GREAT HOME COOKS : Barbecue: Simple Elegance

By LAURIE OCHOA

May 21, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

When Teresa De Crescenzo goes back home to Boston to visit her family, a lot of eating goes on. “We basically move from house to house, sit around for long periods of time and eat,” she says. “The amount of sausage put in front of me last time I went home was pretty amazing.”

De Crescenzo grew up in an immigrant Italian enclave where, she says, everything revolved around food. A typical family outing might have involved hunting for wild mushrooms in the woods of New Hampshire or spending a day at the beach catching lobsters for dinner. “We were very, very poor,” De Crescenzo says, “but we had the kind of meals on an everyday basis that today would be considered specialty food.”

Often De Crescenzo would spend her days with the women of the family roasting and pickling peppers or chopping vegetables picked straight from the garden. She was surrounded by good cooks. There was her mother and her grandmother, and also several aunts--aunts upstairs, aunts downstairs and aunts a block or two up the street.

“I understand cooking because of what I learned at home,” De Crescenzo says. “Just watching my grandmother make a frittata taught me so much.”

It wasn’t until she left home that she discovered that not everyone was as passionate about food as her family. De Crescenzo’s partner of 19 years, for instance, Betty Berzon, doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about food.

“When someone asks Terry what she did on a trip, she tells them what she ate,” Berzon says. “I usually haven’t the vaguest idea what I ate even the week before.”

The first time De Crescenzo tried to make breakfast for Berzon, she was appalled at Berzon’s kitchen. “I looked in her refrigerator and there was hardly anything in it,” she says. “I looked in her cupboards, nothing. I thought, ‘Where are her herbs? Where are her mushrooms? What is there to eat?’ ”

“I did cook before I met Terry,” says Berzon, who nominated De Crescenzo as a Great Home Cook. “I mean, I was 45 when I met her and had been having dinner parties for 20 years. I thought I was doing fine . . . until Terry came along and basically informed me that I couldn’t cook at all. It’s worked out though. I’ve pretty much withdrawn from the kitchen, which fits our relationship. We’re very different from one another.”

“We couldn’t be more different,” says De Crescenzo, sitting in their art-filled Studio City living room, looking out onto the pool beyond. “Betty’s all about presentation. She thinks about whether the plates go with the napkins. When we have parties she always makes things very elegant. In my family, the food was cooked and it was put on the table, period.”

Berzon, a psychotherapist and author, specializes in working with gay and lesbian couples. (Her most recent book, “Permanent Partners,” discusses how to build lasting same-sex relationships.) De Crescenzo, a social worker, founded the organization Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services for homeless gay and lesbian teens.

“Terry is a free soul,” Berzon says, “and that shows in the kitchen. She has a tendency to fly around very fast when she’s cooking so I just stay out of the way.”

Both acknowledge that Berzon is the more organized of the pair. When they have parties, Berzon usually takes care of the invitations, the decorations--everything but the food. She types up menus for the guests, and in her office are several files she’s kept on the parties they’ve given through the years.

“Look at all the Scotch we served back then,” says De Crescenzo, looking at a shopping list from a party 12 years ago.

“We’ve changed the way we entertain in the last 10 years,” De Crescenzo says. “We’ve gotten away from the 2-inch-thick veal chop and into chicken and fish. And lots of pastas.”

During the holidays De Crescenzo and Berzon will host elaborate sit-down dinners. The menus De Crescenzo puts together for these parties are lengthy and ambitious. For Thanksgiving in 1990 the starters included onion marmalade toast, Alsatian pizza, pork-and-olive finger pies and apple soup with nutmeg croutons. Last Thanksgiving, De Crescenzo cooked roast wild turkey with sausage-and-mashed potato stuffing and pheasant with cider honey sauce and wild rice risotto.

Summers, De Crescenzo barbecues. But even these simple meals are special. Often, she’ll present guests with a cup of her chilled Golden Gazpacho, full of sweet yellow peppers, cantaloupe, orange and lime juice and yogurt. On the grill, next to the burgers and franks, she’s usually got quail stuffed with pine nuts, escarole and corn bread. Inside, set out on a huge glass coffee table are salads, an antipasto plate and other small starters.

