Chris Fennimore’s cookbook is a treat as last-minute present

Not sure what to get for that last food lover on your list, but want to keep it close to home?

You can’t get more local than Chris Fennimore, who since 1993 has been welcoming Pittsburghers into the kitchen with his live cooking marathons and “QED Cooks” show on WQEDTV. He’s helped teach many of us to cook, too, with the publication of more than 100 cookbooks featuring the recipes he and his guests have prepared on air.

Many are dishes he makes for his own family at home. But he also loves to shine a spotlight on recipes created by viewers, and the stories they tell about their familes’ history, tastes and culture. Until now, that is. This month, Mr. Fennimore published his first cookbook independent of QED. It’s called “Simple Pleasures” (St. Lynn’s Press, $21.95), and it’s the perfect last-minute gift for the cook on your gift list, especially if he or she loves easy-to-prepare comfort food.

Co-authored with Pittsburgh chef Daniel Aguera, it’s a labor of love more than a year in the making that had a most unlikely inspiration — a photo of a rice dish Mr. Aguera had posted on Facebook. Resplendent in its tomato-y goodness, with a fried egg on top, “It reminded me of so many dishes of my childhood,” says Mr. Fennimore — simply made with just a few ingredients, but more memorable than any restaurant meal.

That got him thinking about

how complicated and competitive food has become, especially if one uses restaurant food as a barometer.

“It’s very adventurous to go out to eat,” Mr. Fennimore says, “but it does nothing for the home cook because it can’t be replicated at home.”

But that egg dish, which Mr. Aguera’s abuela had made for him countless times while he was growing up in the Asturias region of Spain .... now that simple pleasure was something to behold.

The two men first got to know each other in 2010, when the chef known for his “Dinner with Daniel” pop-up dinners invited the QED star to a gathering of the “Fat Club,” a clandestine group of chefs who got together to cook, eat and talk about food. Mr. Fennimore was so impressed by what he saw and tasted, he invited Mr. Aguera to be on his “Soups and Stews” cooking marathon (he made a harvest soup). “And we sort of hit it off,” he says.

For one thing, both men are Pittsburgh transplants (Mr. Fennimore grew up in Brooklyn) who discovered thecity’s charms later in life. Both also find inspiration and emotional energy in the home cooking traditions they grew up with or discovered in other people’s homes over the years. As Mr. Aguera puts it, “When we make food ‘like Aunt Maite usedto make,’ we’re keeping that taste memory alive, sharing it with the young ones, connecting ourselves asfriends and family.”

Talking a few years ago, the men agreed the time was ripe for home cooks to get back to basics. And how better to accomplish that goal than with a cookbook featuring food that could be made with everyday ingredients and straightforward preparations?

“And before we knew it, we had a stack of recipes” forthe book that when whittled down to 80 favorites would become “Simple Pleasures.”

Many of the recipes draw from the authors’ own Italian and Spanish family food traditions. Along with Mr. Aguera’s tortilla de patata, chorizo a la sidre and classic pollo al ajillo (garlic chicken), for instance, you’ll find recipes for pasta e fagioli, Sunday sauce and pastina en brodo, an Italian version of chicken soup that Mr. Fennimore’s Sicilian grandmother and mother used as a remedy “for every illness we ever had.”

“It’s so satisfying, and goes right to my heart,” he says.

You’ll also find some allAmerican classics, including recipes for meatloaf and mashed potatoes, apple pie and baked apples, stuffed tomatoes and a bread crumbcrusted spinach pie that’s just as good for lunch as it is for breakfast.

Illustrated with mouthwatering photographs by Pittsburgh photographer Laura Pertrilla, the cookbook will appeal to beginners as well as more accomplished home cooks. All of the recipes were kitchen approved (at Mr. Aguera’s houseover the course of four Sundays) and come with familystories behind them.

Anyone who’s ever watched Mr. Fennimore on TV knows he brings a warmth and down-toearth approach to cooking. What makes Mr. Aguera’s cooking just as special, he says, is that it’s so honest and straightforward. “But he also brings a great deal of passion to everything he makes.”

The cookbook is widely available, both on the web and in local stores, including the Sen. John Heinz History Center and Pennsylvania Macaroni in the Strip District, Barnes & Noble and Merante Gifts in Bloomfield.