Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 86 - 2022 Kick Off

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

We kick off the new year with the best rigatoni recipe, the best books and the best resolution to eat more!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey, it's our goal. Hey, it's time for Breaking Bread with Papa. Hey, don't you know? Hey, it's also a show. Hey. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Breaking Bread with Tom Papa. I am Tom Papa.

Happy New Year to you. Here we go. 2022, the great reset as I am promoting it. It's based on nothing other than optimism. and hope. But I really do wish you all well. And we are going to spend today's episode going through what we've accomplished over the last year, clean out all the old stuff, talk about some of your comments, talk about some of the people that we met, and then plot our way forward. We're going to share some recipes with you. And it is just me and you. I figured

let's start off the year, you and I, which is really the heart. part of this whole breaking bread extravaganza. I mean, look, other people come to the table and join us, but we're there every single week. You and I sharing and learning and building this community. And I figured, let's start off the year going through it, highlighting the good stuff, throwing out the bad. And then next week we will start with our first guest who, I guess I could tease it now,

is Dan Richer, who is a great pizza maker. And I'll talk a little bit more about him because I have his book to share with you as well. So, oh, first of all, a big thank you to our sponsors for today's show. First of all, Tom Papa's family reunion tour is out there and rocking along. We've got new shows coming up in, let's see,

I'm going to Austin this weekend and Tucson, Arizona, then off to Newark, and then Indianapolis, Chicago, a whole bunch of stuff. Go to Tompapa.com and look up all of the tour dates. I will be coming to see you soon. I know the Omicron is out there and it's buzzing around, but it's going to flame out. Again, I'm not a doctor. This isn't based on inside information. But for the research that I do, which is reading alerts on my phone,

South Africa has already flamed out. It's already gone. Not that many casualties. And it's ran through in pata. I always said it was going to be nothing. It's more of a pain in the ass than anything else. It scrambled our holiday plans. I get it.

Whatever. We're moving forward. The shows are happening. I'm not moving anything. I don't know any other comedians that's stopping. And we're going to plow through. through and that's just the way it's going to go. We're going to dust this one off.

You're not that important anymore, COVID. You're not that important. That being said, stay safe. I'd like to thank the good people at BetterHelp. A big shout out to BetterHelp. Better Help support your mental health goals every step of the way. Listeners get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor at betterhelp.com slash Papa, P-A-P-A.

that's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P-P-com slash Papa, for 10% off your first month. We all need help. We all need people to talk to. We all need some assistance. Why not get it from a licensed professional therapist? Connect in a safe, private, online environment. It's convenient and it's a great offer for you to start off the new year, taking care of your mental health.

10% off your first month by visiting betterhelp.com slash Papa, P-A-P-A. That being said, as far as we branching off into the new year, figuring out what we're going to do, I was, you know, we all get puffy, right? You're puffy, I'm puffy. We're a little swollen this time of year. It doesn't matter from the time you start in Thanksgiving all the way through. You try and dial it in.

You know, I was climbing on my Peloton bike and peasant. my butt off and right after Thanksgiving and my buddy Matt Wilpers, who is the, I would argue, the best guy on Peloton. And he said, let's dial it in. Let's become, let's let's not let this, let's not let this holiday season get away from us. And he was right. And yeah, I get it. And it's impossible. It's literally impossible. I thought I was obeying, playing by the rules. I thought I was dialing in our motto here, moderation. But it just slides away.

You're just eating too many cookies. You're running into too many people. I mean, this isn't even the epic version of the way we did it. I mean, whenever, you know, we weren't going out as much because of all the troubles. And you're not going out to all the big parties and doing all the stuff. but you're celebrating the trees up, the fireplace is lit, and everywhere you go, it's just, and you know what, and that's a good thing. You're supposed to not worry for a little bit. But the result of that is after stuffing tons of cookies in your face and ending up with

a lot more alcohol than maybe you planned on, you end up being a little puffy. and that's kind of where I was at. And I came back from New York. We went to New York and did the whole thing, and it was great. There's a couple indicators when I'm going about my life where I know I'm the leash, I'm off the leash. And one is when I am on a flight, especially going cross-country, and they come out with the food, and they offer you all the stuff.

And most of the time you say no, I'm flying. I got to go do a show. I don't need to drink. I don't need wine. No, thank you. I'm in the middle of my workday. I mean, I got stuff to do. I don't need a cookie. I'm a grown man. I don't need a cookie at the end of the flight. Thank you. But no, thank you. This trip, I took everything. Yeah, I'll start with champagne. Yes, I will drink wine. Yes, I'll have the cheese plate. Yes, I'll have the food. Yes, I'll have a cookie. Yeah, I'll take two cookies. Thank you very much. Happy New Year to you, too. I know it's not a big thing, but it is the small, like, little mental thing of like, no,

I'm not restricting myself at all. At this moment, I'm plowing through and going for it. And that was one of the indicators. And I did enjoy it. And I went to New York and I had a good time doing it. And, you know, you run into your friends and you run into some cookies and you run into some stuff. And you just end up a little puffy.

