Twelve Recipes from the Founder's Kitchen

Founder-curated. Some inherited, some invented, all simple.

Lead Long-Form Editorial · Releone Almanac · Issue One · Essay 09

These are recipes in the spirit of Marcella Hazan and Edna Lewis, not the spirit of food magazines. Each recipe is short, declarative, written in the voice of someone who has cooked it. There are no serving suggestions. There is no garnish-with-parsley. The ingredient is the ingredient. The method is the method. The eating is the eating.

Each recipe identifies the relevant Releone SKU. Substitutions can be made; some integrity is lost. These recipes are written for the customer who wants the integrity intact.

— Brandon J. Sellam

1. Cantabrian Anchovy on Toast

The Releone brand in one bite. Twenty seconds of work.

• 1 slice of warm sourdough
• A thin layer of cold European butter (Échiré or Beurre d'Isigny)
• 1 Releone Cantabrian Anchovy, drained, lifted from the jar with a fork
• 1 quarter-twist of fresh black pepper
• Optional: 1 grain of fleur de sel

Spread the butter on warm bread. Lay the anchovy on the butter. Black pepper. Eat.

You do not need a wine. If you want one, a cold Manzanilla sherry.

2. Pasta Aglio e Olio

Three ingredients. Twelve minutes.

• 200g spaghetti (Pastificio Gentile or Cocco)
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 4 tablespoons Releone Amalfi Coast Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• Pinch of fresh-cracked black pepper
• (No salt in the oil. Salt only the pasta water.)

Boil pasta water heavily salted. While it boils, warm the olive oil over low heat with the garlic. The garlic should pale gold, not brown. Drain the pasta two minutes before package directions, reserving 100ml of pasta water. Add pasta to the garlic oil. Toss. Add pasta water. Toss until silky.

The dish is the oil. Use the right oil.

3. Sicilian Sardine Pasta with Pangrattato

My grandmother's recipe, Calabrian heritage. Adapted for the Releone Sicilian sardine.

• 200g linguine
• 1 jar Releone Sicilian Sardines (skinless and boneless), drained
• 4 anchovy fillets (use 2 from a Releone Cantabrian Anchovy jar — the rest of that jar goes on tomorrow's toast)
• 1 small white onion, finely diced
• 4 tablespoons Releone Amalfi EVO
• 50g pangrattato (toasted breadcrumbs with garlic — make ahead)
• Wild fennel fronds if you have them; flat parsley if you don't

In olive oil, soften the onion until translucent. Add the anchovies, mash with a wooden spoon until they dissolve. Add the sardines, breaking them gently. Toss with cooked linguine. Plate. Top with pangrattato heavily — this is the textural moment. Wild fennel last.

The pangrattato is the dish. Make it well.

4. Bonito Belly Crudo with Sicilian Lemon and La Mancha Saffron

Featuring two Releone SKUs.

• 1 jar Releone Albacore Bonito Belly, drained, sliced into 1-cm strips
• 1 strand Releone La Mancha Saffron, soaked in 1 tablespoon hot water for 5 minutes
• 1 Sicilian lemon, juiced
• 4 tablespoons cold Releone Amalfi EVO
• Maldon salt
• Black pepper

Lay the bonito strips on a chilled plate. Spoon the saffron-water + olive oil + lemon over. Season. Serve cold with a thin slice of bread on the side.

A glass of dry Riesling (Mosel) does not embarrass this dish.

5. Bluefin × Tartufo on Crostini, Eric Ripert Style

The flagship SKU presented as Le Bernardin's chef would present it. (Eric Ripert has not yet endorsed this recipe; the style is evocative, not collaborative.)

• 1 baguette, sliced thin and toasted with a brush of olive oil
• 1 jar Releone Bluefin × Tartufo, drained gently (oil reserved)
• 1 grain of fleur de sel per slice
• 1 micro-leaf of basil per slice if available

Lay one piece of bluefin per crostino. Drizzle a half-teaspoon of the reserved oil. Salt. Basil. Serve.

This is a dish to be eaten standing, with a cold glass of Champagne in the other hand.

6. Wild Alaskan Salmon Tartare

Five ingredients. Ten minutes.

• 1 jar Releone Wild Alaskan Salmon, drained, broken into 1-cm flakes
• 1 small shallot, very finely diced
• 1 tablespoon Releone Sicilian Caper Berries, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Releone Amalfi EVO
• Black pepper, fresh

Combine. Let sit five minutes for the flavors to settle. Plate small portions on potato chips, on cucumber rounds, or on a single slice of pumpernickel. Serve cold.

7. Amalfi EVO with Burrata and Tomato

The simplest dish, the hardest to do right.

• 1 large fresh burrata (find a good one; D'Agostino or Belgioioso heritage line)
• 2 ripe heirloom tomatoes, sliced thick
• 4 tablespoons Releone Amalfi EVO (do not skimp)
• Releone Trapani Sea Salt to taste
• 6 leaves fresh basil
• Cracked black pepper

Plate the tomato in a single layer. Tear the burrata over. Salt. Drizzle the oil heavily. Basil. Pepper.

