Liguori - 191 Secret Italian Family Recipes: Best Italian Recipes Handed Down From Generation To Generation

Table of Contents Pages & Recipe # s

History, Maps and Contributing Chefs & Cooks ------------------ I VI

Antipasti and Salads ------------------------------------------------------ 1

Soups -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 - 19

Breads Polenta (cornmeal) & Sweet breads ------------------- 20 - 33

Eggs --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 34

Vegitables ------------------------------------------------------------------- 37

Meats and Seafoods --------------------------------------------------- 62 - 105

Pasta and Rice ----------------------------------------------------------- 106 - 131

Sauces ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 132

Deserts --------------------------------------------------------------------- 136 (Cakes, Candy, Cookies, Fruit, Pies & Pastry)

Canning ------------------------------------------------------------------- 188

Meatless Pizza ----------------------------------------------------------- 191

Cheeses ------------------------------------------------------------------- 192

Sugested Wines ------------------------------------------------------- 193

HISTORY During the last few decades of the 19 th century and the early years of the 20 th century many thousands of Italians left their native Italy on a quest for a better life in the new world. Many, with little more than the clothes on their backs, and perhaps a few meager possessions, managed to scrape together enough money to buy boat passage to America and with it a ticket to a new life. Most were poor in material wealth but rich in high hopes and enthusiasm and all embraced a once in a lifetime sense of adventure! Several hundred of those Italian immigrants eventually settled in a little Town of about 20,000 called Olean, nestled in what would later be called the Enchanted Mountains of western NY State about 60 miles south of Buffalo. As with most of the many varied ethnic groups immigrating to the US in those days they tended to congregate in one area of the places to which they moved. In Olean it was the North End. The North End was divided into two areas, separated by North Union Street, which was an extension of Oleans main thoroughfare. The area on the west side of North Union Street was where the Italians congregated, and the other section, to the east, was where the Polish immigrants grouped. My dads mother and father came over from an area of Italy near Naples, and were part of the hundreds of couples and families that finally came to the end of their long journey in North Olean. And there they raised a typically large Italian family of seven children (five sons and two daughters). My moms folks came from the Palermo area of Sicily, and ended their long sojourn in the little railroad Town or Salamanca, NY about 20 miles west of Olean. Like most immigrants, the Italians who ended up in Olean tended to continue to live near one and other, where they could be among familiar circumstances, and together with people of the same religion (mostly Catholic) and customs and most importantly who spoke the same language and ate the same foods. Most of the Italians immigrants of those days were simply hard working people, with the same old world values that are usually found in all immigrant groups that come to America. My grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1906, at the age of 19, with only $5 in his pockets. He was simply a hard working stiff who was just trying to make a new life for his wife and children here in America. One that was better than was possible back in the old country. I

Everyone on the west side of the North End, as it was called by the locals, spoke Italian, and of course they all cooked traditional Italian dishes that had been handed down from mother to daughter for generations back in Italy. The range of cuisine was quite varied, and came from all of the many regions and areas of Italy. When I grew up, during the 40s and 50s, much of the old traditions and many of the original immigrants were still there and very active. There was a couple of small Mom and Pop Italian Stores that handled many of the specialty foods and ingredients that the Italian cooks wanted. I remember one store, Rogers Italian Grocery , on Wayne Street, (a main thoroughfare that was essentially the south boundary of the North end) that would have Baccal (Dried and salted cod which I never mustered up enough courage to taste) and big round Romano cheeses and Genoa Salamis hanging in the windows. There was also The Christopher Columbus Lodge, right next to the Fire hall on Union Street, just at the entrance to the North End. It was a wondrous place to a 10 or 12 year old boy where most of the Italian men congregated and hung out. Many of the Italian men were also excellent cooks and chefs. The Christopher Columbus Lodge held monthly banquets where various Italian feasts would be prepared and partaken of in the large hall on the upper floor of the Lodge. Unfortunately for me, being just a kid, those banquets were only for the men of the Lodge but, my father, who, for many years, was the chairman of the banquet committee, would often bring home samples of the delicious Italian dishes that were prepared and served by these excellent Italian male chefs. And once a year the Lodge would have a big Clam Bake and invite the public (including kids) so on those occasions I was able to sample some of that great food for myself. I can still remember the delicious taste of one of my favorites chicken giblets cooked in spaghetti sauce and served on fresh Italian rolls it makes my mouth water just remembering it. What fascinating and mystical memories of that place still wander in my mind after all those many years and yet they remain just as vivid in my minds recollection vaults as if they only happened yesterday! The young ladies of the Italian families of Olean all learned the old Italian culinary arts and skills from their mothers which included many varied recipes conveyed across the ocean from all parts of Italy by their mothers who had learned them from their mothers and who, in turn, had learned from their mothers before them for countless generation. As a result, there was a large concentration of outstanding Italian cooks, all at one time in this one small Town in southwestern New York State. In those days Olean had so large a collection of really fine Italian restaurants that it rivaled any similar sized City in America for eateries specializing in excellent Italian cuisine. II

During the 1950s and 60s the Italian ladies of Olean formed an organization called Saint Anns Lodge kind of like a more genteel and refined female oriented equivalent of the Christopher Columbus Lodge , but without an exclusively dedicated building of their own. They were more closely associated with St Johns and St. Josephs churches that were located in the North End . As the 20 th century progressed after World War II, with ever growing mobility, more and more young Italian descendants moved away from Olean resulting in families becoming increasingly separated by distance thus dispersing this concentration of Italian families and the recipes for which they were stewards. Luckily, in the 1970s the ladies of Saint Anns Lodge excellent Italian cooks all decided to gather up into one volume as many of their exceptional Italian family recipes as possible before they were all widely dispersed and possibly lost forever. So, a concentrated effort was made to assemble, compile and print 191 great Italian family recipes (sometimes one of a kind) that were collected from 55 of the best cooks in the membership of Saint Anns Lodge (one of which was my Mom) and put themall into one booklet and then to offer that booklet locally using the proceeds to fund ongoing scholarships for worthy students from the area while at the same time preserving a large piece of the Italian culinary heritage that had been entrusted to these wonderful ladies for safe keeping. Thus came into being the original matchless authoritative source from which all of the recipes in this new compilation were taken. The name of that original booklet, so painstakingly and lovingly created by the Italian ladies of Saint Anns Lodgeto foreverdocument and preserve their most precious family recipesis: