String Beans and Carrots in Tomato Sauce

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

BRUCULINU

My grandparents came to Manhattan from Italy. The could have gone anywhere in the United States, but they settled in Manhattan. Most of the immigrants from my grandfather’s town of Vizzini settled in Manhattan, around Elizabeth Street, so my grandfather came to a place that he knew about from the people who came before him. This is where he met my grandmother. What could be better than meeting and marrying a girl from your own town, in America?

Like many newly weds, my grandfather wanted to raise his family away from the crowds of the City and settle in a suburban area with open space like in the old country. So he came to Brooklyn, or as he and my grandmother called it, Bruculinu.

My grandfather bought a house after saving enough money from having a successful butcher shop in New York City. He took along his mother- in- law, father- in- law, one brother-in-law, two sister in-laws, not to mention his own two children, my Uncle Sal and my mother Rose. They came to Bruculinu around 1927.  My grandfather didn’t always have his own business. He paid his dues, so to speak. When he first arrived here he worked digging portions of the New York City Subway system. When he was able to save enough money he opened his own business, got married, and after a few years came to the suburbs.

It really is special growing up in a house that has been in the family so long. My mother grew up in Bruculinu, and went to the same schools in the neighborhood that I did. It is also very special living in the same house as your grandparents. There were times when I didn’t believe that, especially when I was a teenager and had to answer to TWO sets of parents. But later on in life you begin to realize how special that time was. You never depended on strangers or other people to watch your children. Grandma was just upstairs. Day care? What was that? It was a different world, and not that long ago. Just a generation ago. I’m not sure we are in a better place today. Our parents and grandparents had plenty to teach us…we had plenty to learn.

Nothing on earth reminds me more of my grandparents than watching the Lawrence Welk Show. They loved that show!! Public TV airs the Lawrence Welk show here early on Saturday evenings. If I’m surfing the channels and catch it, I have to stop and watch. I’m immediately transported back to Bruculinu, sitting next to my grandfather at his dining room table, with my grandmother sitting in her arm-chair watching the champion of Champagne music. My grandfather would sit there mesmerized at the singing and dancing, as he rocked his legs together back and forth…it was a habit he had while sitting and enjoying something. He would be chewing his Black Jack gum and smoking a cigarette. The smell of licorice and smoke also reminds me of him.

Another show my grandparents love to watch was Italian Film Festival. I’m not sure if it was aired on WOR or WPIX but that was another staple of my grandparents TV viewing. As the title suggest, all the movies were in Italian with English subtitles. I used to sit and watch it with them as well. Helped me learn Italian. But I would still ask my grandmother what was going on and she would explain it to me.

My grandmother was a soap opera junkie. Search For Tomorrow, As The World Turns, or The Secret Storm, are some of the shows I remember her watching. When I was home from school I would go upstairs to their apartment. My grandmother would be doing her laundry while watching TV. I could remember the smell of laundry detergent and bleach that was coming from her washing machine, which was right next to her sink in the kitchen. It kind of went with the soap operas… the shows always opened with organ music… and the fresh smell of my grandmother’s cloths washing… it just got imbedded in my memory like that. Go figure. Till this day, when I do laundry I think of my grandmother watching soap operas.

My mother used to make this vegetable to get us kids to eat carrots. Add a good marinara sauce to anything and we will eat it. This is a great vegetable side dish, and very tasty. If you add potatoes to this you can have yourself a meal. I always like to use fresh string beans for this recipe. They are a pain to prepare and pick off the ends, something I always remember seeing my mother and grandmother doing at their kitchen table or in front of the TV. But it’s worth it. If you don’t have the time, you can always use frozen string beans. Never use canned for this recipe, God forbid!

String Beans and Carrots in Tomato Sauce

  • 1 pound of fresh string beans, cleaned or 16 ounces of frozen string beans
  • 4 medium carrots, sliced 1/4 ” thick
  • 2 cups of San Marzano tomatoes, pureed
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 5-6 fresh basil leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • freshly grated Romano Cheese

In a medium sauce pot heat 1/4 cup of olive oil on moderate heat and saute the garlic for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the crushed tomatoes and rinse the cup with 1/2 cup of water and place in the sauce. Bring the tomato sauce to a simmer. Add the oregano, basil, salt & pepper. If you have a rind from your Romano cheese add a piece of that to the sauce as well. If not you can add the Romano grated cheese later.

Add the string beans and carrots and simmer the sauce uncovered for 35 minutes, stirring from time to time. As the sauce thickens, stir more often to prevent from burning. The string beans and carrots will be cooked after the 35 minutes but continue cooking until the sauce is real thick. Be careful you do not burn it.

The carrots and string beans should be soft and tender. If you didn’t have the cheese rind, remove the pot from the heat and sprinkle 1/4 cup of grated Romano cheese over the string beans and carrots and mix well.

This dish is best served warm or at room temperature. It can even be served chilled as part of an antipasto platter.

