonderful

So, if you would just tear up that basil. Okay. Because what I'm going to add

You want me to drop it in as I tear or is it too soon? You can. And the only thing I'm going to add now is a little bit of black pepper

Yes. Now, by the way, if you like your sauce hot, then you would add the red pepper flakes

Okay. Okay. And I'm going to add just a pinch of an egg in it

Now, I'd love you to taste that. I was going to say, please. Because that's done

You know what? I've got some garlic toast right here. Okay. Oh, boy

My. Yes. Is it yummy? And this takes 20 minutes

That's what blows me away. That's it. I love this stuff. Oh, my gosh

I can live on that. Frank. Yes, my dear. It's how I refer to my food

It's honest. In Italian, we say polito, clean, pure. And that's what this is

Well, I want to do something now for you if you would help me. I need a couple of cloves of garlic

Okay. If you would pass up. No. No, I know what I want

Uh-huh. Okay. I'm going to make you a chicken cacciatore. Okay, the hunter-style chicken

What did you say? That's the hunter-style chicken, is cacciatore. Like the hunter that goes out with a gun? Exactly

Now, how did that be? I wish I knew. You know what else they used to do this with

Why? I mean, hunters, rabbit. You can make rabbit cacciatore. It's out of this world

You know, my daddy used to get up in the mornings and go hunting when we lived at River Bend

and he would shoot the rabbits and squirrels, bring them back, and Grandma would cook them for breakfast

Right. And then when I started enjoying a little success and got to move about

I would go into a fancy restaurant and they'd serve rabbit. Sure

I said, oh, my goodness, I was eating gourmet and didn't know it. Absolutely

All right. So what I'm going to ask you to do, Frank, is to dice up this bell pepper

Okay. All right, you got my garlic ready. I got your garlic. And I got to finish chopping this onion

And I will season these boneless chicken thighs. I love dark meat

That's where the flavor is and all of that. Yep. So hopefully I'm going to render out what you left of this salt pork

Now I'm going to get me a knife and just finish off my onion

Now, Frank, exactly how many movies do you think I've seen you in

Well, I've probably done about 35 movies. Wow. Over how long of a period of time

Over 35 years, so it's been a long time. I even cooked in the movies because I was in Goodfellas

Yes. And in the jail scene in there, I was the guy cooking the steaks

And I said to one of the other guys how do you want your steak Because I was frying steaks and he said medium rare And I said hmm an aristocrat And it turned out to be one of the most famous lines in the movie okay

And that whole scene was done improv. Martin Scorsese just told us, talk about the neighborhood, talk about food, talk about things like that

The reason that line came to me was, my father overcooked meat

My father loved meat so well done that you couldn't eat it

The older generation, yes. They'd eat like that. Yeah. And that was my father's line

If someone said to my father they wanted their meat medium rare or rare

my father would say, hmm, an aristocrat. So that immediately came to my head, and that's what we did

Brilliant. It was very genius on your part. It was a great film. I'm going to scoot on over here

Okay. So now I'm just going to salt and pepper my chicken, y'all

All right, so I'm just gonna sear off these boneless thighs along with that piece of gold in there

Yeah. So, you know what? We've got to get a table set

Well, how about I set the table for us and you and I can have a little repartee together

You would set the table? I certainly would. Frank, we're not going to have any marinara sauce left

Paula, leave some. Paula, I think you have enough linens for an army

I know. I never know how many people are going to show up around here, Frank. Are you smelling my stuff

I'm smelling. Smells great. Paula, I'm going to set all this stuff up outside

and we're going to have a little rails right outside here on your porch. Okay

I'm undeserving. No, you are more than deserving. After I add the sauce, we're going to cover it and let it simmer all together

All right, now I'm going to cut down my heat, and I'm going to put a lid on this

Look at this. Up next, the finishing touches to our chicken cacciatore

That's a pretty dish. Oh, my God, it may be in love. And later, do you think I'd tear them a suitcase can get any better

I'm going to put a mascarpone filling. So, did you get our table set, Frank

I have the table all set for us. It's going to be lovely. I know it is

And that's going to make you a suspended Twitter. Yes! So we need to take the salt pork out of our pan now, Frank

So if you would take that out. And again, though, you know, people should remember, that's optional

I mean, you and I love it. In my world, it's not an option

But it is optional. It'll be great without it. And I have to tell you, that was the most incredible marinara sauce I've ever tasted

