Tucci on Tucci

Stanley Tucci is one of my favorite actors and the maker of, in my opinion, the greatest food movie ever, Big Night. The motto of this blog -- To eat food is to be close to God -- is a line from the film about two Italian brothers struggling to save their restaurant in 1950s New Jersey. No, it's not a mob movie. Indeed, it's one of the few films about Italian-Americans without gangsters.

I loved the movie so much that I have made Timpano (see above, not mine), the kettledrum of pasta, cheese, sauce and other goodies that played a starring role in the film. Years ago, the New York Times published a recipe that I immediately fell upon. I used to make it every Christmas for our holiday party. And it is really, really good, at least the version I made.

Tucci was equally superb in last summer's Julie & Julia, another mouthwatering delight. As brilliant as Meryl Streep was, I thought her performance really hinged on Tucci's nuanced, understated and brilliantly acted supporting role.

This month's Bon Appetite has a Q&A with Tucci. Short, but delightful. He's right up my ally: goat cheese and olives. He's got a wood-burning oven in his house, my personal culinary White Whale.

He's also a great fan of branzino, a Mediterranean white fish that I had for the first time about a year ago at a great New Haven restaurant called L'Orcio. I couldn't agree more. Fantastic fish. I've bought it and made it myself. One caution: expensive. The fish store charged me close to $30 for enough to feed the three of us.