But that's okay. Mentally, you need a break. Going into the holidays, that's what it is. You don't want to be a good boy or girl any longer. It's really what it comes down to. I've done all this stuff. Just leave me alone. Finals are over.

I'm allowed to go party with my friends. And as an adult, that's what happens. And I had some pretty epic ones. I went back to the old homestead, the old homestead in New York City with my high school friends. We do a thing every year where we go and we get a all reunite. It's a great night. Great people. Love these people. I have one of these experiences when I got through high school where I actually kept a large number of our friends. And you go to college and you meet a bunch of people and you go through your life and you meet a bunch of people and you go into comedy and meet a bunch of people.

and this group has held fast. This group is just a mix of, I think, like 12, 15 people who I love and adore. And last year we didn't get to go for the first time. We've been doing these dinners since I got out of college. We used to go to these tiny little places in New York. And then when we had no money and we forged a, we just would meet up. And it was just an excuse to hook up and see each other once a year. year. Truth be told, we see each other a lot more now. They're such good friends that we've actually

meet up for baseball games and meet in the summer and keep in contact. And it's, the reunion part of it isn't even that necessary. But it's more like a, just a celebration and a tradition that we don't want to let go. And it's a great, great night. And last year, of course, we didn't get to do it because the restaurants were closed and everything was raging in the troubles, excuse me, while I drink some water, I'm quite parts today. And this year we got to go back. And of course, as happens in all of our celebrating and all of our going out this year, in most parts of the country, and this is in New York City, the day before we start getting messages, should we do it, should we go, this Omicron thing is raging across, everybody's testing

like crazy. And it was true. I mean, I was, in New York City, and you literally felt the shift. You literally, it's like we landed, and the next day it all started happening, and the lines out the testing places were down the block, and you friend after friend saying they got it, and we're faced with this dinner, and we just did not want to quit. And that's kind of the mentality of it at this point, isn't it? It's like, we're not canceling the NFL. We're not canceling these games.

We're not canceling these shows. is a pain in the ass assess the risk and all of our friends said we're going i mean as my my good friend erin foley who's been a guest on our show has said uh i feel like we're all one degree away from covid so what are you going to do you're going to stop everything and just hide it's it's around the corner all the time protect yourself to do what you got to do and get through it. So tired talking about it, aren't you? So anyway, we raised a glass at the old homestead, not very crowded. We were in kind of a tight room with a couple other groups, truth be told. And you had to show your Vax and everything. You were in New York City,

climb up into this private room-ish private-ish room, three other, two other groups. And we raised the glass and we said to the courageous people that forged it and made it to this special dinner. And it was great. Everybody, nobody from that evening got it. Nobody from that evening went home ill. We actually went home. a little richer. And then the things, but big ass steak, big ass shrimp, big ass potatoes, uh, martini, big glass of wine. Then I cruise off to Washington, D.C. to go do a show there the next night. And, um, I'm solo. I'm there with my, with my buddy Andy Fiore. He opens. We get pizza after the show, our own private pizzas. We go back to our rooms and just stuff pizza in our face

at 10 o'clock again off the chain off the leash just doing what i want to do and then the next morning got up flew back to new york got together with another reunion with the big papa family thing which is a a giant yearly event with family and that is uh like 75 people strong again all the concerns are we going to get through it should we cancel no courageous do it everybody was fine, everybody did it, nobody got sick. Definitely good choices all around. But again, I just had pizza the night before. Now we are at a place in Clifton, New Jersey, called Marios. And that place is legendary. It's been there since like the 30s, makes the best pizza I think I've ever had right there in the heart of pizza mecca of the new.

New York tri-state area and plowing that in and some buffalo wings and some pastries there and then go off to my other family downshift to my parents and all those people. And we all have our routines and more drinking. And look, there's more calories in that little run that I just talked about in that little weekend than I probably hadn't the whole month before. and that's okay. No guilt, no worries. So, come home, jump on the scale. When I get back from New York and we come back to sanity and it was a big number.