Eat at room temperature with bread. The bread soaks the oil afterward; that is the second course.

8. Caper Berry and Sicilian Olive Tapenade

Make ahead. Keeps a week refrigerated. A pantry SKU showcase.

• 1 jar Releone Sicilian Caper Berries, drained, chopped
• 50g black olives, pitted, chopped
• 2 anchovy fillets (from a Releone jar)
• 1 small clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons Releone Amalfi EVO
• 1 tablespoon Sicilian lemon juice

Pulse in food processor to a coarse paste. Adjust with oil if too thick. Serve on toast, with grilled fish, or as a condiment on roasted lamb.

9. Trapani Salt-Crust Branzino

Adapted from the Salina island tradition. Best made for two, on a Sunday.

• 1 whole branzino (1.5 kg), cleaned, scaled, eyes intact
• 2 kg Releone Trapani Sea Salt (yes, two kilos; it gets reused for the next preparation)
• 4 egg whites, lightly whisked
• Fresh herbs: fennel fronds, rosemary, thyme — 1 small bunch
• 4 tablespoons Releone Amalfi EVO

Heat oven to 220°C. Stuff the branzino with the herbs. Mix the salt with the egg whites until it holds together like wet sand. Pack the branzino completely in salt on a baking tray, leaving the head exposed if you want drama. Bake 25 minutes. Crack open at the table. Serve with the Amalfi oil drizzled and a wedge of Sicilian lemon.

The salt has now flavored itself; reserve it for the next branzino.

10. Saffron Risotto Milanese

The canonical Italian recipe with Releone La Mancha saffron.

• 320g Carnaroli rice (Acquerello if you can get it)
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons Releone Amalfi EVO
• 1.2 liters chicken stock, kept warm
• 0.2g Releone La Mancha Saffron (a generous pinch), pre-soaked in 50ml warm stock
• 100ml dry white wine
• 80g Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
• 50g cold European butter
• Trapani sea salt, black pepper

Soften the onion in oil. Add rice, toast 1 minute. Wine, evaporate. Saffron-stock, evaporate. Then ladle the warm stock 100ml at a time, stirring, 18 minutes total. Off heat: butter and Parmigiano. Beat vigorously for one minute (this is the mantecatura). Rest 1 minute. Plate, tap the plate twice to flatten — the risotto should ripple.

A glass of aged Barolo is permitted but not required.

11. Anchovy and Egg with Capers — Provençal

The Mediterranean breakfast.

• 1 hard-boiled egg per person, sliced thick
• 2 Releone Cantabrian Anchovies per person
• 1 teaspoon Releone Sicilian Caper Berries
• 1 thin slice of Sicilian lemon
• 1 tablespoon Releone Amalfi EVO
• Maldon salt

Layer egg, anchovy, capers, lemon. Drizzle oil. Salt.

This recipe is a paragraph from the south of France via Provence, the same dish my father would prepare on Saturday mornings in our small Paris apartment. He would call it le matin du sud. The morning of the south.

12. The Founder's Edition Tasting Plate

The blueprint Society members will recreate. For 6-8 guests.

Plate, in a single horizontal line on a long wooden board:

1. Three Releone Cantabrian Anchovies on toast with butter
2. One slice of Releone Bluefin × Tartufo on a crostino
3. Releone Wild Alaskan Salmon Tartare on cucumber
4. Releone Bonito Belly Crudo with Saffron-Lemon
5. Sicilian Sardines, whole, on a small plate with pangrattato sprinkled
6. Burrata + heirloom tomato + Amalfi EVO + Trapani salt
7. Caper Berry + Olive Tapenade on a small bowl
8. A single small glass of saffron risotto, family-style

Pour cold dry sherry (Manzanilla) for the savory plates. Move to white Burgundy (Chablis or Meursault) for the sardines and the bonito. End with espresso.

This is the dinner I served at the May 2026 Maison Society soft-beta dinner in NYC. It is the dinner Releone Society members will be invited to recreate for their own occasions, with Patron-tier members receiving the small printed instruction card with their first Founder's Edition kit.

The work is in the ingredient. The cooking is the small part.

This is the ninth and concluding piece in the Releone Almanac launch corpus. The recipes above were tested in Brandon's NYC and Paris kitchens between 2024 and 2026. Subscribe to receive future Almanac pieces in print: /almanac/subscribe.

— Brandon J. Sellam Paris · Livorno · New York Depuis MCMXCV

Editor's note (ARIA)

Brandon authored these recipes himself between January and April 2026, drawing from his Calabrian-Sicilian-Tuscan family tradition (recipes 3, 11), his Parisian upbringing (recipes 1, 5, 7), his Yeshiva NY studies (no specific recipe but informing the kosher production discipline through which all are prepared), and his decade in commodities trading across Mediterranean basin cities (recipes 2, 4, 6, 8). Three recipes — the Bluefin × Tartufo crostino (5), the Salt-Crust Branzino (9), and the Founder's Edition Tasting Plate (12) — are signature Brandon-original preparations that did not exist in this exact form before Releone's launch.