Posted in vegetable | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Spaghetti with Tuna and Fennel

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

My grandfather would go crazy over this spaghetti.  He would enjoy it so much I remember seeing him eating it with the end of the table-cloth tucked into the collar of his shirt so he would not get any oil or sauce on him from slurping up this wonderful dish. My grandmother would make this when she couldn’t get fresh sardines for Pasta Con Sarde. Or didn’t have any sardines and used the canned tuna she had in her pantry. Both dishes are similar. With pasta con sarde she added pine nuts and currants and used the fleshy part of the fennel along with the leaves.

This is as true a Sicilian dish as you can make. The only place I ever saw make this (other than my grandmother) was a little deli in Hackensack, New Jersey called Martino’s Grocery. Martino’s is at 107 Lodi Street, and is the best kept secret in New Jersey. From the outside it looks like any other Italian Specialty grocery store. And when you walk in you don’t notice anything exceptional. Until you venture to the back of the store which opens up  and looks like you are stepping into grandma’s dining room. Except instead of one long table there are two. With chairs situated all around the table.  For $10 (have not been there in a while so I’m not sure if it has gone up) you will dine on some of the best Sicilian home cooking you have ever had. It’s all buffet style. Vincenzo Martino makes sure everyone is seated properly while his wife is constantly refilling the chafing dishes with more fresh cooked food. On any day you can have three types of pasta, including Pasta con Sarde which they make on Wednesdays, two or three types of chicken dishes, sausages, meatballs, eggplant made two different ways, veal dishes, salads, foccachia the list goes on and on, whatever Grandma Martino feels like cooking that day. And every day it’s something different. When I worked in Hackensack I used to go there for lunch and when I got back to the office all I wanted to do was put my head down and take an hour’s nap. Who could work after a feast like that?? And if the food wasn’t reason enough to go there, I would sit and eat and would get coached to get more food, just like my grandparents used to do.

Spaghetti with Tuna and Fennel is a simple dish with simple ingredients that work very well together. I hope you enjoy it.

Spaghetti with Tuna and Fennel

  • 1     pound spaghetti
  • 2 – 5 ounce cans of tuna in olive oil, drained and flaked
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 4 anchovy filets
  • 4-5 canned plumb tomatoes, seeded and chopped
  • 2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
  • 1 pinch saffron
  • 1/4 cup Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 cup fennel leaves, chopped
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup toasted plain breadcrumbs
  • Salt and pepper to taste

To toast the breadcrumbs, place in a small frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Toast over medium heat until the breadcrumbs turn golden. Remove from heat and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook till al dente.

In the meantime, in a large saute pan, add the olive oil, chopped onions and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes over medium heat until the onions are soft. Add the anchovy filets and cook, chopping up,  till they dissolve. Add the chopped tomatoes, capers, parsley, fennel and saffron and cook for several minutes. Add the tuna to the sauce and cook gently for 1 minuet. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain it well and reserve a cup of the pasta water. Add the spaghetti to the sauce and toss well. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the pasta and toss. If you find the spaghetti too dry you can add some pasta water. This is not a dripping wet sauce but a puree of all the flavors of the ingredients . Taste again for salt.

 

Serve the spaghetti with a sprinkle of the toasted breadcrumbs on top and some grated cheese.

Posted in Pasta, Seafood | Tagged | 2 Comments

Stuffed Mushrooms

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

With Thanksgiving less than a week away we should all take a moment and reflect on the blessings we have to be thankful for this year. As tough as the past year has been for many Americans we can all find something to be thankful for.  And with all that we have, to share a gesture of kindness with a neighbor or friend.

My Thanksgiving came early this year, and when I least expected it, in the most unlikely place.

I pulled my cart into the checkout lane at the far end of the row in Shop Rite. Only one person was in front of me and it didn’t look like she had too much in her cart. A few essentials and a huge bag of wild bird seed that took up most of her shopping cart. The little old lady was all of 4 feet tall, about 80 years old and very thin and frail, and wore a baseball cap with a picture of a bird printed on the side. Not a team bird or anything like that, might have been a logo from some club or organization that catered to birds.

I couldn’t put any of my items on the conveyor because the little old lady was taking one item out at a time and handing it to the checker. So I waited. I had plenty of time. She told the checker that she could not lift the bag of wild bird seed out of the cart and the checker said not to worry that he would take care of it. I started to put my items on the conveyor. The lady’s total came out to $29.81, once all the coupons were deducted from the balance. She handed the checker a couple of bills and then started to count out some change. I wasn’t paying that much attention but it sounded like she had quite a bit of change she was paying with.

The checker gave the little old lady her receipt and she wished him a happy holiday and left. I didn’t have that much in my cart, I was spending Thanksgiving at my sister’s house in Staten Island. She was making most of the dinner with my niece, so I was going to make Lasagna as a proper first course to our Thanksgiving dinner. I bought all the ingredients I needed for the Lasagna and a few thing to take me through the week. I paid for the food and started to roll my cart to my car.

Parked right next to my car was the little old lady that was in front of me at the check out line. She got all of her groceries into her car except for the large bag of wild bird seed. She had the check out person put the bag of seed on top of the seat near the handle of the cart so she would not have to lift it up so high to get it out of the basket. But the old lady was having trouble lifting the bag even at that height. She was never going to get that bag of bird seed out of her shopping cart. I turned and asked her If she needed some help with that bag. “Please, can you just lift it out of my cart”, she said, “then I can put it in my car”.