It was a pretty big number. And it doesn't lie. You can talk about why your shirt is a little tight. Well, maybe it was in the dryer too long. Or maybe these pants, well, maybe I just had too much salt. night. The number on the scale is really the thing that's going to tell you where you are and whether you're lying to yourself or not. It was a pretty big number, but again, this was all expected. I'm going to, and there was no turning back because that's Christmas Eve. And on Christmas Eve here,

we do the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which is an Italian-American tradition. You're not supposed to eat meat on Christmas Eve. You're supposed to stick to it. stick to the fishes. And we had colomari salad. We had my friend Hans made this big salmon. My friend John made a lobster bisque. We had a crab and oyster dip. We had anchovies. We had linguine with clam sauce. Amazing. So great. And then we do cheat. There is some meat involved. There is a, uh, I made four lasagnas. four, four lasagnas. I'm going to get into talking about the exact ingredients and the creation of that, but just know that it's a good amount of work. And then you're plowing through. So you're just going

and going and going. So this is all my way of saying, you're supposed to do this, you're supposed to enjoy yourself. And even though I jumped on the bike once in a while and tried to sweat it out a little bit just for really for my brain more than my body. There's no denying that it was inching up and now it's inching down and that's okay. So we're faced with New Year's Eve, right? So you got New Year's and we all come off and that's why all the gyms are saying come and come and join us and be the new you and they all know that we acted like maniacs and now we're feeling guilty about it and everybody's saying, well, maybe I should be a vegan. Maybe I should go on a cleanse. Maybe I should just not eat ever again. And I get it. I go through those things too.

And I need to lose some weight, sure. And I just want to be healthy and not have my heart become as fat as my love handles. Fine. So I'm thinking, what am I going to do? How am I going to change my diet? What am I going to do? And then last night, I'm making the first Sunday meal of of 2022. I had my friends over, had my family. And as you know, Sunday is the day that I like to get in the kitchen and spend all day in there cooking for the family and having a big meal. Daughter's home from college. Everybody's intact. It's all good. And I was feeling excited to be making the meal. And also a little richer. If we can go back a little bit, just back when the holidays were over after we stayed with our families and saw both sides of

our relatives and stayed over and just kind of did the whole thing. Seeing the friends, seeing the larger family, seeing the smaller family on both sides, there's just a calm. That's how you know that it was a successful holiday season. When you just are a little more at ease, you're a little happier, you're well, fed, you just feel okay. That's really all you need to ask for. Just to feel okay. Is it a lot of work? Yes. Is it a lot of stress traveling around? Sure. Was there a curveball of all the stuff going on as far as the testing and all the COVID? Sure. Despite all of those little obstacles, if you just cruise back into your space,

wherever that is in your bed or your couch or your office and you just feel a little steady. If you feel like you're on solid ground, that means that the meetings and the holidays had the desired effect. You're a little more grateful. You're a little more solid. You're a little more loved. That's all you can ask out of life. and that's all you can ask for of a good successful end of the year. And it was there. I achieved it.

It was good. And last night, I'm making this meal and I have those little thoughts of how are we going to dial us in? What am I going to do with my fat body? How am I going to change this? And my one daughter wants to go vegan for a month. So she's saying no cheese. And everybody's saying fewer carbs. And in the middle of making another dish, which I'm going to talk about, because I've talked about it before, and I ran into some people during shows who actually made me while I was signing my books. And in New York and in Washington actually asked me about the ricketone and pepper and olive bake. This dish that I've talked about before here on this podcast, and I'm going to talk about it in detail. in a little bit, along with the lasagna, just because this is what this episode is about.

And I'm making that meal, which is kind of complex, but not really, but I've just done it enough times where the experience has kicked in and I can just enjoy it and know the ins and outs and how to improve it and the quantities and all that stuff that comes with experience. and I crack open a bottle of wine, the beau jolet nouveau, which comes out every year. It's just the grapes are ripened. They put it out just as a yearly vintage and it's 2021. And you pop it open in December and it's 12 bucks a bottle. And it's fresh and it's exciting and good.

and you know there's people talking about dry January do you stop drinking the entire month do these are all extremes right it's all extremes I'm not going to eat any more meat I'm not going to eat cheese ever I'm not going to drink one more thing these are all things that do this is this is this is prison talk this is um fasting talk and I'm all for beating up on yourself like a like a mule once in a while sure Nothing wrong with putting yourself into extremes, but I don't want to beat myself up about it. And I'm making this meal last night and I have these friends over and I have my family gathered and I'm spending all day cutting up in the cutting, chopping the garlic and the peppers and creating

