Marc Vetri at Free Library, Tuesday, November 22

Craving some homemade salami? How about a bowl full of pasta? Well, have no fear, Chef Marc Vetri to the rescue! Consult his recently released cookbook, Rustic Italian Food, for a full tutorial on how to recreate his famous home-cooked Italian specialties.

It’s a thorough primer on all things Italian with detailed, step-by-step instructions for making terrines, dry-cured salami, sausage, bread, pasta and classic Italian pickles, preserves and sauces.

In this book, Vetri focuses on the fundamentals of cooking, stating “In the kitchen, my greatest aspiration is to take as few ingredients as possible, cook them perfectly and make them sing.”

Vetri cooks using three guiding principles that we, at Philly Homegrown, certainly identify with, including:

1. Cook and eat food that is as close to the earth as possible.  The fresher and more local, the better
2. Start with whole foods, they taste better than processed foods
3. Keep it simple.  A few high quality ingredients make a bigger impact than a dozen cheap ones.

Tuesday, November 22nd, Vetri will speak with Inquirer food writer, Ashley Primis, about his new cookbook and cooking philosophy, at the Free Library of Philadelphia (Vine Street Branch). His FREE talk begins at 7:30PM with a book signing to follow.

Also, be sure to check out the Garces and Vetri post by our friends at uwishunu.com for the low-down on their annual Thanksgiving football game and how both chefs treat the Thanksgiving turkey!