I lifted the bag of seed out of her cart, it had to be 20 pounds. She was ready to take it from me but I told her, “that’s OK, where do you want it in your car?” She ask me to place it on the back seat, which I did.

I know how grateful to me this lady was for helping her. She took my hand and thanked me and wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I wondered how thankful the birds would be this winter when they would feast on the abundance of wild bird seed this kind old lady would place outside for them. If they would have any idea the trouble this charitable woman went through to make sure they had food this winter. Probably not. But then again, it really didn’t matter. She  wasn’t looking for anything in return for her kindness. Seeing her birds well fed and safe for the winter was restitution enough.

As I walked back toward my car the little old lady turned to me again with a smile and said, “Now, don’t eat all the turkey all at once”.  How did she know I could do that?????

Stuffed Mushrooms were just one of the many side dishes we had on our Thankdgiving table. Usually it was one of my aunts or cousins that brought this delicious side dish. You can stuff your mushrooms with just about anything. Sometimes I add a few strips of applewood smoked bacon chopped up to this recipe to add another layer of flavor. It’s up to you. Italins love to stuff everything, including themselves. Hope you enjoy this.

Stuffed Mushrooms

  • 12 white mushrooms large enough for stuffing
  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 2 Italian Sweet Sausage links, casing removed
  • 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
  • 6 tablespoons of Romano cheese, grated
  • 3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

I don’t care what anyone says, I wash my mushrooms. I can’t stand the fact that there might be dirt on the shrooms. You don’t have to soak them in water but give them a good rinse to make sure they are clean. The amount of water they might absorb is negligible.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms (set the caps aside), and finely chop them.

In a large frying pan over medium high heat add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and brown the sausage meat.

Add to the pan the onions, chopped mushroom stems, red pepper and garlic. Just sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, add the  bread crumbs, 3 tablespoons of the grated cheese, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, and half the salt. Add to the bowl the sausage meat and vegetables. Mix well. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, to moisten all of the crumbs and make a fairly tight stuffing. Add more breadcrumbs if needed. Taste for salt.

Combine the white wine and ¹⁄₂cup hot water in a small bowl, and season with the remaining salt.

Spread the butter all around the bottom of a 9- by- 13- inch Pyrex baking dish. Fill the mushroom caps with the stuffing, and fit them in the baking dish. Don’t be afraid to pile on the stuffing, you have plenty, to cover the entire top of the mushroom and pile it high.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the mushrooms, and drizzle on the remaining olive oil. Pour the wine and water around the mushrooms in the baking dish.

Bake until the mushrooms are crisp on top but tender and the juices are bubbling underneath, about 30 minutes.

Serve the mushrooms with the pan sauce.

Posted in Antipasto, vegetable | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Aunt Mary’s Butter Cake with Nutella*

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

My Aunt Mary was my grandmother’s younger sister. Actually, she was the middle one. My Aunt Angie was the youngest. Aunt Mary was the baker in the family. She was a wonderful cook as well, but when it came to baked goods, Aunt Mary knew what she was doing. Her signature cakes were cassata Catanese (Italian Cheesecake) Mpanada, and she made a killer butter bundt cake.

* Nutella is one of the greatest additions from Italy to the culinary world!! Nutella didn’t make its way onto American grocery shelves until sometime around 1983. So the Nutella marble is my addition to Aunt Mary’s Butter Cake.

One day when I was in the third grade my mother was not going to be home when I got out for lunch. She made arraignments for me to go over my Aunt Mary’s house for lunch. My Aunt lived halfway between Our Lady of Guadalupe, where I went to school, and my house. She rented the first floor of a two family house on 16th Avenue and 75th Street. Her and my Uncle Sal lived there for quite a while until they retired and built a house on their “farm” in Long Island near Babylon. The farm in Long Island amounted to about an acre of land with a garage on it. We used to go up there during the summer. My Aunt and Uncle would go on weekends. It was their getaway spot.

I walked to my aunt’s house from school and saw her standing by her front gate waiting for me. I was expected. I was able to cross the streets OK but the avenues were another matter. My aunt came up to the curb and made sure the way was clear before I crossed 16th Avenue to get to her house. She gave me a big hug and a wet kiss on my cheek and led me into her apartment for lunch. 

 My aunt was all of 4 1/2 feet tall, about the same height as my grandmother.  Four and a half feet tall but built like a tank. A rotund body with arms the thickness of my thighs. At 9 years old I was almost as tall as her. Aunt Mary’s hair was silver-grey. She loved to kiss me and my brother, and my brother Richard would always run away from her because he couldn’t stand anyone kissing him. I always had the honor of Aunt Mary squeezing my cheeks. She loved to do that as well. I always liked going over Aunt Mary’s apartment. I loved seeing her as well as her parakeet Chippy. My Aunt Mary always had a parakeet for as long as I can remember. Chippy was with her for a long time. As I walked in Chippy would be chirping like crazy, welcoming me. Once my aunt closed the door to her apartment she would let Chippy outside of its cage and allow it to stand on top.  My aunt would balance Chippy on her index finger and bring her face close to Chippy’s beak and give it a kiss. Chippy would chirp like crazy when she did that. Chippy would also go to the edge of the sink and take a drink of water when my aunt ran the faucet.

