4/12/11

Top Secret Photo Shoot: Mike Isabella's Pepperoni Sauce

When Bonnie Benwick of WA Post sends you a message on Twitter asking if you could take photos for a top secret mission, you thank your lucky stars that you were already planning on spending your entire day in the kitchen cooking and taking photos and editing those photos and blogging, so what's another few photographs?!

Then you get a bit nervous about what that secret mission is. But there is no time for it! You must vacuum, put on a bit of makeup and make sure that the recipe you were already making in your kitchen don't burn.

Of course by "you" I mean "me."
That's precisely what happened to me this past Sunday.


Bonnie came to my condo with a few containers of food. What was I going to photograph? Mike Isabella's pepperoni sauce! If you are fans of the Top Chef Top Stars show on Bravo, you must be aware of the pepperoni sauce Mike made. It sounded intriguing, although it did not make him win.

Bonnie was able to get the recipe from Mike, made it and brought it to me to photograph.


It's basically a lot of pepperoni with a bit of garlic, onion, tomatoes and some spices. It tastes very strongly of pepperoni, as it should.

And remember this tweet from Sunday?



Bonnie brought me a goat neck from Bethesda Farmers Market as a thank you for taking the photos on such a short notice. It's currently sitting in my freezer, but eventually will be roasted and used in a ragu. I also am a lucky owner of a jar of Mike's pepperoni sauce. Now just figure out how to use it!

17 comments:

  1. That sauce looks terrific.Enjoyed your post

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  2. How exciting! What a great experience. Did you taste the sauce? Looks great!

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  3. This sounds like such an unusual but delicious sauce! Thanks for sharing your top secret mission - the photos look great! And good luck with your goat ragu -sounds delicious!

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  4. So fun! That sauce is famous. Beautiful photos!

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  5. re: Using Mike's pepperoni sauce: what about using it as the base for a "pepperoni pizza" but without the whole pepperonis usually used but maybe instead using different kinds of peppers, capers, olives plus a little cheese. Just a thought.

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  6. Krissy, I did taste the sauce: it's very pepperoni'ish :)

    Jimbo, great idea to use it as a sauce for a pizza. But would probably have to use very non-salty ingredients for other toppings.

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  7. so so cool! Also jealous of the goat in your freezer. I've wanted to try cooking goat for ages. Have you cooked it before?

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  8. Great photos, Olga. I can't imagine it's easy to take pictures of a mound of sauce. Well done. And if someone offered to pay me in goat I would not decline.

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  9. Oh my goodness. You are amazing. What a great opportunity! And now I am off to the WaPo site to check out the recipe for that sauce so I can make it at home... and exhibit it with pictures that will pale in comparison to yours!

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  10. Pepperoni sauce!! It does sound like good stuff. What a fun assignment!

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  11. Nice! When I watched the show, I figured it was a simple tomato sauce with pepperoni incorporated into it, which you have now confirmed is basically what it is.

    I like Jimbo's idea and I'll probably make something similar (just add some Moz and maybe some goat cheese, in honor of you being paid in goat).

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  12. Fabulous opportunity! Congrats. I am wondering if I know the source of your goat -- a friend of mine from up this way just started selling her goat at the Bethesda market this past Sunday!

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  13. I'm the farmer who raised the goat and it's fun to find out where the meat I sell at farmers market ends up. Enjoy! Love your blog.

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  14. The photos are great!
    Ah, this pepperoni sauce...Ms. Gail Simmons was going crazy about it on the show.

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  16. Lovely photos as always! Glad to finally know the meaning behind Sunday's mystery goat tweet.

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  17. Perhaps you should pair the goat with the pepperoni sauce?! Okay, maybe not. This was a fun and spontaneous read ;-)

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