Thank you very much. The simpleness of it. And you get it

You know, I don't know what to say. It happens. All right. If you'll take the salt pork and we'll cut this off and cover it

Yeah. Because I've got some other things for you to do. Okay. This is ready

We need to get, we got our water boiling back here. We need to put our linguine on

Okay. And then we're going to finish putting our tiramisu together. Okay

And I've got a bottle of coffee liqueur, Frank. Okay. And I've got me a little pastry brush

So I'm going to just brush. If you would, darling, put the linguine in

Okay. And do that pot any way you want to. I'm going to salt this water

Yes, baby. This kitchen is yours for the day. Yum, this smells so good

So this is going to help moisten up our tiramisu cake. All right, there we go

All right, so Frank, I've got you eight ounces of a semi-sweet chocolate

You can either chop it or just break it however you want to do

I've got your pan on. Heat your heavy cream. Melt the chocolate in the heavy cream

Okay. I have got our cakes just soaking. So I'm going to put a mascarpone filling in between each layer

Do you love mascarpone? Love mascarpone. Oh, my goodness. I adore it, too

Now I'm going to take our mascarpone, put it in our bowl

I'm going to add a fourth of a cup of white sugar, and use that whole cup of heavy cream to melt the chocolate, please, Frank

I'm gonna beat my mascarpone. There we go Get that nice and smooth Now I going to measure us out a half a cup of heavy cream

And I'm going to beat that in there. All right, yours is really boiling over there, Frank

It's coming. Yeah, Mike, you want to give it a stir, darling. I will

And our linguine back there is just a boiling. I can't hardly wait to eat the chicken cacciatore

I can't hardly wait. So you said you've done three Woody Allen movies

Right. What was it like working with him? It was actually wonderful

I mean, you know, I think the man is brilliant. And what's great is when, you know, when you're on the set and he's working, you can watch him think

He never stops thinking. And you can see him look and watch and look for nuances that he'll stop in the middle and say

well, let's shoot that because I like that. It was unexpected, but it works

So let's do a whole new setup. So he recognizes something special when he sees it

He does. And so you can see the man, his brain is always working

All right. Now, we're going to have to let this cool for like 15 minutes

because it would do terrible damage to our mascarpone. Okay. Hot. So we're going to put that aside, let it cool

check on your linguine, because in a couple of minutes when this is cooled

Frank, we're going to be ready to build our cake. Coming up, I think Frank's learned a thing or two

about dessert at my house. Beautiful. You might ought to think about opening a restaurant

I'm going to put my clothes. He stays. Then it's time for our Italian getaway at home, y'all

See, I knew you were Italian. I knew you. Are you ready to get this tiramisu together

I'm ready to help you. I need your help. I'm going to put a little bit of that mascarpone right there

just so my cake won't move around. All right, the first thing we're going to do is put a layer of chocolate, and I'm going to use like half of it

How yummy does that look? That looks great. Now we're going to put our layer of mascarpone

So we want a nice layer of that. Now we are going to put a layer of ladyfingers

Okay. You know, to just get them all around there. Are we going to go around the whole cake

Yes. Okay. Yes, we're going to cover the whole layer. Okay. We're going to put one more on, and we're going to do the same thing

Beautiful. You might ought to think about opening a restaurant. I'm going to try that

It's one of these days. I'm going to try that. Now, we'll use these sticks to keep our cake layers from sliding

Then we're going to do the same thing all over again, starting with the melted chocolate

Look at that. I mean, this is like a masterpiece, isn't it? It is a masterpiece

Yum, yum. All right, so while I slap this frosting on

if you would get that wonderful entree. Okay. We are going to go to a beautiful table

That's a pretty dish. Oh, my God, it may be in love. Oh, Frank

How beautiful is this? I almost can't believe this moment. Neither can I

It's beautiful, and this is the way... It's magic. On your porch, in this beautiful setting, it couldn't be better than this

Let's eat. I am so hungry. Looks good to me. Oh, my goodness

Now, I'm kind of messy when I eat spaghetti. Mmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm

This is great. You can taste all of that flavor in here. Look at that

I'm getting better. I'm getting tighter knots. See? I knew you were Italian. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Look at this. Let's take a little bite of dessert

Oh, look, my bite's bigger than yours. That's fabulous