Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood: Frank Pelligrino Cooks Italian with Family and Friends

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This book is dedicated to

all those who have come before us.

We can never repay them,

but we can honor them through achievement.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Soups

Chicken Stock

Beef Stock

Pasta with Lentils - Pasta con Lenticchie

Wedding Soup - Minestra Maritata

Meatballs and Escarole Soup - Polpette e Zuppa di Scarola

Chicken Soup with Pasta or Rice - Zuppa di Pollo con Pasta o Riso

Escarole and Beans

Minestrone

Millie Pellegrino’s Beef Soup - Minestra di Manzo

Simple Pasta e Fagioli

Salads

String Bean Salad - Insalata di Fagiolini Verdi

Zucchini Salad - Insalata di Zucchini

Italian Potato Salad - Insalata Italiana di Patate

Tricolor Salad - Insalata Tricolore

Chopped Salad

Orange Salad - Insalata d’Arancia

Josephine’s Tuna Pasta Salad - Pasta al Tonno di Josephine

Pasta Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes - Insalata di Pasta con Pomodori Secchi

Spinach Salad with Mushrooms and Pancetta

Egg Dishes

Potatoes and Eggs - Patate e Uova

Peppers and Eggs - Peperoni e Uova

Eggs in Purgatory - Uova in Purgatorio

Spaghetti Frittata - Frittata di Spaghetti

Zucchini Flower Frittata - Frittata al Fiore di Zucchini

Zucchini with Eggs and Cheese - Zuppa di Zucchini con Uovi e Formaggio

Pizza, Calzone and Bread

Pizza Dough - Pasta per la Pizza

Pizza

Pizza Sauce - Salsa per la Pizza

Pizza Rustica

White Pizza - Pizza Bianca

Pizza Fritta

Spinach Pie - Pasticcio di Spinaci

Calzone

Focaccia

Sausage Roll - Panetto di Salsiccie

Home-Baked Italian Bread - Pane Italiano di Casa

Dipping Oil for Bread

Pasta, Rice, Polenta, and Sauces

Spaghetti with Garlic and Oil - Spaghetti con Aglio Olio

Fettuccine Alfredo - Fettuccine Alfredo alla Franco

Penne with Sage and Butter - Penne con Salvia e Burro

Ida’s Baked Macaroni and Cheese - Maccheroni al Forno di Ida

Fusilli with Summer Tomato Sauce - Fusilli Estiva al Pomodoro

Penne Rigate with Cauliflower - Penne Rigate con Cavolfiore

Spaghetti with Zucchini - Spaghetti con Zucchini

Spaghetti with Mussels Marinara - Spaghetti con Cozze alla Marinara

Spaghetti with Red Crab Sauce - Spaghetti Marinara al Granchio

Christmas Eve Seafood Pasta - Pasta di Mare della Vigilia di Natale

Linguine with Anchovy and Hot Cherry Peppers - Linguine con Acciughe

Rigatoni with Meat Sauce - Rigatoni Bolognese

Lasagne

Risotto Primavera

Sausage and Mushroom Risotto

Rice Pie

Polenta with Sausage and Tomato Sauce - Polenta con la Salsa di Salsiccia

Marinara Sauce

Puttanesca Sauce

Sunday Gravy - Ragù della Domenica

Rice Balls - Arancine

Seafood

Broiled Stuffed Lobster - Aragosta Ripiena e Arrostita

Uncle John’s Fried Shrimp - Gamberi Fritto

White Crab Bake - Granchio Bianco al Forno

Mussels in White Wine Sauce - Cozze in Vino Bianco

My Mother’s Stuffed Calamari - Calamari Ripieni di Mia Madre

Seafood-Stuffed Calamari - Calamari Ripieni

Flounder Puttanesca - Passera di Mare alla Puttanesca

Whiting with Garlic and Lemon - Merlango con Aglio e Limone

Baked Scrod

Baccalà in Red Sauce - Baccalà in Salsa Rossa

Baccalà Salad - Insalata di Baccalà

Octopus Salad - Insalata di Polpo

Chicken

Chilken, Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers in the Oven - Pollo, Salsiccie, Patate e Peperoni al Forno

