Friday, April 29, 2022

Francis Coppola on Basilicata Italy

 






COPPOLA on BASILICATA

ITALY








FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

On BERNALDA

Francis talks of his Nonno, Bernalda

and his hotel, Palazzo Margherita




Tuesday, April 26, 2022

How to Make Chicken Parm - Recipe

 



CHICKEN PARM








GIANNI Makes CHICKEN CUTLETS

And CHICKEN PARMIGIANA






Gianni making CHICKEN PARM







SUNDAY SAUCE

TOMATO SAUCE

CHICKEN PARM

MEATBALLS & MORE








CHICKEN PARM SANDWICH




Monday, April 11, 2022

Clemenza Teaches Us How to Make Sauce

 



Pete Clemenza shows Michael Corleone how to make Sauce

The GODFATHER



It's been 50 years. Fifty Years since the release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, a movie considered one of the greatest movies of all-time. An undisputed masterpiece by Coppola. The movie taught us many lessons, about : family, loyalty, respect, and Sauce. To be more specific Sunday Sauce, aka Gravy. The scene has Sonny Corleone, the acting Boss of the Corleone Crime Family (after his father Vito was shot), with Corleone Capo Peter Clemenza, Michael Corleone (AL Pacino - Sonny's younger brother) and other Corleone Crime Family associates all sitting around a table, eating Chinese Take-Out Food and discussing their strategy against Virgil Sollozzo and other potential enemies. 

As everyone sits around, Clemenza says to Michael, "Come over here kid. Learn Something. You never know, you might  have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see? You start out with a little oil. The you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, some tomato paste. You fry it, you make sure it doesn't stick. You bring it to a boil. You shove in all your Sausage, your Meatballs. Huh? Add a little wine. And a little bit of sugar. And that's my trick."

Michael watches. Sonny comes over and tells Clemenza, "Why don't you cut the crap. I got more important things for you to do."

The rest is history. The film was the highest grossing movie of 1972, earning $20 Million Dollars at the box office. The movie won universal acclaim from critics and audiences and praise for performances by Al Pacino (Michael Corleone), Marlon Brando (Don Vito Corleone), James Caan and other cast members, including Richard Castellano as Pete Clemenza. After its great success, the movie was a catalyst for the careers of Pacino and Coppola (Director / Screenwriter).

The Godfather is a movie loved by millions, especially serious movie buffs and those of the Italian community. 


CLEMENZA TAUGHT US HOW to MAKE SAUCE


Yes Clemenza taught many how to make Sauce, which is also known as Gravy, and there is a hot debate over that subject in itself. Depending on your own Italian-American family, where your family comes from in Italy, and where they live in America (New York, Jersey, Philly, etc. ) these are the factors that determining whether you call it Sauce or Gravy. It really doesn't matter what you call it, whether it's Gravy, Sunday Sauce, Sauce, or Sunday Gravy, what matters is that it is delicious.


Yes we learn a few things from Clemenza, like frying the Garlic in Olive Oil, then frying the Tomatoes and Tomato Paste before you "shove in your Sausage and Meatballs. Add a little wine. A little Sugar," and that's Clemenza's trick. Well many Italian-Americans know these things, but many learned a thing or tow from CLemenza, especially the Sugar thing. All good Italians know that you add the sugar to cut a the acidity of the tomatoes, thus balancing thing out.

One big thing, is that, in the movie, Clemenza does not give us any measurements, or recipe for the Meatballs, though we do know he used two cans of tomatoes, and two cans of tomato paste, the rest is up to you, or you can go by one of a multitude of recipes, and the one most excepted, and that is Clemenza's Mob War Godfather Sunday Sauce, in the book Sunday Sauce by best selling Italian Cookbook author Daniel Bellino "Z,"  which we feel is the best recipe as well.


So, if you've never made it, it's high time you do. Learn how to make Clemenza's Sauce, or any other including the other great one in Mafia Cinematic History, the Prison Sauce (  reicpe in Sunday Sauce)  in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas. We love them both of these versions of Italian-America's most beloved and important dish of all, and that is Sunday Sauce (Gravy).

"Make some today" !!!





SUNDAY SAUCE

WHEN ITALIAN AMERICANS COOK

RECIPES For CLEMENZA GODFATHER SAUCE

GOODFELLS PRISON SAUCE

MEATBALLS - BRACIOLE and MORE










CLEMENZA

GODFATHER SUNDAY SAUCE

"GRAVY"





"DON'T FORGET The CANNOLIS"



CLEMENZA

"He's Got The Cannolis"










Friday, April 1, 2022

Big Night Bolognese Sunday Sauce Pasta Recipes





POSITANO


T-SHIRTS - ART - COFFEE MUGS - GIFTS




POSITANO !!!




The SNEAKER








The BEST of ITALY






SOPHIA LOREN

With PIZZA


AVAILABLE in 8 VIBRANT COLORS

















POSITANO The AMALFI COAST

TRAVEL GUIDE / COOKBOOK








"DREAMING of POSITANO"









"DREAMING of POSITANO"







MONA LISA

"SHE'S ITALIAN"



Yes, most people might think she's French. Hell no. The young womean, Lisa Gherardini was Italian, from Tuscany. She was married to Franceso del Giacondo who commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint his wife in 1517. It is beleived that da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in the town of Greve, about 18 miles south of Florence, at what is now the Italian Wine estate of Vignamaggio in Greve, in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany.

The Mona Lisa Italian: Gioconda  is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". The painting's novel qualities include the subject's enigmatic expression, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism.

The painting is probably of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. It is painted in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. Leonardo never gave the painting to the Giocondo family, and later it is believed he left it in his will to his favored apprentice Salaì. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic. It has been on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris since 1797.

The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known painting insurance valuation in history at US$100 million in 1962 (equivalent to $870 million in 2021).








 

 




BIG NIGHT






BOLOGNESE








SUNDAY SAUCE