the sauce and getting it all going and making the bread and creating the salad and roasting the broccoli and why do I want to give that up? Why do I have to say I can't do this for the month of January? And I just hit me. I don't. I don't. I'm in charge of me. I have a car and an ATM card. I know where the supermarket is. And I'm not going to go nuts. And so this is an anti-resolution message for you. Do you need to correct yourself and become more thoughtful about your? what you're eating, sure, go ahead, do it, do what you have to do. But don't stay away long. Don't stay away too long. Come back and enjoy the stuff because then you're going to snap and you're

going to feel frustrated and you're going to feel guilty about what you're about breaking. How about you just be a little easy on yourself? This is going to be a good year. You can feel it. So you don't want your heart to explode. You don't want 2020 to be the year of diabetes for you. You're not looking for that. I get that. But don't deny either. This is a short little run we've got going. So I say jump in and go for it. No resolution here. Maybe I'll cut out some processed stuff. Maybe fewer cheese it's maybe. I wouldn't say that if they, I talk about cheese it so much that I feel like the cheese at people should be in business with me. And if the phone hasn't, the phone has not rung yet. I have not gotten my cheese at sponsorship here on baking bread. But, uh, so I think I can say, well, you know what? If I'm not working with you, maybe it's time I don't have a box a week. Maybe, oh, but again, I'll just keep it to the travels. They're doing amazing things. They've got great bags in every airport. I dare you to stay away.

All right. Let's talk about. out. Let's see. Should we do the... Let's do the... All right, let's do... Oh, no. I just realized. The recipe is on my recording device. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. I should have brought my iPad. Oh, should I do it from memory? Yes, let's do that. I can take you through the baked rigatoni without even using my phone. How about that? This is exciting. And if I screw it up... Oh, well, I'm not giving it you... I'm going to put a... I'm going to put a I'll put the link so you have the thing, but I just want to kind of talk you through it. Because for some reason, two people on tour came up and asked, how do you make this dish? And that's unusual.

That's a weird thing. I mean, you guys contact me on the emails and you contact me through Twitter, and that's all beautiful and little questions here or there. But for two living human beings to come up online while I'm signing people's books and ask, please take me aside like possessed. like they didn't even realize there were other people online behind us and just wanted to talk about this dish and they knew they were talking to the right person because I ignored everybody just so I could talk about yeah how to make this dish. All right. So this is a baked rigatoni. They call it a grown-up mac and cheese. I think that's a crude explanation for a description of it because when I think mac and cheese, I'm thinking real gloopy. even if you try and do fancy mac and cheese like grown-up mac and cheese still smothered this doesn't have there's not so much cheese that you you're whacked out and thinking this is mac and cheese

rigatoni is the base you have these big beautiful rigatones but before you even boil that up you take yourself a nice red bell pepper and you can do yellow you can do green green don't go red you know that's the reason that the prices tick up as you go along is because it's how much they're the same peppers it's just how much more ripe they are yeah i just learned that so red pepper you chop it into like little inch cubes you know chop up the pepper get the veins out chop it up i tried by the way devaning a red chili pepper on new year's eve i was going to put anchovies into into this pepper. My sister-in-law had these beautiful peppers,

but my brother-in-law grows them. They're not chili peppers, like this green other kind of pepper, not so hot. I can only find hot peppers, and I had chili peppers. And the idea is cut it, devane it,

fill it with anchovies, put a toothpick through it, marinate it in garlic and oil, and just serve it like that overnight. So it soaks it all in, and then you just serve it like that. Oh, it's so good. She's an amazing cooking.

It's an amazing. job Lisa does. She actually was doing the seven fishes before I was. I tried to do it with chili peppers, tried devaning and de-seating and washing out the hotness of a chili pepper. Impossible. Not only impossible, it was like a, I still made it and put it out for the guests and a couple people ate it and you sweat immediately. It was so damn hot. And, not only is it impossible to get it off of the hotness out of the pepper, but it was also impossible to get the oil off of my fingers, which I found out the next day when I touched my eyeball. Yeah, that's a, that's a hello for you. That's a wake-up call.

Don't have to do that with the red pepper. You take this red pepper and you cut it into these little cubes and you put olive oil into the bottom of your pan that is going to hold the sauce, so big enough for that, and you just, over a medium flame, get the peppers going. It's going to take about 15 minutes for them to get soft, start softening up. Once they do, you take your chopped garlic and you throw it in. You take fresh time, throw that in, and that is your base. Garlic, peppers, and time. So good. The garlic and time only have to be in there for like a minute or two. It's just to get the pop, get the flavors all releasing. And then you take your cans of tomato and you put them in. I like to go with a pepper and a half and I like to go with two cans of

whole peeled tomatoes. I put them in a bowl, I squish them into smaller with my hands and then I dump the whole thing on top of the base. And it just, the recipe that you'll see when I post is not, it calls for a smaller amount. I always end up with not enough sauce with this dish. And even last night. I was just about made it. I would even increase it maybe to three cans, maybe even four. You need a lot of sauce. So you get that going and you let that cook down for about 15, 20 minutes. And that's all you're doing is cooking the extra water out and it just becomes, it starts to thicken up. You're getting a thicker base of a sauce. And this sauce, I'm telling you, salt, pepper it, little oregano, that's all you need. And the sauce gets so good. And it's different.

