Monday, June 5, 2023

Italian Food Memories - Pizza Pasta Gabagool

 



PASTA ZOZONNA





Italian Food



 

   Italian Food? What is it? Well, in America, it more or less falls into two categories, dishes that are unadulterated authentic Italian Food from our mother country Italy, or else it’s Italian-American food, which is basically Italian Cuisine of Italy that is made by Italian-Americans in America and under any one particular Italian-American's way of cooking it. Italian-American Cuisine is made-up of dishes created by Italian-American immigrants either in the home or in Italian restaurants, creating dishes based on the Italian Cuisine of Italy but made in America by Italian immigrants and their offspring. Yes there are some differences, and some who think they are so smart and know it all, might turn their noses up at what is known as Italian-America, the food, the cuisine and how it’s made. Well, these people most likely are food writers and or critics who think they know more than they really do. Now any good food writer worth their salt should know that food and cuisines are always changing. New dishes are created and added and make their way into whatever particular cuisine it may be. Let us not forget that the tomato only made it into Europe in the later part of the 16th Century, and was not even eaten for almost 200 years later as most Europeans including Italians thought that the tomato was a poison vegetable. The tomato which is along with pasta a food most associated with Italian Cuisine did not even gain popularity in Italy and in its cuisine until somewhere around the 1870s with the popularity and invention of the Pizza in Naples in the 1880s. So you see, food and any particular country’s cuisine is always changing, and evolving. This thing we call Italian-American is actually a full-fledged cuisine in it’s own right and the numbers back it up. Italian immigrants to the United States making the food of their homeland, but not having all the Italian ingredients available to them at the turn of the century in and around 1900 used what was available, making the dishes of their home region in Italy; of Sicily, Naples, Abruzzo, and Puglia, they re-created their regional Italian dishes as best they could. Italian immigrants to America who created new dishes includes restaurant owners of Italian restaurants who created some of Italian-America’s most classic dishes, dishes like Chicken Parmigano and Veal Parm as well. Most of the few million Italian immigrants from Italy came from the south, especially from Sicily and Naples and its surrounding areas. Much of this southern Italian Cuisine is based on dishes that use tomatoes in the preparation, thus dishes like Spaghetti Pomodoro (Tomato Sauce), Eggplant Parmigiana, Calamari en Casseruela, Mussels Marinara, and numerous dishes with tomatoes in them. These dishes became very popular and became dishes that not only Italian-Americans know, but all Americans no matter their ethnic backgrounds. The Italian immigrants and restaurateurs created new dishes based on the Italian Cuisine of Italy with dishes like Chicken and Veal Parmigiano, and later Penne al Vodka. Chicken Parmigiano being a boneless chicken cutlet that is coated with breadcrumbs, then fried, then topped with Italian Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella and baked in the oven until the Mozzarella is melted and all is hot. This Chicken Parmigiano is then usually served with Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce on the side and is without question one of the most popular and beloved Italian-American dishes of them all.


   There’s a famous dish that millions love, called Fettuccine Alfredo. It’s made with fresh fettuccine pasta that’s dressed with a creamy sauce made with heavy cream and grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese. The real dish from Rome is made with the pasta dressed with just butter and Parmigiano and no heavy cream at all, but somehow the dish was changed over here. The dish has been hugely popular with millions upon millions of dishes being served over the years, so something must be right despite the small numbers of critics against the dish. In the end the masses decide which in this case with millions loving the dish and eating it for many years, this alone is proof of its acceptance as a favorite dish of the Italian-American Cuisine, and the many millions of Americans who love these dishes, whether they are Italian-American or not. And the reason that Fettuccine Alfredo became so hugely popular is quite simple, the dish is dam tasty and people love it, simple as that! Remember cuisines never stay the same, they change and evolve, and sometimes new dishes are created, and this is the case with Italian-America and its food, Italian-American Cuisine. Millions love it, it’s legit, and that’s it. The millions of people (all Americans) who love and eat these Italian-American dishes legitimize it, through loving it, and eating it over and over again, year after year. It's the general public who decide, not a tiny handful of snobbish critics, who know far less than they delude themselves of beleiving they know. "Not" !!! The people rule, and decide, not food critics. In the end, it's the general public who decides what will fly. And Italian-Amaerican Cuisine has been fly high for more than a 100 years now. Thank God, the entire nation benefits.


