Stanley Tucci Just Told Us How to Make His Mother's 4-Ingredient Vinaigrette: "It's Delicious"

With the U.S. release of his new book What I Ate in One Year last week, Stanley Tucci has been booked and busy. So we jumped at the chance to catch up with the actor, cook and author while he was available.

Alongside his book launch, Tucci is also spotlighting an easy recipe with S.Pellegrino: a savory holiday cheese “cake.” This isn’t your typical sweet creamy cake with a graham cracker crust; it’s wheels of cheese—La Tur, Brie, Cornelia and provolone—terraced into a cake shape that works well as a charcuterie alternative for dinner parties. 

While speaking about his partnership, we also learned all about the salad dressing he swears by, the surprising food he doesn’t like, the kitchen tools he travels with and more. Read our questions and his answers below.

Convince the skeptics: why should we be including a savory cheese “cake” on the holiday table?

When my wife and I got married, instead of a proper wedding cake we had wheels of cheese in progressively smaller tiers. It was just really fun. I just think it's cool-looking and it's different from what we usually expect. Obviously it's not a whole bunch of cheeses made into a cake, it's separate pieces piled up one on one another. But I think it's nice, it's something you can have before dinner or after dinner.

In your opinion, is there an underrated cheese?

I don't know … I live in England, and the British, like the French, love all different kinds of cheese. There's some really, really great cheese here. I love goat and sheep cheese a lot. One of the reasons is that they are a little easier to digest, but I just like the savoriness and the sharpness that it has. But are they underrated? I don't know!

Alongside pasta and cheese, a salad is standard on the Italian dinner table. Do you have go-to ingredients for a side salad?

I love romaine lettuce or baby gem lettuce. Or radicchio—I like bitter things. One of my favorite salads is actually a dandelion-green salad, which is very classic Italian. That with a vinaigrette and hard-boiled eggs, that's a meal. It’s the greatest summer salad.

What does your ideal homemade salad dressing look like?

My ideal salad dressing is really simple. I make it the way my mother does. There’s a few different ones, but the classic one is extra-virgin olive oil and a clove of garlic that is not chopped or anything, it’s just split in half. First, you put some salt in the bottom of the salad bowl and you rub the garlic around in the salt, right? And then keep that clove in there and you throw in oil and a little bit of red-wine vinegar. And I just whip that up with a little squeeze of lemon. Then if you want to add mustard, you can add mustard. But that right there, that dressing is a classic. It’s delicious.

Favorite comfort meal?

I love shepherd's pie, cottage pie, anything that's a pie. I like a savory pie. Particularly in England where it becomes really damp, cold, rainy, gray, you can understand why the food is the way it is. Shepherd's pie is made with lamb, cottage pies are made with beef, but they're the same thing. And when properly made, they're delicious.

Favorite sweet pie?

Blueberry.

Is there a kitchen tool that's a necessity for you? 

I have a knife that was given to me a few years ago, and it is just the greatest knife I've ever had. When we go on vacation, I always bring that knife and I bring a couple of pieces of my GreenPan cookware. I have one huge pan, that I can cook sauces in or stews, and I toss a lot of pasta in it. Those two items come with me.

Any food hot takes? Least favorites or unlikely favorite foods?

I'm not a fan of coriander (cilantro). We were just talking about this today with some friends. I can't abide it. I have a real difficulty with it, and that's some sort of genetic thing as far as I know. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious what I like—oh, you know what I really love to eat? Cornish pasties, which in America people don't know what they are. Imagine an empanada, right, but a big one. They come from Cornwall and were made originally for the miners to take to work. They have a very thick crust that has lard in it, and inside them is usually steak, onions, carrots. Absolutely delicious.