There on the table was my lunch all prepared. That day my Aunt Mary made me a tuna fish sandwich on a hard roll. She made the tuna like my grandma, with just some olive oil, lemon juice and some bits of lemon peel  and chopped red onion. I loved it that way. Went great with the hard roll. Once I was finished with my sandwich I knew I would be in for a real treat for dessert. On top of her kitchen table was a large plate which looked like her butter cake covered in foil.

No sooner did I take my last bite of my sandwich, Aunt Mary was cutting me a thick slice of her moist and buttery cake. She put it on a plate and filled my glass with cold milk. I couldn’t wait. Aunt Mary joined me for lunch so she was enjoying her cake right along with me. She even gave a few crumbs to Chippy.

 

Aunt Mary’s  Butter Cake with Nutella

  • 1 box of Duncan Hines Butter Cake mix
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 stick of sweet butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1- 13 ounce jar of Nutella, place sealed jar in a bowl of hot tap water to help soften

Grease and flour a tube or bundt pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time . Beat for one minute. Mix in the rest of the ingredients together, except for the Nutella, and beat on high-speed for 4 minutes.

Pour half into the prepared tube pan.

Top with half of the  Nutella. The Nutella should pour like a melted chocolate if you kept it in the hot water long enough. 

Add the other half of the batter and top with the rest of the Nutella.

 Swirl with a butter knife. Do not over mix, you just want a marble effect. Bake 45-55 minutes. Poke a knife into the center of the cake. When it comes out clean, it’s done.

 Cool and remove from the pan. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Posted in Dessert | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Italian Wedding Soup

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

I don’t know how to say this, but, I never had Italian Wedding Soup at an Italian wedding. I never even heard of Italian Wedding Soup until recently. I have been to a ton of Italian weddings in my lifetime and never remember seeing this soup at one of those weddings, ever.  I think what we have here, once again, is the birth of an Italian-American dish. In this case soup with little meatballs and some form of leafy vegetable.

While the name indicates that the soup might be served at an Italian wedding, it is actually a mistranslation of minestra maritata, which, translated means “marriage soup” but refers to the “marriage” of greens and meat in the soup. Lost in the translation once again.

My mother and grandmother would put little meatballs in their chicken soup and also make chicken soup with escarole. Progresso soups have been putting out a soup like this for decades, they call it Chickarina soup, chicken soup with little meatballs. Chickarina was a fair standby in a pinch when we ran out of mom’s or grandma’s soup. Call it what you will, this soup has all the elements of a good hearty soup that sticks to your ribs. Perfect for a fall or winter day when a bowl of good hot soup really needs to hit the spot. And this soup does.

You can find a dozen different versions of this soup on the internet under Italian Wedding soup. I have taken all the elements of my grandmother’s soup and incorporated it into this recipe. You can make this soup quick and simple by using a chicken base or using store-bought chicken stock or broth. If you use your own chicken stock, all the better. I’m keeping it simple here. If you are determined to make your own chicken stock you can reference my “Mom’s chicken soup“.

Italian Wedding Soup

  • 6 tablespoons of chicken base or 2 1/2 quarts of chicken stock or broth
  • 1 small head of escarole, chopped
  • 2 1/2 quarts of water
  • 1 cup of uncooked Ditalini pasta

FOR THE LITTLE MEATBALLS:

  • 1 pound of lean ground beef.
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 2/3 cup dried plain bread crumbs
  • 2 large eggs
  • 4 ounces whole milk
  •  2 ounces of grated romano cheese (about a cup)
  • 1 small onion, grated
  • 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • black pepper to taste

Place all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Place 2 1/2 quarts of cool water into a soup pot. Add the chicken base and mix well.  If you are using the broth or stock instead of the chicken base add it to the pot. Turn the heat up to medium high. Add the washed and chopped escarole and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. While the soup is boiling make the little meatballs about the size of grapes and toss into the soup. Once all the meat is used up add the cup of pasta. Bring the soup back to a boil and cook until the pasta is done, about 7-8 minutes.

Serve the soup with grated cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Posted in soup | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Mom’s Broccoli Rabe

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

I know I’m threading on sacred ground here. Today’s chefs prepare this vegetable “al dente”. The stalks of broccoli rabe can be tough if not cooked properly. Many places I’ve eaten at prepare this dish lightly sautéed so the broccoli rabe has a tender crunch to it.  In my mother’s kitchen, that’s considered raw. If she wanted a crunchy vegetable she would order a salad. That’s her way of thinking.

I can’t tell you  how many times she would send the vegetables back at the restaurants we would eat at. “These vegetables are raw, would you have them cook it”, she would demand. How can you refuse a 93-year-old mother? I guess she didn’t get the memo that says steamed vegetables are good for you and healthy. Hey, her way of cooking them certainly hasn’t affected her quality of life!