“With very little trouble,” De Crescenzo maintains, “you can make food taste exceptionally good. The other day I decided I needed some pear vinegar, so I made it. It’s not a big deal. I mean it only takes about a minute to cut up a pear, put it in some white vinegar and set it out to steep overnight. The next morning all you have to do is boil it up, run it through a cheesecloth and presto! pear vinegar. Flavored olive oil is simply a matter of dropping some herbs into a jar of oil.”

Even when things go wrong, De Crescenzo doesn’t worry. “I’m very unafraid of tackling something I’ve never done,” she says, “sometimes, to Betty’s dismay.” Before one dinner party, De Crescenzo tried to make a cauliflower souffle. “It collapsed, so I turned it into cauliflower potage--everyone thought it was the cleverest thing they’d ever tasted, and you don’t think I told them it had started out as a souffle!”

Sometimes, though, De Crescenzo will go to a lot of trouble for a single meal.

“Terry will drive to another county to get one ingredient,” Berzon says. “You have to have a love of cooking to do that.”

“Yes, I will do whatever it takes to get an ingredient I want. And sometimes,” De Crescenzo says, “that’s gotten me into trouble.”

One year, when Berzon and De Crescenzo hosted a New Year’s Eve dinner for a dozen friends, De Crescenzo decided to duplicate a fancy meal she’d read about in a magazine. The only problem: Venison was on the menu and she couldn’t find a store that sold it.

“We’re talking 1982,” she says. “At that time, you couldn’t buy venison at specialty stores. I called all over--nothing. I called Ken Frank at La Toque--who doesn’t know me--and he gave me the phone number of the guy he bought his venison from. Well, the guy was very kind, but I had to send Betty with $150 in cash to a parking lot in Santa Monica--you would have thought it was a drug deal--and he gave her this thing , which she dutifully brought home to me. He even included a little book on how to carve venison.

“Well, I set the thing on the table, and I had my knife and this booklet, but I couldn’t deal with it. Then I was down at Irvine Ranch Market picking up some other things for the dinner and I saw this butcher--he looked a little like a country guy--so I asked him, ‘Do you know anything about venison?’ He said, ‘Why sure, I was raised in Montana.’ So I said, ‘Listen, if I paid you, when you’re off duty would you carve this venison for me?’ He said, ‘Well not for money, but if you give me some of the venison. . . .’ Later, he took the thing and carved me these two perfect fillets, one on either side of the saddle. I gave him the rest of it.”

In the end, the dinner turned out fine, but several of the guests found the flavor of the venison a little strong. “Frankly,” De Crescenzo says, “nobody much liked it.”

This is an impressive dish--and not that difficult to make. De Crescenzo’s version is adapted from a recipe she found in “The Art of Grilling” by Kelly McCune.

GRILLED STUFFED QUAIL

8 quail

Salt, pepper

2 to 3 slices bacon, diced

2 shallots, minced

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced

1/2 head escarole lettuce or other tangy-tasting greens, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1 cup crumbled corn bread

1/4 cup chicken broth

Olive oil

Have butcher “glove-bone” quail for stuffing (semi-bone with whole breast bone gone and legs intact, not split in half). If boning it yourself, break breast and back bones from leg and wing joints. Pull bones off inside cavity, being careful not to tear skin and fleshy parts. Season skin and cavity to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Saute bacon until crisp in large skillet. Pour off excess fat. Add shallots and pine nuts to bacon and saute 1 to 2 minutes (do not brown). Add garlic and saute another minute. Add escarole and thyme, cover and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in corn-bread crumbs and mix well. Pour in broth, cook and stir 1 minute. Cool slightly.

Stuff quail (about 1/4 cup stuffing per bird). Brush quail with olive oil. Cook on hot grill, turning to cook other side, for total of 20 minutes, or until done. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

262 calories; 166 mg sodium; 69 mg cholesterol; 19 grams fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 0.2 gram fiber.