I mean, because you're using that pepper garlic base, it's different than your basic mariners or even your ragoos. It's, it's got this alive kind of wild freshness to it. You let that go. And it goes for like, I'd say a good hour. And if it starts to get too things, throw in some water, just keep it going, but you don't want to rush it. You want everything to share and become a nice well-balanced sauce. Bake your rigatoni, get some grue air cheese, grue air, and you about four ounces, even more, you can go more, and grate that, get a nice pile of cheese. Then you take your rigatoni and you put it in a bowl once it's all done. A box, box and a half I did last night too much. Rigotony, for some reason, it always packs more and can feed more out of one box.

I always think I'm going to need more and never do. Anyway, put it all in a bowl, take your cheese, throw that onto the rigatoni, take your sauce that you've made and start mixing that all together in a big bowl. This is that mac and cheese kind of a process. And you mush it all. And you mush it all. all together, put it into a baking pan, one of those glass, eight and a half by whatever, 16, and you don't even have to really grease down the pan because everything's covered in sauce. Put it all in there, top it off with some sauce and some parmesan, put some foil on it, put it in the oven. That's it, kids.

I was able to just go off the top of my head, crank it out. And I'm telling you, it's one of those very satisfying, baked ziti kind of dishes that you put out into the middle of the table and people will just rejoice. There's something comforting, cheesy, saucy about the whole affair that just, uh, it's going to be filling. It's going to be satisfying. And you will definitely have some leftover. I don't care if, uh, you have three people or 20 people. You're going, last night we had six, grown-ups and we still had some left and that's after people going back for more. Rigatoni just packs a punch. So that's the baked, oh, sugar balls. I almost forgot. At the end of the sauce, before it's going to go into the bowl with the rigatoni, Kalamata olives. Can't believe I forgot it.

Calamata olives. Take them pitted, cut them in half, throw them in and let that go for about five, ten minutes. It's a key portion, but you don't want them in too early. You don't want to cook those down. You want those to still have their flavor. And that's baked rigatoni, peppers, and olives. It's so good. Guarantee, make it.

It takes a little bit because that sauce takes a bit. But give yourself a couple hours, and then you're going to put it in there with the foil on, then take it off, put a little more parmesan on, and top it off, let it brown just a little bit more. You don't want it too crunchy and dry on the top, but that is a meal that you will, you should make it at least four times a year, and you will be a king or queen.

On Christmas Eve, like I said, I made the lasagnas. And my new good friend, Lydia Bastionich, who was on our program, do you remember talking with her? She was promoting her book, a pot, a pan in a bowl. It's like her 30-second book or something. She's amazing, you know, behind Eataly.

And if you haven't heard that recipe, I recommend you go back. She's just so great to talk to. No nonsense knows everything. Can just cook like nobody's business. So knowledgeable. And in this book, which we featured this year,

she actually talks about a pan lasagna of creating a lasagna, a small portion of lasagna in one pan. And I haven't tried it yet, but she talked us through it on the podcast, if you remember. And the one big thing that she said was that she signs off on using the no boil lasagna noodle. That was a kind of a revelation for me. me because I, one of the time-consuming parts of making lasagna is boiling those noodles, having them rip, having, straining them, putting them all hot, trying to get them cooled off, putting them hot, making the lasagna structure while using those noodles. And it's time-consuming. You always saw

the box of the, that's what she calls it, skillet lasagna, serves for, this is the dish to make, because I'm reading from her book. This is the dish to make when you're craving lasagna on a weeknight. It comes together in just 45 minutes. You can add additional vegetables to this if you like. Try browning some mushrooms for hardier appetites, a few crumbled links of Italian sausage in the olive oil before adding the sauce or a few handfuls of baby spinach to each layer.

This looks pretty amazing. I'll hold it up for anyone that's watching. Just one pan. with this lasagna in it, it's, that's pretty amazing. 45 minutes, I mean, this was, this was pretty much a full day when I was making, but I made four lasagnas because I thought that the guest was going to be larger. And then, of course, at the very last minute, we had some cancellations from some of our good friends, one, A1 William Burr, who comes every Christmas.

they ended up having to bail as well. I'm just trying to look through. So I made four of these lasanasias. This was much more than a skillet. And I'm trying to see in her mariner sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, eggs beaten, peas, parsley, flakes. Yeah, and 12 sheets of no-boil lasagna noodles. It seems sacrilegious.

