My parents, Ralph and
Rita, were born to immigrant Italians. My father worked at several jobs outside
the home while my mother worked at home raising seven children.
The one thing I remember
most about my childhood is never going without. Food was always plentiful,
my clothes were always neat and clean, and we would often go to the Saturday
matinee at one of the local movie theaters to watch 50 cartoons!
In the summer, we would
go on picnics with our cousins and aunts and uncles. I never knew that picnic
fare was just hot dogs and hamburgers. Our picnics included chicken cacciatore,
lasagna, sausage and peppers, eggplant parmigiana, and spaghetti and meatballs.
The spaghetti would be cooked fresh on a Coleman stove. The end of the day
would often find us in the back yard of my parents house on the patio that
my father somehow found the time and money to build. There we would sing
along with Mitch Miller albums or coax my uncle Joe into playing his mandolin.
When my brother and I
went into the restaurant business, my mother and father
were there to help. Soon, my father, who had "retired", was there on a daily
basis. His soups and sauces soon became the talk of the town. My mother provided
recipes, encouragement and worked as hostess without pay. She would also
make pepper sticks, a long thin variation of the traditional pepper
biscuits. Crisp and peppery, they were a favorite at the bar.
I guess some things never
change. My father is still working and my mother, well, she's still raising
seven children and thirteen grandchildren!
We get together as often
as possible and enjoy each other's cooking. The dishes on this page are some
of my favorites. If you enjoy cooking and aren't afraid of experimenting,
you should be able to pretty much duplicate them by using their descriptions.
Remember what I said on the first page, "the best food is your
favorite food, it's supposed to taste the way you like
it, and the only correct way to prepare it is the way that makes it taste
good to you!"
I n other words think
of the descriptions as guidelines that can be adjusted to suit your taste.
You can use low fat products, salt substitutes, different kinds of meats
or whatever. It might not taste exactly like what I like, but so what? If
you like it, or your friends and family like it, you've succeeded!
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My
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Baked Lasagna
Chicken Cacciatore
Eggplant Parmigiana
Spaghetti Sauce
Marinara Sauce
Pepperoni Sauce
Meatballs
Braciole
HomemadeMacaroni
Veal and Peppers
Stuffed Pork Chops
Minestra
Cappellini Aglio olio
Stuffed Manicotti
Chicken Soup
Lentil Soup
Pasta e Fagiole
Stuffed Peppers
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What I remember most about watching my mother make lasagne,
is competing with my brothers for the slices of mozzarella.
We would try to take them from the cutting board before they went into the
dish with everything else. She would slice the soft, round balls of the creamy
cheese and layer it with cooked lasagne noodles, grated Romano cheese and
a sauce of tomatoes, ground beef and Italian sausage. After it baked for
45 minutes or so we would sit down and enjoy it with a tossed salad and some
crusty Italian bread. Today, I enjoy the same meal with the added pleasure
of a glass of red wine, preferably, homemade.
List of Recipes
My Aunt Sis would make this dish and bring it to picnics at the lake. You
should have seen the heads turn when the people around us were hit with the
aroma as it was being reheated on a Coleman stove! Who could blame them?
Imagine the smell of golden brown pieces of chicken simmering with fresh
parsley, mushrooms, olive oil, garlic and white wine. A little red pepper
and a couple of anchovies were added to the pan after the kids got their
share.
List of Recipes
Although everybody loved to eat it, nobody liked to make eggplant. Even with
the fan above the stove going and the windows and back door open, you could
still tell that somebody was frying eggplant as soon as you walked into the
house. It didn't bother me but it sort of embarassed the home owner. I could
never figure out why.
After you make eggplant parmigiana you'll realize why it's appreciated
so much by those who are enjoying it without having to make it themselves.
Sliced eggplant, dipped in a very light egg batter, is fried, drained on
a brown paper bag and then layered with tomato sauce
and a lot of grated cheese. After it bakes, it's good hot or cold. I
remember sitting down to lunch, when I worked on the NYS Thruway, and turning
down all kinds of offers from the other guys for my eggplant and salame
sandwiches. Once in a while I might trade half for an egg and pepper sandwich.
List of Recipes
Sundays were a special day. My mother's brother, Uncle Joe, would usually
stop over after church and sit and talk with my father while my mother finished
cooking. They used to like to call each other "boss" in front of their wives
to jokingly remind them who was who. My mother and Aunt Sis said they went
along with it because they knew who the "real" bosses were.
The phone would ring just before noon (the time Uncle Joe had to have
his macaroni on Sunday - no sooner , no later). Uncle Joe or my father would
invariably say, "there's the war department." It would be Aunt Sis telling
whoever answered to tell Uncle Joe that she was "throwing them in." This
meant that she was putting the macaroni into the kettle and my uncle had
just enough time to get home before they were done.
By now, our house was filled with the aroma of Sunday dinner. My mother or
father would usually start the sauce before we went to church. They would
brown a piece of beef, pork, spareribs (my favorite), sausage or a combination
of meat, in oil that had been flavored with garlic. Then the tomatoes would
be added. The type of tomatoes depended on the mood of whoever was making
the sauce. Most of the time, whole canned tomatoes would go in first and
tomato paste would be added after the tomatoes had been mashed and cooked
down a bit. The stove would be turned to its lowest possible setting so that
the sauce would just barely simmer while we were in church.
