Angelo Smith's Warm Brussels Sprouts Salad by Angelo Smith

Sharp and bacony with just the right amount of bitter, this warm salad has turned even the most ardent of Brussels sprouts haters.

SERVES 6 TO 8 AS A STARTER OR SIDE

Sharp and bacony with just the right amount of bitter, this warm salad has turned even the most ardent of Brussels sprouts haters.

When the first Pizza Antica opened in 2003 in an upscale mall in San Jose packed with designer boutiques, luxury apartments, and hip restaurants galore, something uncanny happened.

What was imagined as a simple, casual restaurant that would serve about 150 shoppers and strollers in need of refueling turned out to be a major draw. Indeed, everything turned out backwards: shopping became the diversion for the throngs of people who waited patiently, often two hours at a stretch, for a table at the modern-dayCal-Italia pizzeria, which has grown to serve a thousand meals a day.

Pizza Antica now numbers four locations, including two in the East Bay. Diners come for their fix of blistered pizzas, Tuscan fried chicken, manicotti with prosciutto, and other delights made with ingredients from small local family farms, including the restaurant’s own.

Chef Angelo Smith oversees all the locations. The Bay Area native practically grew up in the kitchen with his family and even cooked for his high school football team when he was an offensive lineman. Having traveled to Italy half a dozen times, he fell hard for the food and culture.

“It’s all about the simplicity of food,” he says. “Italians are reinventing the wheel. They let quality ingredients speak for themselves.” And they know better than anyone that you don’t have to break the bank to do so.