It seems like, okay, we're talking. But if Lydia says it, Lydia is, you know, she's the authority. If she says it's okay to do it, then we're going to be okay to do it. It's like when Steven Soderberg told me it's okay to watch a movie on your phone. I thought, should I? I mean, these are made for the big screen. Like, should it be? And then when he said, yeah, watch it.

We had no problem with it. He gives you the okay. You're like, okay, the coolest person. and said I can do it, the most knowledgeable person. And when Lydia said, you can just use the no-boil lasagna noodles, I got it. It's weird making a structure out of hard, uncooked noodles, but it works. You put them all in and you start building up that structure. The reason why it took me all day, the meat lasagna that I make, and this may be going too far, but I actually make meatballs, pork and sirloin meatballs,

actually make those and then slice them and crumble them and use those in the layers of the meat lasagna. And that is a huge step. That takes a lot of time. It would be much easier just to take those ingredients, ground them up and put them in. And truth be told, it's easier. It might be better, but this,

For the Christmas Eve, big celebration, I want a big, thick layers of lasagna, and you have crumbled up sausage and meatballs, and that's just, it takes a lot of extra time, but it is worth it. Unless, of course, Omicron hits and then eight people cancel, and you end up with a giant tray of lasagna through the next week and talk about being puffy. You are going to be super puffy. So I'm not going to go into that. I will post that lasagna recipe. Again, wintertime.

Here in Southern California, we're starting to get warm again, but the rest of the world, lasagna time, wintertime is lasagna time, and you should definitely be making it. If you're not going to do the baked rigatoni, and you've got some time and you really want to, and the other one, two were meat, and then two were with spinach, spinach and cheese. And that was amazing. That came out great. That was actually lighter and fresher in a lot of ways than the meat one.

But if you want to just bear down like a giant literal bear and prepare for your hibernation for your two weeks off from whatever job you have, that is the way to go. This was a great book, though. I recommend you get Lydia's book, a pot, a pan, and a bowl. Actually, anything with her name on it, you're not going to go wrong. There's so many good things in here. And there's no, like, you couldn't, you can't flip through these books and say, yeah, my New Year's resolution says no pasta.

That's not, it's just not going to happen. She was amazing. I love that book. If I could also, I'm going to re-plug this. This was Patty Hinnich and Treasures of the Mexican Table. We talked to her earlier this year, towards the second half of the year. She is an amazing, amazing chef and host on television. And she sent me this book.

It's so beautiful. And it really kind of gives you that feeling. The same thing with Lydia, where, you know, Jim Gaffigan has a funny joke about Mexican food, how you're just taking different ingredients and putting them in different shapes and calling them different things. It's like, well, what's in a taco? You got meat and you got cheese and lettuce and tomato and salsa. Okay. And what's in a toastata?

Well, you can take meat. and cheese and lettuce and salsa and put it in a bowl. And there is some truth to that in the Italian world. We kind of are taking a lot of the same ingredients some of the time, especially Italian-American, and changing them up a little bit. Same thing with Mexican, you have those kind of ingredients. And that's what's so cool about this book, Lydia's books and patties. It'll blow that kind of, oh, this is much more advanced.

and there are so many more flavors and so many other things to do than just rehash New Jersey white guy tacos into another form. So good. And I made this string bean dish from me this, and it came out amazing. I just wanted some way to put some southwestern flare into our table. And this book is going to be around for a long time. This is going to be dog-eared and gone through forever. I'll hold it up one more time.

It's treasures of the Mexican table. I believe it's her second book. That was another highlight of the year, and I recommend you grab it and let this take you into next year. And then the one re-plug, which I will plug every year, I don't see this ever leaving. You know, when I started baking bread and started getting into the different styles and different ways to do it,

learning and learning and learning over the, I don't know how many years now. And there's a lot of great books. There's so many bread books. There's, you could, it's almost endless. But I think the, the, the winner over time, and I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, I know I'm repeating myself, and actually I'm not even sorry. Flower, Water, Salt and Yeast. Ken Forkish's book, absolutely hands down the best the best and it's over time it's been able to as i've become more sophisticated and adopted things and tried different ways of getting flavor and longer fermentations any stage that you have from the beginning of when you're just figuring it out he's got you covered to getting more advanced and using these longer fermentations and manipulating the flavors

he's got you covered. And this flower covered book is always, it doesn't even come back into my office. It stays near the kitchen, in the kitchen, right on the edges, because whenever I need amounts and inspiration and just a little bit of pulling out your guidebook, this is the one I constantly, constantly grab. And it's accurate. You know, a lot of times you read these books, by very well-known people and they don't work and the measurements are off. This is accurate. There's nothing in this where you're like, that does not work. They all work.