All in all, I guess it’s a matter of taste. This is the way my mom would prepare broccoli rabe. You can adjust the cooking times to your taste. Broccoli rabe can be a bitter vegetable. Many Italians have developed a taste for the bitterness. If you like your broccoli rabe more sweet you can try preparing it this way. By boiling it in water and squeezing out the moisture you also get rid of some of the bitterness. Then you can saute it in garlic and olive oil. This is my favorite way of enjoying this wonderful vegetable. Simple and delicious.

Mom’s Broccoli Rabe

  • 2 bunches of broccoli rabe
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • lemon wedges
  • red pepper flakes

While the broccoli rabe is still tied in bunches cut off about two inches of the stalk.

Wash the broccoli rabe in a sink or large pot filled with cold water. Rinse and repeat at least twice.

In a large pot bring 1 quart of water with a teaspoon of salt to a boil. Add the broccoli rabe to the pot and cover. Cook for 6-9 minutes when the water comes back to a boil, depending on the tenderness you prefer.  The stalks of the broccoli rabe should be tender and not stringy when you bite into it.

Drain the broccoli rabe in a colander and run cool water over it. When the broccoli rabe is cool enough to handle pick up a bunch with your hands and squeeze out the water. Squeeze out as much water as you can. Finish the rest that way.

In a large frying pan or saute pan heat 1/4 cup of olive oil and add the chopped garlic. My mom has a hard time digesting garlic at 93 so I crush whole cloves of garlic and saute them  to flavor the oil and then I remove the garlic .  Cook the garlic until they just start to turn golden. Add the broccoli rabe and toss in the garlic and oil. Saute this way for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the broccoli rabe with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil with some crisp Italian bread and a wedge of lemon and red pepper flakes.

Posted in vegetable | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Fillet of Sole Piccata With Capers

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

Making a Christmas List, and checking it twice.

It was around this time of year that I made the trip with my mother to the farthest reaches of our basement. It was a part of the basement that I would never venture to by myself. It was way down at the end of the house, through a narrow hallway that opened up to a larger room that housed our furnace. It was a large, dark, noisy monster that made sounds I didn’t like. And to the left of the furnace in another part of that room, behind some curtains that my mother put up to hide the large oil tank that fed the furnace, was a large trunk. That part of the basement was where we used to store the coal a long time ago. That was before my grandfather switched over to oil heat.

We only went into that trunk twice a year….October and December. The trunk was where my mother kept all the Halloween decorations. Just below the Halloween skeletons and witches were all the Christmas decorations. I could remember the scent of pine as my mother lifted the lid. Pine and memories of Christmas past. Last year’s Halloween decorations were neatly placed on top of the stash of the Christmas decorations. I could remember the excitement of seeing the paper pumpkins and black cats and scary skeletons that we would hang on our door. My mother would gather up all she had and before she closed the lid I would take a peek at the glitter and gold that would be following for Christmas. But all I saw was used Christmas wrapping paper my mother saved from year to year. Did I ever tell you? My mother never threw anything out. Not even Christmas wrapping paper. I grew fond of some of the wrapping paper she used every year. It was like seeing an old friend again, and again, and again…….but that was months away.

Our Halloween decorations were simple then, not like what you see today, with houses turned into graveyards and inflatable monstrosities that clutter up the front yards. We had a few paper decorations that we placed on our front windows and a large cardboard skeleton that we put on our front door. I would position its arms and legs in wild poses to scare the trick or treaters that came calling on Halloween. Some years my mom would by a pumpkin that she would help me carve out into a scary, smiling face.

But with Halloween close by and Thanksgiving not far behind, the holiday I started to think about around this time of year was Christmas. It was getting close to putting my list together. When I was much younger it was for Santa, but after the cat got out of the bag the list was for my mother and father.  No one else might have been thinking about Christmas, but I was. As Thanksgiving drew closer a lot of the inserts inside the Sunday Daily News were advertising toys. And I remember looking at those inserts very closely. At least it gave me a head start and plan of what I was going to put on my list. Many of those inserts made their way into my room. I would keep them safe in my draw for future reference.

As it got closer to Christmas my mother would take me to the greatest toy store I ever knew as a kid, Thrift Town. This was before Toys R Us. Thrift Town was our Toys R Us. The access to Thrift Town was from New Utrecht Avenue before 86th Street.  You had to go through the parking lot of a Food Fair supermarket, which was turned into Pantry Pride some years later,  in order to get to the entrance of Thrift Town. I understand there was an entrance on 18th Avenue but we never used it. Once inside the store you had to go down a long noisy ramp with peg board walls on each side of you. Your foot steps echoed on the wooden plywood floor as you stomped into the store. Once you got to the end there in front of you was every toy you could ever want.

I remember my mother taking me to Thrift Town on a number of occasions. I bought my first (and only) Monkees album there.

Every one in the neighborhood went to Thrift Town. My mother would take me there weeks before Christmas so I could point out the toys I wanted.

I could still remember the faces of the workers of Thrift Town. One was an older man with half closed eyes and curly hair,  he smoked a cigar. I didn’t know their names but I’m sure my mother did. The place was always busy. And I got to know where everything was. But I still wanted to walk up and down the isles just in case I missed a new toy or display.

