Joanne Trattoria. - Joanne Tattoria cookbook: classic recipes and scenes from an Italian American restaurant

Joanne Trattoria

COOKBOOK

Classic Recipes and Scenes from an Italian-American Restaurant

Joe Germanotta

with Wenonah Hoye

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Copyright 2016 by Joseph Germanotta with Wenonah Hoye, All Rights Reserved.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

Joanne Trattoria Cookbook:

Classic Recipes and Scenes from an Italian-American Restaurant

2016 by Joseph Germanotta with Wenonah Hoye

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-68261-258-3

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-68261-259-0

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Thanks to Alex Dolan, who provided many of the photos in this book.

We couldnt have done it without you! [Photos: page vii; p. 3; p. 8; p. 12; p. 14; p. 20 (top); p. 27; p. 49; p. 85 (both); p. 86; p. 93]

Thanks to Bethany Michaela Jones/Sojourner Society, who shot many great photographs just for this book.

Interior Design and Composition: Greg Johnson/Textbook Perfect

Post Hill Press

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

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Digital book(epub and mobi) produced by Booknook.biz.

This book is dedicated to my sister,
Joanne Stefani Germanotta.
Though her flame died out too early,
her light shines on
through my daughters,
Natali Veronica and Stefani Joanne.

Foreword

Joe with daughters Natali and Stefani.

Since my sister, Natali, and I were little girls, my mother and father made sure the kitchen was the centerpiece of our household. We had dinner as a family every night and ate delicious Italian-style meals that were made with love from recipes that had been passed down for generations on both sides of my family. Recipes from ancestors in Nasoa town in the Messina Province in SicilySanta Lucia and Venice live on through my family, each with its own distinct twist in flavor. The uniqueness of this cookbook and our family restaurant, Joanne Trattoria, lies in the influence of the immigration of our families from Italy through Ellis Island to New Jersey (where my father was raised) and West Virginia (where my mother was raised.)

The smell, every Sunday, of a pot of fresh gravy, as we would call it instead of tomato sauce, is one of the fondest memories I have from my childhood. I recall the smell of roasting sausages as they were dropped delicately into a slowly simmering 912 hour sauce. I remember the smile as my butter knife snapped open the outer layer and the juices filled my plate, sopped up by fresh pasta and followed by a crispy chopped salad made by my mother. Red wine that my father and grandfather Giuseppe made in our laundry room in the basement, sifted through cheesecloth as it was poured for everyone at the table.

We would say a prayer and then eat as a family. We ended each prayer in memory of my fathers sister, Joanne, whose name has become the symbol both of our familys majestic accomplishments and of our losses along the way. We always knew there was a plate at the table missing, and we ask that when you prepare these traditional family dishes you honor the memory of those you love and those youve lost, and cook with the intention of strengthening the bonds of family and friendship in the place us Italians think is best: The Kitchen.

Love, Stefani Joanne Germanotta

Chapter 1 Gravy

M y sister and I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. For most of my early childhood our mother, Angelina Germanotta, was a stay-at-home mom who cooked dinner for us every night. Shed make mostly Italian meals: meatballs, marinara, stuffed clams, pasta fagioli, stuffed artichokes, and stuffed mushrooms. Sundays were always set aside for family and she would spend the entire day preparing a big meal. In the afternoons, while she was cooking or baking, I would sit at the kitchen table and, to keep me occupied, she would let me draw in her cookbooks.

When I was in junior high, my mother went to work with my father at our familys lawn and garden store. He had bought the shop because he was tired of working his whole life for other people; finally, he was his own boss. This was around the same time that Joanne came down with lupus. She used to get itchy bumps on her fingers, arthritis, and fatigue, but at the time we didnt really know what it was. Once my mother started working at the shop, she would call home in the afternoons to check on me and I would say, Im cookingIm sure having her teenage son loose in her kitchen probably frightened her to death. I would make things from memory, having watched my mother in the kitchen my whole childhood. I have always loved to cook. When I finished high school, I wrote my senior paper on owning a restaurant. It was called Feeding the People. To this day, that is my guiding principal. When Stefani is in town well put together a care package from the restaurant and send it over to her apartment. When I visit my mother, I always take her at least a dozen items to freeze.

Where I come from, and in other parts of the country, Italian-Americans use the word gravy to refer to that big pot of bubbling sauce that simmers for hours on the stove every Sunday. To us, Sunday Gravy is more than just a meal, it is a way of life; the long, slow simmering ensures that families spend time together and reinforces the bonds the keep us together. When we began preparing the menu at Joanne I wanted that spirit of family, food and love to be at the heart of every dish we serve, so I returned to my childhood memories of Sunday Gravy and looked to my mothers recipes for inspiration.

~Joe Germanotta

Joannes Marinara

Juan Castillo, Kitchen Manager, making up a fresh batch of Joannes Marinara.

Made from just a handful of ingredients, marinara is a staple in Italian-American cooking. Once you have mastered the basic marinara, you can build on that recipe to make dozens of other dishes.

Serves: 68

Ingredients

1 large Vidalia onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

34 pounds pured San Marzano tomatoes

1 bunch basil leaves

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or saucepot over medium heat.
2. Add diced onion and garlic. Saut until onions are translucent and garlic is aromatic.