Simple white breads to the different overnight country blonde. That's the one that I've been working on a ton. The overnight country brown. It's a game changer. Another game changer, if you are bread baker, I think it's time in the new year to update your bulls, your baskets, your Benatons. It's time to refresh those. We hang on to a lot of things, and I don't really clean a lot of, like, rags that are covered in just flour.

There's something, this is not a pristine pursuit, but the baskets, they tend to fill up with flour and sometimes mold and sometimes little flower bugs. I'm whispering that because I don't want my wife to hear what is in her kitchen. But once in a while, I'll see a little crawly thing. Just throw it out. Get them. I've had some for several years, way too long. Freshen them up, get some new ones. And then get flour, water, salt, and yeast.

That is your Bible. This is a little preview for next week. But before we do that, and I tell you where we're headed. See, this is good. This is just us. I like this. Okay. We've all been through a lot over the last year. Everybody's been dealing with not only the change in your lifestyle, the change in your family around you, the change in the media. We've constantly being bombarded. And sometimes you need to reach out and call on somebody for some help. And I'd like to talk to you about finding some help through the people at better help. everybody needs a little communication.

We are human beings. We are built on stories. We're built on sharing. And sometimes we carry them all on our own. And you end up having trouble sleeping, having your relationships affected, having anxiety, having, maybe there's trauma you have to get over. Maybe you're just dealing with plain old depression. Whatever level you're at, it's nice to be able to talk to somebody. And you can start communicating in under 48 hours.

It's not a crisis line. It's not a self-help. It's professional counseling done securely online. You send a message to your counselor anytime. You'll get timely and thoughtful response. Plus, you can schedule a weekly video or phone session. It's a kind of an intimidating thing to reach out and try and get help. And it's almost, sometimes it's difficult to admit to yourself that you might need some help.

And then take the next intimidating. intimidating step and that's asking people where you can find help and then going and meeting someone new. This kind of takes all that anxiety out of that. Better help is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches so they make it easy and free to change counselors if needed. It's more affordable than traditional online counseling and financial aid is available. The service is available for clients worldwide. Counselors from all over the country are waiting to help you out. It's professional.

It's convenient. It's affordable. And why not help yourself? It's a great time to start. It's a new year. It's a new fresh start. I want you to start living a happier life any way that you can. That's what our whole podcast is about.

As a listener, you will get 10% off your first month by visiting our sponsor at betterhelp.com slash papa. That's betterhelp.com slash papa, P-A-P-A. Join over one million people who have taken charge of their mental health. Again, that's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Papa. Next week, we will be talking with a great guy. His name is Dan Richer. He's the chef of Raza.

He made this book with Katie Parla. And I got a chance to speak to them on my Sirius X-M show. What a joke with Netflix is a joke with Papa. fortune. And Anthony Gileo, who we had on at the end of last year, just a couple weeks ago, remember the big wine guy and he gave me his super salt and he's a good friend of mine. And it was a great podcast and I love talking with him. Well, he is actually really good friends with Dan. So all these roads are starting to cross in the food world. Dan and Katie put out this book It's called The Joy of Pizza.

Pizza is the one thing that I have not mastered in. Ken Forkish has a great chapter on it. It's a big, messy endeavor for me. I tried making some with just my regular bread dough. We are going to get into it with Dan. This book is beautiful. Raza is, according to Anthony, the best pizza he's ever had. And that is a guy who knows his pizza, not only from the New York area,

but literally from all of Italy. And I mean, holy cow, I'm going to hold this up. When you get that, when you get that pepperoni pizza, when it's the small pieces of fresh pepperoni and they curl up and the little oil fills up in a little cup in the middle of the pizza, I don't think anything gets better than that. Holy Toledo.

Can't wait to talk with Dan. He is obsessed with it in the same way that I am. them talking about baking sourdough bread, he will go off for hours. So we are going to geek out like crazy. He has a whole chapter and it's sourdough baking. Sourdough baking used to be an intimidating concept for many, but one of the few silver linings of COVID-19 pandemic is that people took it, took to it and became obsessed. I get it. It's something you can nurture and it becomes a part of your life, it's very true. I'd like to think of sourdough starter, like having a family pet, only a lot less work, and it makes pizza. Well said. Well said. I wonder how many people that got

into it are still going. That's a good question. I would say maybe 5%. Maybe 5%. So I can't wait, because this is the one thing, making pizza, I think this is, if let's do the opposite New Year's resolution where people are trying to stop eating this stuff, we should eat more. We should learn how to make better quality stuff and just get our techniques down and explore. And I think, and he is going to be a great guide. That's going to be on next week's episode.