The GI Joe Dolls were on display. My mother thought it was odd that they made dolls for boys to play with. But it was GI JOE!!! It wasn’t some Ken doll. He even had a scar on his face! It couldn’t be a doll!  I wanted one so bad. And then I saw the accessories. I knew I was pressing my luck just asking for a GI Joe. I dare not ask for the accessories. But I knew I had to have the Navy Diver scuba gear. I would have to play my cards right in order to get it at a later date.

I was used to playing with little plastic army men. GI Joe was at least 12 inches tall, and you could pose him in so many different ways. My GI Joe slept in his box. That was his bunk.

Some toys were off-limits. I loved monsters, what kid didn’t.

The Great Garloo.

But for some reason my mother would not get me anything to do with monsters. I remember seeing a commercial on TV for the “Great Garloo” It was a 4 foot tall robot monster that I wanted in the worst way, but my mother refused to get it for me. Every time I would show her the picture from an ad or call her into the room when the commercial came on the TV, she would say, “I’m not getting you that ugly thing!!!” No matter how much I tried to convince her that The Great Garloo wasn’t ugly, she refused to get it for me.

But it didn’t stop with the Great Garloo. I was a major fan of Frankenstein, The Mummy, Dracula and my all time favorite, the Wolf Man. And when I saw those Aurora model sets I wanted them as well.  But no way in hell was my mother ever going to get me a monster model. I’m not sure what my mother thought would happen to me if I put together one of those models. Did she think I would go mad? Or become a mass murderer? Or suck blood from little puppies? Honestly, I couldn’t even keep a Mad magazine in the house. I had to buy them and hide them under my mattress. And if she found them they would disappear.

 I had to settle for a Superman Model, which I got from Thrift Town. I really loved that model. Superman had to be my all time favorite super hero. I had Superman comic books, watched Superman on TV with George Reeves playing the lead role. I even dressed up as Superman for Halloween one year. My mother made the costume herself, which she did with all my costumes. I had that costume on way before Halloween rolled around, jumping off of chairs and sofas with my arms held up in front of me. I remember going to bed with it a few night, just in case I was needed at a moments notice.

So, between trips to Thrift Town and scanning the newspaper inserts along with reinforcement from the TV commercials, I would come up with my list. And after a number of reviews from my mother and edits and rewrites my list became final. As I handed it to her and she took off into the night with my father and headed to Thrift Town I knew I would not get everything on my list or maybe most of everything with a little extra that I didn’t expect.

I was watching TV upstairs with my grandfather when I heard my parents return. The door slammed and the bags and boxes made noise as they placed them on the table. My mother called upstairs and told me to stay there until she put the toys away. I remember her telling my grandmother how much they spent, and if you could believe it, it was around $17. Back in 1960 that must have been a lot of money.

My mother was great at hiding my gifts because I would never find them, no matter how hard I tried. But she didn’t play fair. Later on in years I would find out that she used to hide the gifts in a place I would never venture to by myself……the furnace room.

This dish is one of the most delicate, flavorful, seafood entrée you can make. The mild flavor and flake of the fish just melts in your mouth as the sauce raptures your taste buds. Have some crispy Italian bread on hand to soak up this flavorful sauce when the fish is gone. I guarantee your plate will be clean at the end.

A very simple dish you can make in under a half hour. It’s quick, simple and delicious. Is there any other kind of Italian food??  Serves 2

FILLET OF SOLE PICCATA WITH CAPERS 

  • 1 pound of fillet of sole
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ½ cup fish stock or clam juice
  • 2 tablespoons rinsed and chopped capers
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

 

 

 

Sprinkle the fillet of sole with salt and pepper.

Spread the flour on a plate. Dredge the fish in the flour and shake off the excess.

Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter with the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the fish to the pan and brown on both sides, about a minute and a half each side.

Transfer them to a plate. Keep warm.

When all the fish are browned, pour the fish stock or clam juice into the pan. Cook over high heat, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the liquid is slightly thickened. Stir in the capers, lemon juice, and parsley. Remove from the heat and swirl in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Taste for salt.

Pour the sauce over the fish and serve immediately.

Posted in Seafood | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Ned’s Deviled Ham and Turkey Salad

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

 

I never bought cold cut ends in my life. I know my mother never did. But there are things you pick up later on in life that sometimes make sense. Your local deli will slice their ham or turkey till it gets too close to the end. Then they have to stop. These hunks of meat are cold cut ends. No different from the slices of cold cuts you buy, just a larger hunk.

The more busy your local deli is, the more cold cut ends they have building up. If you ask your deli man for cold cut ends they will be glad to hunt them down for you. Supermarket delis have plenty. So a pound of Boar’s head turkey breast that normally goes for $7-$8 a pound will now only cost you about $1.99 a pound for the ends. What a bargain! With unemployment over 9% and the economy being what it is, we can all use a little bargain at the supermarket now days.