Here are my (Daniel Bellino "Z") memories of it. Italian-American food, the culture, our people and the homeland Italy, it’s culture and cuisine. 


Basta !






Excerpted from MANGIA ITALIANO


by Daniel Bellino "Z" - Available on AMAZON.com











MANGIA ITALIANO

MEMORIES of ITALIAN FOOD

STORIES & RECIPES

ROME'S FAMOUS PASTA DISHES

And More ...












FLIGHTS & HOTELS WORLDWIDE








Sunday, May 21, 2023

Roman Pasta Recipes Rome Italy

 



CARBONARA







GENARO Makes CARBONARA

PASTA RECIPE






ROMAN PASTA RECIPES

SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

CACIO PEPE

AMATRICIANA & GRECIA






CACIO PEPE PASTA



PASTA CACIO PEPE






HOW to MAKE CACIO PEPE PASTA

With SPAGHETTI BUCATINI RIGATONI




AMATRICIANA  !!!



BUCATINI AMATRICIANA






HOW to MAKE AMATRICANA Sauce

ROMAN PASTA RECIPE 

BUCATINI RIGATONI SPAGHETTI




 



PASTA alla GRECIA








PASTA alla GRECIA

Video Recipe






ROMAN PASTA RECIPES

PASTA alla GRECIA

CARBONARA - AMATRICIANA

CACIO PEPE

And MORE ...










Friday, May 12, 2023

Friday, April 14, 2023

Sunday Sauce and Meatballs Recipe

 




CLEMENZA SHOWS MICHAEL HOW to MAKE SAUCE










WATCH The VIDEO

"MAKE The SAUCE" !!!

CLEMENZA (Richard Castellano ) 

Show MICHAEL ( AL Pacino ) HOW to MAKE SUNDAY SAUCE

In Francis FOrd Coppola's The GODFATHER







SUNDAY SAUCE

alla CLEMENZA

all BELLINO alla PACINO

aka The GODFATHER COOKBOOK






SUNDAY SAUCE 


•   "Are You Making SUNDAY SAUCE This Sunday ?

•     What do you put in your Sauce ?

•     Do you call it Suace or Gravy ?

•     Do You Know How to Make it ? ( The Recipe is in The SUNDAY SAUCE COOKBOOK )

•      Do you make enough Meatballs to make MEABALL SANDWICHES on Monday ?








Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Bazzy Eats at Roccos Italian Restaurant NYC

 



Me Jimbo & Bazzy

East Rutherford,  NJ

1962





BAZZY EATS at ROCCO'S

OLD SCHOOL ITALIAN RESTAURANT

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NEW YORK

With NOEL & Brother DANNY

2005









SUNDAY SAUCE

OLD SCHOOL ITALIAN FOOD RECIPES

by DANIEL BELLINO "Z"

PASTA - MEATBALLS

SUNDAY SAUCE & More ..








BAZZY COOKS SUNDAY SAUCE

alla CLEMENZA






BAZZY

1960





Me Daddy & Bazzy

East Rutherfor NJ

1960










Monday, March 27, 2023

Italian New York History Italians




AL PACINO

SICILIAN AMERICAN

Native NEW YORK ITALIAN

BRONX, NEW YORK|


New York City has the largest population of Italian Americans in the United States of America as well as North America, many of whom inhabit ethnic enclaves in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. New York is home to the third largest Italian population outside of Italy, behind Buenos Aires, Argentina (first) and São Paulo, Brazil (second). Over 2.6 million[1] Italians and Italian-Americans live in the greater New York metro area, with about 800,000 living within one of the five New York City boroughs. This makes Italian Americans the largest ethnic group in the New York metro area.

