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California’s Lost Wine Country : Cooking From a Working Winery Kitchen

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

“I wish I knew how to make a casserole,” says Mary Margaret Capellino Galleano. Fortunately, that urge occurs only when she’s invited to a potluck.

Most of the time this energetic, plain-speaking 76-year-old is whipping out dishes such as risotto, polenta, osso buco and gnocchi. It’s in her blood--her family came from the far north of Italy, the Alpine region where gutsy food warms soul and body.

Galleano lives in Mira Loma next to the winery owned by her son, Don. For years, she supervised the tasting room. Now she’s busy with bowling, cruises--and cooking.

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“I didn’t say I’m a good cook,” she tells you, although, of course, she is. “But I love to cook.” This day, she is making veal scaloppine with Marsala wine and Sherry; risotto with dried and fresh mushrooms, a green salad with oregano-spiked tomatoes on the side, and a lemon-flavored Sherry wine cake accompanied by strawberries. A couple of guests are coming for lunch, and her son will bring over the wines.

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Galleano’s house is the sort of place you can relax in. “I can’t be a fuddy-duddy about having everything in place. Men from the winery troop in and out,” she says. Complete with claw-foot tub and pull-chain toilet, the old house was moved to the vineyards from a river bottom in San Bernardino. The kitchen and living room overlook the vines. There’s a bottle of olive oil and a couple of wine bottles on the back of the Magic Chef range. And the big dining table is the sort that you can picture Italian families gathering around, talking with lots of energy, emotion and gestures, just like in the movies. The atmosphere is homey Italian right down to Jocco the cockatiel, who can chirp out “O Sole Mio.”

Galleano cooks as only a genuine Italian can. In other words, she’s not uptight about authenticity. When she doesn’t have Arborio rice, she makes risotto with Uncle Ben’s converted rice. And it tastes wonderful. For polenta, she uses Albers yellow cornmeal instead of polenta flour.

“I don’t cook by recipe,” she says. “I just sort of ad lib.” So when Galleano Marsala seemed too sweet for veal scaloppine a la Marsala, she cut it with Sherry.

Galleano’s pesto is definitely unorthodox. It’s a brilliant, dark-green fluid mixture that she freezes in ice cube trays, handy to drop into soup or spaghetti sauce. Missing are two customary ingredients--nuts and cheese. That makes it more versatile as a seasoning, she explains.

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Poultry seasoning may not be in most Italian larders, but Galleano uses it frequently. It goes into spaghetti sauce and into the flour that coats the veal she has pounded flat for scaloppine. “I remember my mother doing it,” she says.

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Galleano is a purist about some things, though. One is fresh garlic. “I never use garlic salt,” she says adamantly. On the other hand, she has taken to conveniences such as the microwave. She’s eager to show how she microwaves chopped onions and stores them in the refrigerator ready to use the next day; she does the same with mushrooms. “I’ve learned a few tricks in my 76 years,” she tells you.

In good Italian tradition, she uses lots of home-grown foods, like vegetables and home-cured olives. Son Don cures the olives and they store them in the freezer. Greens for the salad she is making came from friends’ gardens. The mix includes dandelion greens, curly endive and romaine. Galleano adds the winery’s own red wine vinegar to the hard-boiled egg she is crushing for the dressing.

The one thing she does not do is bake, except for easy things like the Sherry wine cake, which is made with mixes. In her family there was no time for such pursuits. “I guess they had to struggle, so they never baked,” she says, talking about her grandmother, who had eight children.

The family emigrated to Canada, then the United States. Galleano was born in North Beach, San Francisco. When she was 3, her parents moved to Redondo Beach and took up poultry farming. “I had to help. In those days you didn’t come home from school and watch TV,” she says.

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When making risotto she crumbles in an Italian sausage, although ordinarily she would use chicken giblets. She remembers the stew her grandmother would make from giblets, livers, cocks combs and feet “in the old days when times were tough.” It may sound like hardship food but “it was delicious,” Galleano says.

At 27, she married Bernard “Nino” Galleano, whose father sold wine grapes to her father. Bernard died in 1983.

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Family history told and dishes ready to eat, she calls to her son, “We’re gonna eat, Donald.” And in he comes with the wines for lunch: Zinfandel from old vines; a white wine blended from Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay, and a sweet, almond-flavored wine for the cake.

