Cook This Now! Riba na Roštilju

If home is where the heart is, Southold resident John-Paul Stanišić has found a way to bring it to the table. With his newly released, self-produced and self-published cookbook Tastes of Coastal Croatia, the local author and avid cook has taken his family’s Croatian recipes, logged for years, and translated them through an East End lens. 

Stanišić combines his over 25-year career in design with his knack for cuisine and Croatian heritage to bring an assortment of appetizer, side dish, seafood, meat, rižoto (the Croatian term for Italy’s famed rice dish) and dessert recipes to life. 

“A lot of cookbooks have these huge teams, including photographers and designers,” says Stanišić. “I was able to do it all by myself — the photographs, the retouching, the layout, even the marketing — and I self-published it, so it literally was a one-man job.”

Despite living in the United States, Stanišić has always enjoyed food from Petrčane, the small, beautiful Dalmatian fishing village where his family immigrated from, thanks to his grandparents’ cooking. 

For years, Stanišić made notes about the stories behind these Croatian recipes and about American meals that his family “Croatianized.” It took him about four months to put them down on the cookbook’s bright, flavor-packed pages. 

John-Paul Stanišić at the grill. Allowing flavors to shine through with simple, fresh ingredients is key to Croatian cooking. (Photo credit: John-Paul Stanišić)

During those months, he’d plan a recipe, cook it, photograph it and write it out in his home kitchen. He worked very closely on the project with his mother, Maria Stanišić, to whom he dedicated the book. 

“I did a lot of this with my mom, so working with her and learning the history of everything through her, it brought us a lot closer,” Stanišić says. “She’s been my champion since I could first remember.”

Ingredient sourcing for the recipes, like Stanišić’s polenta fried lignje (squid), blitva (Swiss chard) and punjene paprika are simple, he says, and easily accessible via local grocery stores, farm stands or fish markets.

“I think the thing that sets this cookbook apart from others is that every single recipe has a story,” Stanišić says. “It’s not just a cup of this, a cup of that; there’s a history behind each recipe.”

Fresh fish is an integral part of the cuisine found in coastal Croatia, as it is on the East End, and factors in often on the cookbook’s pages. There’s a respectful, flavorful simplicity to the way the fish and shellfish are treated in the book, which is no better evidenced than with Stanišić’s simple grilled whole branzino. Hit up Southold Fish Market (64755 Route 25, Southold, 631-765-3200) and, Stanišić suggests, swap in local porgy or black sea bass. A grill of some sort plus olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper and fresh herbs are all you need to make this Croatia-meets-North Fork summery supper — and maybe a little family around the table, too.