Oh man, if I could just make pizza better. That is, if I had the money and the time and didn't live with other people who I would just rip everything, out in my backyard and just put in a pizza oven and just try and what else is needed. I don't even think we need the pool. Maybe one lounge chair could stay and then just a big ass pizza oven because making pizza in my house, this is what I'm going to ask him.

It is always, it's a nightmare. It becomes a giant messy, goofy affair. There's flour everywhere. There's cheese hanging off the ceiling. And then it comes out like, okay. I always feel like when I'm done, like, I should have just ordered that. What am I even doing? All right. So this was super, super food heavy, but that is the base of what we've got. And look, when we started this podcast, the whole idea of breaking bread is the process of sitting down

with other people, breaking bread, and because that opens up the conversation. And you're starting with an act of sharing and an act of joy and when you're eating, there's flavors and it's an experience and you're sharing that experience with this other person. And I thought, well, that's a great way to run a podcast because you get to share and people will open up a lot quicker and we'll get to learn about each other a lot more. And that is true. It has held. But during the pandemic, you ended up having to Zoom a lot of this stuff. And that actually ended up being a bit of a blessing. Like, Dan is in New York working on Raza Pizza, and I'm going to talk to him without leaving

L.A. Like, I would never get him. It'd be months down the road, and now I can just knock it out. And the same thing with all our comedian friends. Is it better when we all sit in the studio and we're there at all things, and we've got this great studio space, and it looks like a steakhouse. booth and you get to actually give them the bread that I bake and maybe even open some wine and or have some coffee and and share that time face to face. Yes, those are the original

concept and I think it is, I don't know if you feel it. I don't know when I listen back, it sounds when we're zooming or talking to these people remotely, it sounds like we're together. So I don't know if it really changes it all that much. I think it's a mix. And I think, well, for the new year, I think we're going to continue to do it. Even if they say all bets are off, you can meet with people all the time. I think the access and the gift that we got being remote is that we're able to add a more diverse guest list and get them at all different times.

And why not? And then you have those other episodes when you are. sitting at the table. With comedians, I don't know if it's better or not. Again, if the better the guests, the more in tune they are. I mean, when Duncan Truzzle comes on, you know, he could be in South Africa. And it's going to be hilarious because he's great at communicating and loves to talk and it's super interesting.

And if we were together in the same spot, there might be some other things that happen. but for the most part, I think it works. And I think we've got to expand a little bit. One of my goals this year on the comedy end is get more comedic actors, too. Like we had Tony Hale on, which was one of the highlights of the year. So great, not just stand-ups. And there's just a different gear. There's a different way they're working, but they're just filled with joy.

and but more in an actually sense, if that makes sense. And I'd like to include some of that. I think we're doing really great with all of the food people, your responses as listeners. It seems like you enjoy both of them. And I don't think we have to go much further than that. I don't know if, I don't know if people beyond food, I guess if it makes sense.

We've had filmmakers on. I guess if it makes sense. But again, back to the original thing, the concept of breaking bread, all you have to do is talk about it. And we've got it. You don't have to actually sit there and chew on the mic for us to have the concept of breaking bread and opening up and sharing being the thing. Because once you start talking about it, you're there. When the Scalar brothers came on and started talking about how they grew up in St. Louis with their families and how the holidays were. were spent and going from to their relatives' homes, they painted a picture just out of joy of

talking about it, about how they grew up. It was such a vivid picture. You felt like you were in a different time on the St. Louis streets in the middle of winter, going from loving home to loving home. And that's just because you started talking about who fed you, who loved you, and let it go from there. And I think that's, that theme has definitely proven to be the most wonderful part of the podcast, I believe. And we can have experts that tell us how to make things so we can make that experience richer for the people around us. Sometimes it's just nice to hear people's passions about it. And then, of course, just hearing how they relate gives you a little bit of a guidebook of how in your life you can use comedy and food to relate and make your life richer.

That, I would say, dear listeners, we are on the right road and we'll continue on that road. I wish you all well for a great year. I think it's going to be great. We'll invite other people in starting next week and we will continue the conversation and continue breaking bread again. don't drive yourself crazy. Take a couple days off. Drink a lot of water. Do some squat thrusts. Do some jumping jacks.

Break a sweat. But don't leave the kitchen. And keep laughing. All right, you guys are the best. I'll see you next week.