For years, De Crescenzo made what she calls “old-fashioned” tomato sauce, thick with sausage and meatballs and simmered for hours over the stove. But in the past few years she has simplified her basic sauce. She’s likely to just chop some tomatoes, saute them in olive oil with a little basil and garlic and then simmer everything for 45 minutes. Sometimes she’ll skip the simmering and simply pop the sauteed tomatoes over pasta. This lighter style of sauce has affected her manicotti. Originally a hearty family dish that De Crescenzo learned from her cousin’s wife, Pauline Morrison--who got it from Carmella Pedulla, her former landlady back in Boston--it’s now a delicious and sophisticated dish suitable for an elegant dinner party. You can, of course, use a more traditional meat sauce, which gives the hand-made manicotti a more informal look and taste.

MANICOTTI SHELLS

3 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Oil

Cheese Filling

Tomato Sauce

Romano cheese, grated

Combine eggs, milk, flour and salt in blender. Brush 6-inch non-stick crepe pan or skillet lightly with oil. Heat pan over low heat. Pour enough batter to coat skillet, as if making crepes. Let batter set, then flip. Do not brown. Turn into wax-paper-lined tray. Repeat with remaining batter. Let cool. Makes about 12 shells.

Fill shells with Cheese Filling and place in 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with Tomato Sauce and lightly sprinkle with grated Romano cheese. Bake at 350 degrees about 20 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

416 calories; 429 mg sodium; 193 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 20 grams carbohydrates; 26 grams protein; 0.2 gram fiber.

Cheese Filling

1 pound ricotta cheese

1/2 pound shredded mozzarella cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup coarsely grated Romano cheese

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 clove garlic, minced, or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine ricotta, mozzarella, egg, Romano, parsley, pepper and garlic in bowl. Mix until well blended. Makes about 2 cups.

Tomato Sauce

2 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

5 cups seeded, peeled and chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

Saute garlic in olive oil. Add tomatoes, oregano and basil. Cover and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Makes about 2 3/4 cups.

This makes a pretty beginning to almost any sort of summer party. Cold and refreshing, De Crescenzo has served it at buffets and barbecues, as well as at sit-down dinners as a first course.

GOLDEN GAZPACHO

1/2 ripe, medium-size cantaloupe, seeded and rind removed

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 yellow sweet peppers, seeded and deveined

1/2 jalapeno chile, seeded

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1 navel orange, peeled

1 1/2 cups fresh-squeezed orange juice

3 green onions, trimmed and green tops removed

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice

1/2 cup plain yogurt

Cut cantaloupe into chunks. Place in food processor bowl and add whole peeled garlic, yellow peppers, jalapeno, cilantro, orange, orange juice, green onions and lime juice. Puree. Add yogurt and pulse with food processor just until blended. Chill until ready to serve. Makes about 6 cups, or 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

66 calories; 60 mg sodium; 1 mg cholesterol; 0 fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.2 gram fiber.

At Easter De Crescenzo’s family traditionally makes two kinds of pizzas and neither are flat and round. One pie, pizza rustica, fills a tall casserole dish and is dense with meats and cheeses, mostly proscuitto, salami, mozzarella and ricotta. The other pie, Pizza Dolce, makes a good dessert any time of the year. De Crescenzo uses citron, lemon zest and orange zest in the ricotta filling, but you can also use candied cherries.

PIZZA DOLCE (Ricotta Pie)

Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

4 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Ricotta Filling

Combine 2 cups flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in large bowl. Work shortening into dry ingredients. Add egg yolks, vanilla and milk and mix together to form soft, pliable dough. Chill. Dough will be sticky.

Roll out on well-floured board, kneading in little additional flour. Set aside 1/4 of dough for lattice topping. Roll out remaining dough to fit 10-inch pie plate. Cut reserved dough into lattice strips and set aside.

Smooth Ricotta Filling into unbaked pie crust. Top with reserved lattice strips. Turn under edges of dough around edge of pie plate and flute. Bake at 325 degrees 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until filling is set and crust is golden brown. Makes 12 servings.

Each serving contains about:

384 calories; 333 mg sodium; 115 mg cholesterol; 17 grams fat; 46 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams protein; 0.16 gram fiber.

Ricotta Filling

2 pounds ricotta cheese

3/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

4 egg whites

2 tablespoons chopped citron

1/2 cup diced orange zest

1 tablespoon diced lemon zest

1 cup candied red cherries, chopped, optional