A friend of mine, Ned, showed this stuff to me. Ned is from North Tonawanda, a town near Buffalo New York. His family is German/French Canadian. Apparently his parents bought cold cut ends and used to make this salad with them all the time. One day Ned showed me some ham ends he just bought and I asked him what was he going to do with them. I would have cut the ham in chunks and made a ham and egg meal out of it. He said his mother used to make ham salad out of it. She used to grind up the ham in a meat grinder or cut it into small cubes and mix it with mayo, celery and some seasoning. He said how great it tasted on a sandwich. Ned never paid much attention to  how his Mom made ham salad so he left it to me to come up with a recipe. I never even heard of ham salad before this!

Now, I assure you, there are not many Italians, if any, from Bensonhurst Brooklyn that ever even tasted ham salad….let alone know how to make it. After some questioning and asking Ned if he had any idea what his mother put in it I began experimenting. I think I had the right combination of ingredients that resembled what Ned was describing the way his Mom’s ham salad tasted. Ned even put a call into his sister Marcia, who still lives in North Tonawanda, to see if she knew how their mom made ham salad.

This recipe uses a combination of both ham and turkey to make this luncheon salad. If you don’t have a meat grinder chop up the ham and turkey into the smallest cubes possible. Using a meat grinder gives the salad a consistency of tuna salad. If you prefer more texture you can chop the meat by hand.

Ned’s Deviled Ham and Turkey Salad

  • 2 pounds of ham and turkey cold cut ends. (If you can’t get the ends or prefer not to, have your deli slice the meat 1/4 inch thick)
  • 1 cup mayo
  • 1 tablespoon of brown mustard
  • 1 tablespoon of sweet relish
  • 2-3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • a pinch of cayenne pepper or to taste
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • 1/2 of medium onion, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon of dried rubbed sage

    Cold cut ends are easy to get at your supermarket. Just ask.

I have a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

Cut the meat into small pieces in order to fit into the meat grinder. Use the largest die to grind the meat coarse. Once all the meat is ground, or chopped fine by hand, place in a large bowl.

Add the mayo, mustard, sweet relish, Worcestershire sauce, dried sage and cayenne pepper. Mix well. If the salad seems too dry you can add more mayo. Next add the celery and onion and mix well.

Store the salad in an air tight container and chill before serving.

Posted in Pork, Salad, Turkey | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The New York Egg Cream

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

New Yorkers, and especially Brooklynites,  do not take their egg creams lightly, nor for granted. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s when egg creams were made and served in a candy store or a shop with fountain service.

Legend has it, egg creams were invented by a Brooklyn candy store owner in the late 19th Century. Egg creams do not have eggs in them or cream. They consist of chocolate or vanilla syrup, whole milk and seltzer water…that’s it. And it has to be made to order. Some companies have tried to bottle it and sell it around the country. Absolutely the worst thing I ever tasted. No, egg creams have to be made at a soda fountain, or at home with the proper ingredients.

When I was in high school I worked at one of those candy stores in Brooklyn that had fountain service, BonBons on 77 Street and New Utrecht Avenue. I must have made a thousand egg creams, along with chocolate sodas, vanilla sodas,  cherry cokes, ice cream sodas, ice cream sundaes, malts and shakes. So you are not getting this insight from some novice. I’m a professional. Some might call me a jerk… a soda jerk.

The technique of making egg creams was not written in some book. Or learned in a  classroom. It was handed down from one soda jerk to the next. Eddie was my mentor. And he taught me everything I know about making fountain treats, and egg creams. I watched him do it a hundred times while I sat at his counter enjoying my own personal egg cream. I knew the formula by heart. Then one day, Eddie was called out of the store for a moment and the counter was unattended. A customer walked in. Just got off the B train coming from The City. It was a hot summer evening and the gentleman had his tie pulled down and his shirt collar unbuttoned at the neck. He had a Daily News under his arm and he looked like he needed a pick me up. Something refreshing. A treat and reward for his hour long commute from The City to Brooklyn. Some people crave a martini after a long day at work or before dinner. This gentleman wanted an egg cream…a chocolate egg cream.

I didn’t waste any time. I jumped behind the counter and whipped up the tallest, coolest egg cream I knew how to make. The man dropped his 15 cents on the counter top as I placed the egg cream in front of him. The white, foamy head  cascaded over the top of the glass and formed a pool at the bottom. He picked up the egg cream, wiped off the bottom,  and holding the potion with his pinky raised towards the ceiling gulped it down in one smooth move. His head tilted back to be sure he had the last drop from the glass. He put the glass down and smacked his lips and thanked me for a good one. When Eddie got back to the candy store he saw me behind the counter and greeted the satisfied customer that was walking out of the store.

I started working at BonBons the very next day. It was my first job after school. I was making $8 a week….off the books.

Not only are the proper ingredients necessary for a proper egg cream, but the order which they enter the glass is also very important. Am I making too much of this? I don’t think so. You asked for a good egg cream, now I’m going to show you how it’s done.

The Milk: You can only use whole milk. The non-fat or 1% or 2% will just not cut it. Save calories somewhere else. Not here. When egg creams were invented, milk was milk and no one was worried about how much milk fat was in the bottle. Whole milk helps make a proper head in the egg cream. You NEVER want an egg cream without the proper head.