The first Italian to reside in New York was Pietro Cesare Alberti, a Venetian seaman who, in 1635, settled in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam that would eventually become New York. A small wave of Protestants, known as Waldensians, who were of French and northern Italian heritage (specifically Piedmontese), occurred during the 17th century, with the majority coming between 1654 and 1663.[ A 1671 Dutch record indicates that, in 1656 alone, the Duchy of Savoy near Turin, Italy, had exiled 300 Waldensians due to their Protestant faith.

The largest wave of Italian immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Between 1820 and 1978, 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the United States, including over two million between 1900 and 1910. Only Irish and Germans immigrated in larger numbers.

The first New York neighborhood to be settled by large numbers of Italian immigrants – primarily from Southern Italy (mostly from Sicily) – was East Harlem, which became the first part of the city to be known as "Little Italy". The area, which lies east of Lexington Avenue between 96th and 116th Streets and east of Madison Avenue between 116th and 125th Streets, featured people from different regions of Italy on each cross street, as immigrants from each area chose to live in close proximity to each other.

"Italian Harlem" approached its peak in the 1930s, with over 100,000 Italian-Americans living in its crowded, run-down apartment buildings.  The 1930 census showed that 81 percent of the population of Italian Harlem consisted of first- or second- generation Italian Americans. This was somewhat less than the concentration of Italian Americans in the Lower East Side’s Little Italy with 88 percent; Italian Harlem’s total population, however, was three times that of Little Italy. Remnants of the neighborhood's Italian heritage are kept alive by the Giglio Society of East Harlem. Every year on the second weekend of August, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated and the "Dancing of the Giglio" is performed for thousands of visitors.

After World War II, the original Italian settlements such as East Harlem declined as Italian Americans moved to the North Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn's southern tier. The geographic shift coincided with a new wave of Italian immigration. An estimated 129,000 to 150,000 Italian immigrants entered New York City between 1945 and 1973. Bypassing Manhattan, they settled in Italian American neighborhoods in the outer boroughs and helped reinvigorate Italian culture and community institutions. With the influx of postwar immigrants, Bensonhurst became the largest Italian community in New York City, with 150,000 Italian Americans in the 1980 census.

The best-known "Little Italy" in Manhattan is the area currently called that, which centers around Mulberry Street. This settlement, however, is rapidly becoming part of the adjacent Chinatown as the older Italian residents die and their children move elsewhere. As of the 2000 census, 692,739 New Yorkers reported Italian ancestry, making them the largest European ethnic group in the city. In 2011, the American Community Survey found there were 49,075 persons of Italian birth in New York. 








Charles "Lucky" Luciano

Charles Lucky Luciano was born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily.

His parents immigrated to New York when he was 9 years old.

The Luciano's settled on East 1oth Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The neighborhood, a 100 years ago, when Lucky was growing up, was primarily
a Sicilian neighborhood, as well as Neapolitans, and Italian immigrants from Geno and Abruzzo as well.





Author Daniel Bellino "Z"

SICILIAN AMERICAN


Daniel Bellino Z, also lived in the East Village,which was known
as part of the Lower East Side when Lucky Luciano lived there.
Daniel lived on Avenue A at Saint Mark's Place for 11 years, from 1982
to 1993. While living there, he worked 2 jobs for 7 years. He'd cook at French and Italian restaurants during the day, and at night he waited tables at John's on 12th Street for 7 years. John's opened in 1908 and is still in business today (2023). 

Not only did "Lucky" Luciano eat at John's and Lanza's around the block
on 1st Avenue, he is said to have "Whacked" (murdered) someone on the East 12th Street, right in front of John's Sicilian Restaurant.

Lucky also frequent DeRoberti's Pasticceria, a Sicilian Pastry Shop next toLanza's Restaurant on 1st Avenue. Veneiro's Italian Pastry Shop which opened on East 11th Street in 1890, is just about 50 feet away from Lanza's and DeRoberti's.





