This book is designed to introduce those of you who don’t know il Buco to the stories and recipes that have carried us throughout this twenty-five-year journey. For those of you who know us well, we hope you will smile nostalgically as you delve back into the past and recall the food, wine, and moments that endeared il Buco to you.
To give you a sense of the world behind the scenes at the restaurants, we’ve interspersed the recipes of this book with narrative chapters, including some of our favorite stories about the products, producers, and lifestyle that have inspired us along the way. You’ll hear the voices of some of our dearest customers. You’ll travel with us across the Atlantic to meet our olive oil, salt, and vinegar producers. You’ll discover the secrets behind the world of the bread and salumi we produce at Alimentari. We will showcase the many artisans whose handiwork comes to New York via our homeware line, il Buco Vita. We invite you to explore our Ibicencan outpost, to feast with us at home, and to partake in our annual pig roast on the street in front of the restaurant in celebration of the incredible friends, family, and community to whom we owe twenty-five years of gratitude.
The recipe chapters begin with tapas, inspired by Alberto’s Spanish “exile” and our many trips to explore her food, wine, and culture. We continue through the meal with antipasti (both from the sea and the land) toward pane, pizza, and crostini, a sampling of our bread program, and zuppe e insalate, soups and salads. That is followed by primi piatti, our famous pastas, and hearty secondi, our main dishes, with accompanying contorni, side dishes. We close the book—and the meal—with the sweet dolci with which to cleanse the palate from this multitude of flavors and to leave you with sweet memories of a journey through time and space from old New York across the Atlantic and back.