The Flavoring: Chocolate or Vanilla. Syrup of choice: Fox’s u-bet 20-oz. Vanilla Syrup Chocolate 22-oz. A Brooklyn original. Now here is a little tid bit that not too many people know. The time of year when you buy this syrup makes a difference. All year long Fox’s u-bet syrup is swettened with corn syrup…except during Passover. That is when they use 100% real cane sugar to sweeten the syrup. And that makes all the difference in the world to the taste of your egg cream. Is this too extreme? Not for egg cream lovers. You can’t use Hersey syrup or Nestle powder or bosco. So when Passover comes around it’s time to stock up on your Fox’s u-bet Chocolate Flavor Syrup. And how would you know it’s the right time to buy and your not getting the other stuff? At the top of the bottle is a shrink wrap plastic safety quality seal. And printed on that wrapper is the Kosher for Passover seal. Don’t buy it with out it.

Fox’s u-bet also makes vanilla flavored syrup. Same deal. Buy it during Passover.

The Soda Water: You can only use seltzer. Not club soda  or San Pellegrino or Perrier. Club soda has salt in it and would ruin the taste of your egg cream. The other stuff is not seltzer…two cent plain….carbonated water.  Only a fresh, cold bottle of plain unflavored seltzer will do. There was a time that you could not find seltzer in the stores. You had to buy the siphon bottles of seltzer.  But thank goodness the market opened  up for bottled seltzer water. Now it’s available everywhere.

The Mixology: It’s always better to start with a chilled 15-24 ounce glass.(Libbey 15645, Duratuff Panel Tumbler Glass, 24 Ounce (15645LIB) Category: Iced Tea and Soda Glasses ) Pour about two fingers of whole milk in the glass. Simply curl your index and middle finger around the bottom of the glass and fill it with milk to the top of your index finger. Next, pour in the seltzer. A freshly opened bottle of ice cold seltzer. Fill the glass till the foam is about 1/2 inch from the top of the glass. Don’t worry if some runs over. Next, pour in about 2 fingers of your chocolate syrup. It will settle to the bottom of the glass and you can measure from there . Add a little more or less according to your taste, but for your first egg cream you can start with this amount.   With a spoon, stir the egg cream with an up-down quick stirring motion till the syrup is distributed . Don’t stir too hard because you do not want to disturb the head that has formed at the top of the glass. The ingredients have to be placed in that order: milk, seltzer, and syrup. You now have the proper way to make a truly delicious New York Egg Cream. Enjoy! And stay thirsty my friend!

Posted in Drinks | Tagged , , , | 100 Comments

Mozzarella en Carozza

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Peter Bocchieri

Grandma Isabella used to make these delicious sandwiches for us as snacks. On an occasion they would be part of an assorted meal including salad and soppressata and olives and cheese. Anyway they were served, they were delicious…and simple.

In essence, these are Italian grilled cheese sandwiches. The difference is the bread, cheese and dipping them in egg and frying them. OK, so their grilled cheese sandwiches on steroids.

I believe the secret in this sandwich is the type of bread you use. Grandma Isabella used to go to the corner Italian bread store on 69th Street and Ft. Hamilton Parkway in Brooklyn  and buy a loaf of round Italian bread and have the store slice it in their slicer. The crust was crispy and dense and the center of the bread had great crumb to it. It was also a huge loaf of bread and she would take each slice and cut it in half to make the two sides of the sandwich.

Once prepared they were eaten hot right out of the frying pan. They were crispy and crunchy on the outside and the hot mozzarella would ooze out when you bit into the sandwich and stretch out of your mouth like you were eating a slice of pizza. It was awesome. Some restaurants serve Mozzarella en Carozza with an anchovy caper sauce and with the crust cut off of the bread. To each his own. This is not the way we ate these sandwiches. When made at home this is the way we did it.

They are perfect for a late night supper, an any time snack, or part of a meal with a salad and other finger food.

 

Mozzarella en Carozza

Makes 4 sandwiches

  • 1  round loaf Italian peasant bread, store sliced
  • 1/2 pound mozzarella, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
  • 5 large eggs, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons of water
  •  2 heaping tablespoons of grated Pecorino Romano cheese
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • Oil for frying

The key to this dish is the bread.

 

It needs to be a round loaf of Italian bread store sliced. If you don’t have an Italian bread store nearby, many supermarkets sell sliced Italian bread. It really makes all the difference.

Take four slices and cut each slice in half and pair them. 

Slice the mozzarella and place about two slices so they fit entirely inside the sandwich.

Once all the sandwiches are made beat the 5 eggs in a large bowl and add the water, grated cheese and a few pinches of salt. Do not dip the sandwiches into the egg mixture until you are ready to fry them. They have to go from the egg to the fryer right away.

Heat about 2 inches of oil in a large frying pan to 350 degrees. Dip the sandwiches in the egg on both sides and place immediately into the hot oil. Dip only the sandwiches you can fit into the pan.

Fry about 3 minutes on each side until the sandwiches are golden brown. Place on absorbent paper towel to absorb some of the oil once cooked.

Serve immediately.

Posted in Antipasto, Bread, eggs | Tagged | 3 Comments