[Music]
we know a neighborhood classic Syros
Italian grill was chosen as the best
Italian restaurant right for our Houston
hearts award well-deserved owners Ciro
and Laurel Lampasas are in our studio to
share the secret of their longevity and
of course they had to bring along some
of their famous dishes welcome to the
show congratulations thank you thank you
very much and for people who haven't
heard of Ciro's give us a little bit of
the backstory a lot of the recipes are
based on your grandmother's recipes
right yes yeah we're not that fancy I
mean we're not like a culinary chef or
anything like that we're just cooks you
know and that comes from my
grandmother's heritage being Sicilian
and you know just take anything and
everything in the kitchen and she could
just make an unbelievable meal out of it
and that's what I think is so great
because when you have the stories of
theirs we're looking at the family photo
they are yeah awesome that is so great
and of course the restaurant opened in
1986 and you really look at food from
Tuscany basically so if this is like
cooking from the heart right crap I
would say so yeah yeah and also let's
talk a little bit about this
wood-burning oven because in order to
achieve that true authentic taste you
guys actually brought over the giant
wood-burning oven from Italy correct yes
as extra as possible you're gonna make
one of your signature dishes for us and
this is the crawfish cacciatore
it's a crawfish cacciatore so it's kind
of like bringing kind of the old with
the new and that's why laurels here
right here you know in the big thing
about is we've always done the
cacciatore with pasta or something like
that but the gluten-free thing is you
know with the new generation coming up
it's hot needs to listen dad needs to
listen I'm listening
and you're basically doing zucchini
noodles or it's literally zuculini so
what you do is you literally just crank
it out just like this which is crazy
because it looks way I don't know it
looks fancier and it's supposed to be
and this is a plastic machine like who
would have thought you know I know it's
awesome it's one of my favorite dishes
and I know Sara you have olive oil in
the pan red onion while you're kind of
putting everything in there yes
Khachaturian what almost like a spicier
sauce or no yeah it's a little spicier
you know I think it simmers a little bit
longer it gets a true rich flavor I mean
I think it gets the more into you know
it's kind of like the basics of
Louisiana cooking you know that's what's
so good about I think Louisiana cooking
is they simmer stuff you know and
everything comes together so in and then
simmering it it's you layer the food so
like you know layering a little bit at a
time we're not gonna just let the
marinara take and do everything I mean
let's go to work you know a little salt
pepper to it let's get a little
seasoning going you know and so far this
seems pretty basic to prepare the base
you have mushrooms red onions green
peppers in a little bit of olive oil
scrapper and then with the zucchini the
great thing about is you don't see any
boiling water going on right now right I
mean traditionally there's plenty of
water in this uzuki nee that we're gonna
actually gonna hit it in the pan here
with a little heat and try to take out a
little moisture okay plus you know when
roasting vegetables is where some flavor
comes in you know you throw it in the
water what is it it's boiled alright
it's not that much flavor so the new
thing is is to try to get things in - it
gets in there alright we're having fun
with our food here there again I'm back
to layering it I want salt and pepper in
here early you know I want to get some
heat to it take a little moisture out
we've even started doing art and yoky a
little bit differently then the
traditional thing I've just you know
boiling it you know in putting sauce on
it we start roasting it it's just
changes the flavor you know it just
changes the flavor and which is for the
better now we don't have a lot of time
so okay when I jump to the plating
portion but typically about how long
would you leave these in the pan before
proceeding this in a pan right here yeah
I'm just gonna you know like I like
everything blue on the crunchy side so I
mean I'm not gonna let it go very long
in here and ultimately though in case
our viewers are wondering the finished
product it is beautiful it's right over
here next to your Houston hearts award
perfectly plain thank you thank you
Laurel great to see you Congrats again
thank you appreciate it restaurant in
town glad you guys are back and for more
information on this restaurant you could
check out see rose.com go see them