Don Galleano talks enthusiastically about his mother’s cooking. He’s obviously devoted to her, and he hands out a booklet that tells her life history, with photographs. The booklet was compiled for her 70th birthday celebration, which involved days of partying.

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You’d think, after all these years of cooking, that Mary Galleano would regard a restaurant dinner as a treat. But no. “When you cook Italian at home, you are not too crazy about going out to eat,” she says.

MARY’S PESTO 1 cup Italian parsley 1 cup fresh basil leaves 5 cloves garlic 3/4 cup olive oil

Combine parsley, basil and garlic in blender and puree. With blender running, gradually pour in oil in thin stream. Stop blender and scrape down sides occasionally. Mixture should have sauce consistency. Pour into plastic ice cube tray and freeze. Makes 2/3 cup.

Each 1-tablespoon serving contains about:

140 calories; 3 mg sodium; trace cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 1 gram carbohydrates; trace protein; 0.09 grams fiber.

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MARY GALLEANO’S RISOTTO 6 small dried European mushrooms Dash ground saffron 1/3 cup hot water 1 onion, chopped 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 Italian sausage 1/2 cup sauteed sliced fresh mushrooms 2 cups converted rice Chicken broth, about 5 cups 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 cup dry white wine Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Soak dried mushrooms in water to cover generously until softened. Drain, saving liquid.

Combine saffron with hot water in bowl. Saute onion in olive oil in skillet until tender. Stir in sausage and cook until browned. Drain soaked mushrooms, reserving liquid, and add to skillet along with sauteed fresh mushrooms. Saute until mixture is slightly browned. Add rice and saute 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 cups broth. Cook over medium heat, uncovered, until broth is absorbed. Add 1/3 cup liquid from dried mushrooms. Add 1/2 cup broth and cook again until almost absorbed. Add another 1/2 cup broth and continue cooking. Add 1/2 cup broth and cook again. Add more broth and saffron mixture. Add butter and let melt. Add wine and cook.

Just before serving, sprinkle 1/4 cup cheese over risotto. Serve additional cheese on side to add as desired. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about: 406 calories; 783 mg sodium; 18 mg cholesterol; 13 grams fat; 57 grams carbohydrates; 11 grams protein; 0.39 gram fiber.

Note: Chopped boiled chicken giblets can be used instead of sausage.

VEAL SCALOPPINE MARSALA 1 pound veal scallops Flour Salt, pepper Several dashes poultry seasoning 2 tablespoons butter 2 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup sliced mushrooms 1/2 cup Sherry 1/2 cup Marsala wine Chopped parsley

Pound veal between sheets of wax paper to make larger. Combine flour, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning in plastic food bag. Add veal in batches and shake until coated.

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Heat butter in large skillet. Add whole garlic cloves and saute 1 minute. Add olive oil. Add meat, as much as fits in single layer, and cook until no longer pink. Turn and cook briefly; meat should not actually brown. Remove meat to plate. Add remaining meat and saute. Remove to plate. Remove garlic and discard. Add mushrooms and saute until tender, stirring up browned bits in pan. Add Sherry and Marsala and cook thoroughly. Add veal and coat with sauce.

Cover and simmer until tender. Add water if mixture becomes too dry. Season to taste with salt, if needed. When meat is done, sprinkle with parsley. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about: 324 calories; 207 mg sodium; 86 mg cholesterol; 12 grams fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 18 grams protein; 0.17 gram fiber.

SUNSHINE SHERRY CAKE 1 (1-pound 2 1/4-ounce) package lemon cake mix 1 (3 1/2-ounce) package lemon instant pudding 1/2 cup oil 1 cup Sherry 4 eggs 1 tablespoon grated orange zest Powdered sugar

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, Sherry, eggs and orange zest in large bowl of electric mixer and mix at medium speed 5 minutes.

Turn into oiled 9-inch tube pan and bake at 350 degrees 50 to 60 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.

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Place on serving platter and sprinkle with powdered sugar. If desired, serve sliced strawberries on side and glasses of almond wine. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about: 657 calories; 599 mg sodium; 189 mg cholesterol; 33 grams fat; 66 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; trace fiber.

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