Welcome back!

Mario and I went back to basics for our first meal back, get our feet wet again if you will. We decided on a recipe with simple ingredients but great flavors, or so we hoped. Enter the Sgombro con Melanzane – Grilled Mackerel and Eggplant with Salsa Verde (page 304).

Joining us this evening would be two special guests, Mario's aunt Christina and my beautiful goddaughter Lilia Marie. We all took a trip into the big city, grabbed a bite to eat at Tony's DiNapoli and then headed over to Eatlay to purchase the ingredients. To our dismay they did not have any mackerel! After speaking with the fish monger, a quick google search with our iphones, we decided on the wild striped bass as a substitute. It was a beautiful summer day and after purchasing all the ingredients we took a walk around the city. Upon arriving home later that evening we all agreed that we were still to full from lunch and decided to cook the following day.

The next evening Mario and I swung into action. We put on our clean and crisp aprons, orange crocs and turned on the music. We started by grilling the eggplant and preparing the salsa verde. The salsa was fairly simple to prepare but very flavorful. It consisted of Italian parsley, mint leaves, anchovies, a hard boiled egg, capers and lemon juice. Mario and I agreed we found another staple to add to our growing list.

The fillets of stripped bass were grilled and served on top of eggplant with the salsa verde drizzled on top. Amazing!

As we enjoyed our meal we took time to thank the brave men and women serving in our Armed Forces. Our thoughts go out to Brock and we can't wait for you to get home so we can cook you a special dinner!

Ciao,
Mario & Mario
The Three Tocayos