Chicken Cacciatore in the Oven - Pollo Cacciatore al Forno

Stove-Top Chicken Cacciatore - Pollo Cacciatore sulla Stufa

Chicken Piccata - Pollo Piccata

Ida’s Baked Chicken - Pollo al Forno di Ida

Grilled Lemon Chicken - Pollo al Limone Grigliato

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Mushroom Sauce

Chicken Parmigiana

Meats

Beef Spiedini - Spiedini di Manzo

Baldoria’s Steak alla Pizzaiola - Bistecca Pizzaiola di Baldoria

Beef or Pork Braciola - Bracile

Old-Fashioned Steak Pizzaiola - Bistecca Pizzaiola all’Antica

Simple Beef Stew - Stufato di Carne Semplice

Frankie’s Meatballs

Mario’s Meatballs,

Meat Loaf - Polpettone di Carne

Stuffed Breast of Veal - Panzetta

Veal Milanese

Herb-Roasted Leg of Lamb

Braised Pork Ribs with String Beans and Tomatoes - Costolette Brasate con Fagiolini e Pomodori

Broiled Breaded Pork Chops

Stuffed Bell Peppers - Peperoni Ripieni

Sausage and Peppers in the Oven - Salsiccie e Peperoni Arrostiti al Forno

Vegetables

Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers - Peperoni Italiani Ripieni

Oven-Roasted Peppers - Peperoni Arrostiti

Fried Zucchini Flowers - Fiori di Zucchini Fritti

Eggplant Parmigiano - Melanzana Parmigiano

Marinated Eggplant - Melanzana Marinata

Eggplant Croquettes - Crocchette di Melanzana

Grilled Vegetables - Verdure Grigliate

Baked Beefsteak Tomatoes - Pomodori al Forno

Sautéed Broccoli Rabe

Vegetable Chiampotta - Giambotta

Stuffed Artichokes - Carciofi Ripieni

Potatoes, Peppers, and Onions - Patate, Peperoni, Cipolle

Stuffed Mushroom Caps - Cappelli di Funghi Ripieni

Batter-Fried Vegetables - Verdure Fritte in Pastella

Zucchini Pie - Torta di Zucchini

Potato Croquettes

Potato Pie

Desserts

Grandma’s Ricotta Pie - Torta di Ricotta di Nonna

Simple Ricotta Cheesecake

Grand Marnier Cheesecake - Torta di Formaggio con Gran Marnier

Panna Cotta

Zabaglione

Nonni’s Chocolate Ravioli - Ravioli Ciocolatti di Nonni

Sweet Pie for Easter - Pastiera di Grano

Strufoli

Zeppole

Butter Cookies - Biscotti al Burro

Wine Cookies

Icebox Cake

Easter Bread - Pane di Pasqua

Roasted Chestnuts

Quaresimali Biscotti

Anise Drops

Family Secrets

Frank’s Pantry

ALSO BY FRANK PELLEGRINO

Acknowledgments

Index

Copyright Page

Foreword

Few reviews that I wrote during my eight years as the restaurant critic of The New York Times were more satisfying to me or had longer-lasting effects than the one that appeared on August 19, 1977, in which I awarded three stars to Rao’s.

Rao’s? Whoever heard of Rao’s? was more or less the reaction of many readers and local food professionals. After all, if a place that good existed in New York, they surely would have heard about it. Not that Rao’s was unknown at that time. Open only five nights a week, closed in August and having just eight tables, and located in one of the more foreboding and invisible pockets of the city, it was always packed with a loyal coterie that cut across social and cultural strata and included journalists and publishers, corporate executives, entertainers, and a more raffish clientele that gave this cult hangout its most colorful and enduring reputation. Already difficult to get into when my husband, Richard Falcone, and I were introduced to it by a friend, local New York State Assemblyman William F. Passannante, it became virtually impossible for those without longtime standing reservations after my review. Understandably, some of the old-time regulars resented my review that let their secret out, none more so than Norman Mailer. When we were introduced at a party twenty years ago (about seven years after the review appeared), he immediately said, Ah! The woman who ruined Rao’s.