I remember the first thing somebody would do when we got home was to check
the sauce and announce whether or not it was "stuck." If the flame was left
too high or the mass went longer than usual, the sauce would stick to the
bottom of the pan and cause great concern. The meat would then be removed
to make room for the meatballs that would be fried and put into the sauce
to cook for awhile before being served with the rest of the meat.
List of Recipes
Marinara sauce can be made very quickly. We would usually have it
over macaroni that was being served as a side dish rather than as a main
course. Whole canned tomatoes seasoned with basil and cooked with olive oil
and garlic for about a half an hour is about all it takes.
List of Recipes
Whenever my mother asked, "what do you feel like having for supper?", one
of the dishes that I asked for was macaroni with pepperoni sauce. It was
quick and delicious. By the time the water boiled and the perciatelle
(really thick spaghetti that we called worms when we were kids) was cooked,
the sauce would be ready. Sliced pepperoni simmered for a few minutes with
chopped whole canned tomatoes or Hunts tomato sauce and served with plenty
of grated cheese is still one of my favorites.
List of Recipes
To this day, I don't know how my mother ever finished making enough meatballs
for dinner. We would eat them as fast as they would come out of the frying
pan. I can't figure out where the ones cooked in sauce and served with the
macaroni came from!
A couple of pounds of ground beef mixed with a handfull of soft bread crumbs
(more if you have to strech the recipe a little), a little salt and pepper,
fresh garlic, fresh parsley, two eggs and some good grated
Romano will produce about 15 - 20 good sized meatballs. Fry them till they're
crisp and well browned then let them simmer in tomato sauce (if you can)
for about 30 minutes before serving them with spaghetti.
List of Recipes
The very thin, sliced beef that you see in the supermarkets today marked
"for braciole" is not what the cooks in my family used. My Uncle Joe insisted
that braciole had to be made with shoulder steak while others would use only
round steak. In any case, it was always about a quarter of an inch thick.
I remember going into Dantini's Market and asking for, "meat for braciole."
What I got I really don't know, but after it was seasoned and cooked, it
would melt in your mouth no matter what cut it was!
After pounding it out a bit, sprinkle a little salt, a generous amount of
black pepper, fresh garlic, fresh parsley and grated cheese
on top of the meat. Add a little oil to keep things moist. If
your house is like my house, then and now, you then conduct a major search
to find some string to tie the whole thing up like a jelly roll. After frying,
the braciole is simmered in sauce. Great care is taken so that it is removed
from the sauce when it is at the peak of doneness; just before it falls apart
but not until it is fork tender. My father would sometimes add rasins and
pignoli (pine nuts) before rolling it up.
List of Recipes
Short for "homemade macaroni," real "homemades" are like nothing you can
buy or make with a machine. Like it was yesterday, I can see my grandmother
laboring over the kitchen table making macaroni for the family. She
would start with a pile of flour shaped like a volcano. Just enough eggs,
and nothing else except for a pinch of salt, would be added one by one untill
a soft satiny dough was formed after a lot of kneading. She had a special
stick almost as long as a broom handle and just a little thicker that she
would use to roll out the dough. It would be rolled and streched until
it completely coverd the table and was almost paper thin. Then she
would roll up large sections of it and slice it with a knife. Holding the
knife in her right hand, she worked very quickly using the front of the fingers
on her left hand as a guide. The thinly sliced rolls of dough would then
be unwound and spread out to dry; usually on a clean sheet on her bed.
They would cook almost instantly and be devoured even more quickly!
Not a single holiday would pass without homemades as a course during the
meal. It was tough to control yourself and not overeat to the point
where you didn't have room for the main course.
I don't think a single one of those events ever passed without someone saying,
"I think we should leave the homemades out next year . I'm so full,
I can't eat the rest of the meal." And year after year, that line,
as it was intended to, always got a rise out of someone who was worried
that the person who said it might really be serious, "What do you mean? We
gotta have homemades or it won't be (whatever holiday it was). We'll
just make a little less." HA!
List of Recipes
Veal and peppers is a great combination and very satisfying as a meal when
served with oven browned potatoes and a garlicy green salad! Tossed
with a little flour, the pieces of veal are fried and then simmered with
whole canned tomatoes until they are very tender. Fried peppers, mushrooms
and onions are added with a little red wine for the last half hour, or so,
of cooking. Season with salt and pepper and just a pinch of oregano.
List of Recipes
I love stuffed pork chops; especially when they're not really stuffed! Let
me explain. Salt and pepper a few pork chops that are about a half
to three quarters of an inch thick. Fry them quickly; just until they
are browned but not cooked through. Top them with stuffing made wuth
sauteed celery, onion, Italian sausage, day old Italian bread, salt, pepper,
a little sage, and an egg or two to hold every thing together. Bake the chops
with the stuffing for about 45 minutes and serve with applesauce.
List of
Recipes