The BELLINO FAMILY

Giuseppina & Fillipo Bellino

Immigrated to New York from Lercara Friddi in 1906

The same years as the LUCINAO Family, both Families, along with
Martino Severino Sinatra (Frank's Father) are from LERCARA FRIDDI, Sicily.

The Bellino's; Fillipo, daughter Lucia - my Mother, Antonino and Giuseppina

are pictured here in Lodi, New Jersey, where they moved to, after 2 years in NYC

Fillipo opened a Shoemaker Shop on Main Street in Lodi, where there was a little
gambling room in the back, where local Italian men played cards and bet on Numbers.









RECIPES From My SICILIAN NONNA

GIUSEPPINA SALEMI BELLINO

From LERCARA FRIDDI

And Other SICILIAN & ITALIAN RECIPES










SUNDAY SAUCE

WHEN ITALIAN AMERICANS COOK

aka The GODFATHER COOKBOOK








Martin Scorsese

Sicilian-American

Famed Italian-American director Martin Scorsese grew up in 
a 6 floor walk-up in a Sicilian Neighborhood on Elizabeth Street
just south of Houston Street with his Sicilian-American parents
Catherine and Charles Scorsese.

His ancestral Sicilian Family are from the town of Pollizzi Generosa
in the Province of Palermo, near the towns of Corleone and
Lercara Friddi, Sicily.






JOE PEPITONE

YANKEE GREAT

And LOCAL BOY

PEPITONE was born and Raised in BROOKLYN

NEW YORK

And played 8 Season as a Hometown Favorite 

for The NEW YORK YANKES MLB Baseball team














Monday, March 13, 2023

Joe Pepitone has Passed Away Yankees Baseball NY

 



JOE PEPITONE


"It's a sad day in New York, and especially for Italian-American New Yorker's, and those who loved the late great Joe Pepitone, of Brooklyn, New York. 

The Yankees are deeply saddened by the passing of former Yankee Joe Pepitone, whose playful and charismatic personality and on-field contributions made him a favorite of generations of Yankees fans even beyond his years with the team in the 1960s,” the Yankees said in a statement.

“As a native New Yorker, he embraced everything about being a Yankee during both his playing career -- which included three All-Star appearances and three Gold Gloves -- and in the decades thereafter. You always knew when Joe walked into a room -- his immense pride in being a Yankee was always on display. He will be missed by our entire organization, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends and all who knew him."





Joe Pepitone with Mickey Mantle

and Roger Maris



If Joe Pepitone were a car, he’d be a Ferrari — powerful, Italian, and high-performance. Though his career .258 batting average may not evidence power, Pepitone placed in the American League’s top 10 in total bases twice, in RBI twice, and in home runs thrice in his 12-year major-league career (1962-1973). He also clouted seven grand slams.

Defensively, Pepitone showed merit at first base in the junior circuit with a top-10 ranking four times for putouts, four times for assists, and four times for double plays. He also occupied the number-one slot in fielding percentage three times; in addition to first base, he played all three outfield positions.

But it is Pepitone’s off-the-field exploits that often grab more attention. For a Yankee in the 1960s, New York City was a playground of nightclubs, saloons, and crash pads; Pepitone soaked it up like a sponge with teammates, mobsters, and women. There was no If Joe Pepitone were a car, he’d be a Ferrari — powerful, Italian, and high-performance. Though his career .258 batting average may not evidence power, Pepitone placed in the American League’s top 10 in total bases twice, in RBI twice, and in home runs thrice in his 12-year major-league career (1962-1973). He also clouted seven grand slams.

Defensively, Pepitone showed merit at first base in the junior circuit with a top-10 ranking four times for putouts, four times for assists, and four times for double plays. He also occupied the number-one slot in fielding percentage three times; in addition to first base, he played all three outfield positions.






JOE PEPITONE

ART by artist PhilMcKenney





SUNDAY SAUCE