In a way, Rao’s was ruined for those who cherished it as their private hideaway and resented what they considered the bourgeois arrivistes who poured in as quickly as they could following my three-star accolade. Then—as now—it looked like an unprepossessing corner bar and grill, a few steps down from the street and with low ceilings and year-round Christmas decorations. Incredibly and fortunately, it has remained very close to what it was when I first saw it in size, decor, and menu. To the credit of Anna Pellegrino Rao and her chef-husband, Vincent Rao, and later to their nephew Frank Pellegrino, they resisted the tempting notion to expand—either by enlarging the original premises or by opening branches in midtown Manhattan. They were content to attract a wider audience simply by selling Rao’s branded sauces and condiments such as the delectable roasted peppers with pine nuts and raisins and their authentic marinara sauce, both longtime favorites on their menu. And, although some dishes have been added since the deaths of Anna and Vincent in 1994, there has been no deviation from the type of Italian-American cooking that was traditional in the neighborhood formerly surrounding the restaurant. It was local cooking, and how!

That is the most interesting part of the Rao’s phenomenon. At a time when cutting-edge restaurants feature what is fashionably known as fusion cuisine, none has a longer waiting list than this one. Although Rao’s food would not be identified as fusion in the contemporary usage of the term, that is precisely what it is. It is not the kind of fusion cooking devised intellectually or philosophically by hotly competitive chefs, but rather the Italian-American fare that fused naturally as immigrants adapted dishes of their homeland to local ingredients and cooking facilities and traded recipes and seasonings with new neighbors from various regions of Italy. Gradually their palates and eating habits and, even more so, those of their children were modified by American tastes and lifestyles. To the horror of their parents, some second- and third-generation Italian Americans even began having pasta as a side dish alongside meat and vegetables, instead of as the traditional separate first course.

Italians immigrated to this country mostly from the poor southern provinces—Naples and elsewhere in Campagna, Sicily, Calabria, and, on the Adriatic coast, from Abruzzo and Apulia. As explained most intriguingly in the book Hungering for America: Italian, Irish & Jewish Foodways in the Age of Immigration (Harvard University Press) by Hasia R. Diner, a New York University professor specializing in Jewish and immigrant history, poor Italians in their homelands relied upon the simplest, cheapest foods, mainly pasta, bread, olives, vegetables, some cheese, and fish, depending on their locale, whereas meat was had only a few times a year, such as Christmas and Easter. Still, they knew of the food eaten by rich people because even farmers tended to live in towns where they were in close proximity to the upper classes and so could observe them. Once in America, these Southern Italian immigrants opened modest restaurants that served the humble dishes of their homeland that they themselves ate, because that was what they knew how to cook and because they could not afford to open elaborate dining places. In America, they were able to expand their cuisine to include more meat, because it was plentiful and relatively cheap. Back at home, a rich sauce might be as close as they could come to experiencing the reassuring flavor of meat. That goes a long way toward explaining the southern Italian proficiency with subtle, soul-warming sauces based on poultry, meat, and innards, like so many that are regulars on Rao’s menu—pappardelle with hot sausage sauce, pasta with Sunday gravy, veal sauce for gnocchi or risotto.

In what came to be known as mom-and-pop restaurants, the home-style dishes—casalinga—were prepared on home stoves and in home-style pots and pans, giving evidence that the quality and flavor of most dishes do not depend on using the costliest equipment. Only when such moms and pops became really successful did they add professional equipment that might enable them to cook more rapidly and in larger quantities. Even then it usually remained the custom to consider the restaurant kitchen home, with children and other family members gathering there at about five o’clock in the evening so that all could dine together before customers arrived.

Gradually such cooking identified the entire cuisine that inevitably came to be considered inexpensive, making it difficult for later immigrants to open more elegant and expensive restaurants featuring Italian food. But somewhere during the late sixties and seventies and up to today that barrier began to be overcome by chefs and restaurateurs who presented the food of the northern regions of Italy: Tuscany, Piedmont, Lombardy, and the Veneto. The more familiar Southern Italian-American dishes were snobbishly labeled with the pejorative red sauce cooking. Now we seem to have come full circle and tony, pricey restaurants featuring the lightest, freshest, and most delicately prepared examples of the Southern Italian kitchen are attaining the culinary high ground. Some examples include the Neapolitan polpettone (meatloaf with tomato sauce), served in thin slices rather than thick and with a sheer sauce of fresh tomatoes, all mounded on mashed potatoes and spinach in the trendy manner, or seafood salads arranged on leaves of radicchio, or pizzas with paper-thin crusts that suit lighter appetites and with toppings that no Neapolitan ever