Chapter 8 · Contorni

Side dishes, though half of these have talked their way onto a plate as the whole meal often enough that calling them merely “side” feels a little unfair to them. Vegetables, mostly, treated with the same seriousness as everything else in this book.

• Melanzane alla Parmigiana Naples and Sicily have argued about this dish for longer than anyone alive today has been eating it, each insisting the other got some detail wrong. ◆ includes a story from the dining room
• Caponata Siciliana Agrodolce -- sour-sweet -- is the whole point of this dish, and it is astonishingly easy to get wrong in either direction.
• Insalata di Rucola e Parmigiano The simplest thing on this entire menu, and one of the most frequently ordered, which is a pattern I've stopped finding surprising. ◆ includes a story from the dining room
• Patate al Forno con Rosmarino Every table in this restaurant gets a plate of these without anyone having to ask, the same way bread shows up whether or not you ordered it. ◆ includes a story from the dining room
• Verdure Grigliate Whatever's in season goes on the grill, more or less in this order every time -- zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and anything else that looked good that morning.
• Fagiolini all'Aglio This is the dish that convinces people who claim not to like green beans that they've simply never had them cooked properly.