ITALIAN
WITH A TWIST!

By Cathy Thomas
The Orange County Register

No clutter or chaos. No slicing. No dicing. open and pour. Simmer, sample, serve. "It's very easy to cook when you have a great sauce to start with," said Antonio Cagnolo, owner of Antonello Ristorante in Santa Ana.

Last year, Cagnolo launched his own line of bottled pasta sauces. I joined him in his Newport Beach home to watch the preparation of some of his fast, sauce-based entrees. Main courses in which the sauce not only augmented the finished dish but was also used for poaching.

Chicken breasts, fish fillets and eggs. Even fresh mozzarella cheese.

Cooking without soiling a knife or cutting board. And forget the apron. Cagnolo doesn’t plan on spilling one drop on his perfectly tailored, swanky designer ensemble. Definitely no-sweat cuisine.

"Everything is in the sauce. Why would I want to start chopping?" he asked. His position at the island stove looked theatrical as beams of morning light flooded through skylights in the cathedral ceiling. He faced a view that includes both Newport Bay and the ocean beyond. But the Italian villa-like decor of the house made me feel like I was lunching on the Mediterranean.

I sat opposite him on one of four tapestry-padded stools and watched as he poured a bottle of his Livornese sauce into a heavy-bottomed skillet. At 6-foot-4, Cagnolo towers over the stove. His well-toned physique makes him look Like a model for a roman sculptor.

The sauce, redolent with tomatoes, kalamata olives, garlic and oregano, started to bubble. He slid two pristine sea bass fillets into the crimson bath.

Gently spooning the sauce over the fish and covering it with a lid, Cagnolo chatted about the daily food celebration in his childhood home in Bistagno, a northern Italian town nestled at the foot of the Alps.

"There was always a lot of people in the house; the door was always open to guests," he said. "Everything was fresh".

One of my grandfathers had the butcher shop, the other owned the mill. So we had the best meat and the best flour for pasta and polenta. All our vegetables were from our garden and the eggs from our chickens. Fresh truffles and porcini (mushrooms). And my father hunted and fished, so we had game and fish. I even stomped the grapes to make wine.

"I knew quality food at an early age. We had what nature gave us. We knew how to cook spontaneously, knew how to cook seasonally. It was a treat when my mother bought something. When she bought ketchup for dipping bread, we thought it was something fancy," said Cagnolo, who describes himself not as a chef but an owner with a good palate.

A palate honed not only in the home of his youth but by working his way through European hotel-management schools and drudging in restaurants from Monte Carlo to London before opening his restaurant in 1979.

Noting that the fish were cooked to perfection, he positioned. them in a puddle of warm sauce on a Gianni Versace designed. porcelain plate and gar. Garnished it with steamed vegetables.

"See, all you need is a knife, fork and a bottle of Chardonnay," he said, his laughing brown eyes dancing with glee. "If you want, you can break up the fish and toss it with cooked pasta and, of course, the sauce. Or you can use different kinds of fish but the shrimp is really better with the arrabbiata sauce."

He likes the spicier arrabbiata sauce with chicken, too. He heated some in the same skillet, added a whole boneless and skinless chicken breast, and repeated the same procedure, covering and simmering until the bird was completely cooked. On the plate, the chicken snuggled in the chili-scented sauce. Cubes of cooked potato formed a jagged wall around the edge of the plate.

"Or do a delicious rack of lamb," he continued. "First brown the lamb in a little olive oil; remove it and brown some sliced onion, .J fresh rosemary, minced j garlic and fresh parsley. When the onions are caramelized, add a little white wine. Put Lamb on top and add half arrabbiata sauce and half pomodoro sauce (a traditional tomato-based marinara sauce scented with garlic and erbs)."

He suggested that the pomodoro sauce was also good for poaching eggs. It’s a traditional dish called Salsa di Pomodoro con Uova e Piselli. First heat the sauce — it’s important to simmer, not boil so that the eggs will gently poach and not break apart. Add frozen or fresh peas. Then break 2-4 large eggs into the sauce. Cover and simmer for about 3 minutes. And serve the eggs in the sauce. Or just scramble the eggs and serve them with the sauce with a thin layer of smoked salmon, then broil it quickly and serve it in the warm pomodoro or Livornese sauce. Amazing!

"You know," Cagnolo said, "when you entertain, everyone ends up in the kitchen. That’s where the fun is. That’s where the love is." Love, Italian kitchen-style.

Look it up: One of Cagnolo’s favorite cookbooks is "The Pasta Bible" by Christian Teuber, Silvia Rizzo and Tan Lee Leng (Penquin, 1996, $29.95). He says the recipes are simple and clean.

The competition: His favorite non-Antonello spot is the China Palace in Newport Beach. He really enjoys Chinese cuisine and

Food fave: Filetto Piatto is his favorite dish it’s an old recipe, steeped in tradition. Marinated medallions of filet mignon are cooked on a covered plate over simmering water. The beef cooks in its own juices, along a little juice, oregano and extra-virgin olive oil. It’s served on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes. It’s always on the menu at Antonello.

Openers: His favorite way to start an at-home meal is a beautiful sliced tomato salad accented with the best extra-virgin olive oil (he likes the Eros brand) and balsamic vinegar. "For two people, slice 1-2 large, ripe tomatoes on a plate. Drizzle with extra-virgin oil of olive. son with salt, pepper, dried— oregano and fresh basil. Put it in the refrigerator for 1 hour so the flavors can soak in. Then toss it with mache — a dark green salad leaf — or arugula and a few drops, just a tiny bit, of balsamic vinegar. Serve with plenty of good bread.

Next up: A two-week trip to Italy with his executive chef, Franco Barone. He says that food wise, he and Barone work from the same sheet of music. They’ll be researching farmhouse recipes and returning with Cagnolo's mother for her annual Mother’s Day visit to California. Cagnolo says that his mother will always be his No. 1 culinary hero.