Uncle Al Capone (29 page)

Preheat oven to 225°. Mix dry ingredients together. Mince garlic. Place meat into a roasting pan and sprinkle with dry ingredients evenly. Place minced garlic on top of meat. Cover roasting pan tightly with cover or foil and place in oven and cook for 6-8 hours.

Wash peppers and slice, removing seeds and stem. Fry them olive oil until limp. After cooking, remove the foil and break meat apart with a fork. Pile on bread and top with fried peppers and hot giardiniera.

Yummy! Serves 6.

Mob Cookies

I call this recipe “Mob Cookies” because when my grandmother Theresa baked them and Al took them to his headquarters, all the boys raved about how much they loved them.

5 cups of flour

4 tbsp baking powder

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter

1 tbsp vanilla

4 eggs

Beat eggs and add sugar, butter, and vanilla. Sift together 2 cups of flour with baking powder. Add dry to wet ingredients and mix. Ad another 2 cups of flour gradually. Put on floured surface and knead, adding more flour until dough does not stick to your hands.

Slice dough, roll out, and cut into desired shapes. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375º for about 12 minutes until golden.

Walnut Sauce

This was another of Al’s favorite recipes.

1 pound spaghetti cooked al dente and drained well

6 large cloves fresh garlic chopped

1 ½ - 2 cups Italian extra virgin olive oil

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup chopped Italian parsley heads, stems removed

1 tsp crushed red pepper

pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over low heat. Add chopped garlic and walnuts and cook until garlic begins to take on color of walnuts. Add parsley and red pepper. Toss spaghetti in sauce until well covered. Add salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Chicken and noodles

5 lb chicken

6 chicken feet, cleaned

veal bone, optional

½ cup each onion & celery chopped

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup flour (about)

½ tsp salt

Stock:

In a kettle large enough to hold the chicken, put the veal bone, chicken feet, seasoning and vegetables. Add 3 quarts cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn to a simmer and cook one hour. Add the chicken and cover and simmer slowly until the chicken is tender, about 2 hours.

Noodles:

Beat the eggs slightly and add salt and enough flour slowly to make a stiff dough. Knead well and let stand covered ½ hour. Roll out very thin. It must not be the least bit sticky and not so dry that it is brittle.

Fold into a tight roll and cut into 8-inch strips. Unroll strips and place them one on top of the other. Now cut these long strips crosswise into medium noodles about a ¼ inch wide.

Toss them lightly with your fingers to separate well and spread them out on the board to dry for at least 1 hour.

When chicken is finished cooking, remove the chicken feet and veal bone and discard. Place the chicken in a pan and let cool, then remove all the meat from the bones. Bring the liquid in the kettle to a boil. (Today I skim the fat off the top of the broth, but back then we didn’t.) Drop the noodles by the handfuls into boiling liquid for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add the chicken meat back into the soup.

Serve. Yummy!

Al Capone’s Biscotti

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

3 eggs

2 ounces anisette

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter with sugar. Beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

Mix all dry ingredients together and sift into creamed ingredients. Add the anisette and mix well again.

Shape into 4 loaves and bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet for 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and place on cutting board. Cut immediately into ½ inch slices. Place slices, cut side up, on the baking sheet and place in low heated oven to toast. Turn them to toast both sides. Cool and serve.

Pasta e Faggiola

Or as we said in our family “pasta fazool!”

1 lb small pasta such as ditah or ditalini

1/8 cup olive oil

2 cups grandma’s tomato sauce

1 tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp oregano

1 tsp garlic powder

1 2 ½ # can northern beans

1 onion chopped

Put oil in saucepan. Add onions, salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic. Add 2 cups tomato sauce. Cook for 10 minutes.

Add beans & cook slowly for ½ hour. Cook pasta, drain. Pour sauce over pasta. Add cheese and serve. Serves 4.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie

Pie crust:

2 cups flour

½ tsp salt

2/3 cup lard (I now use unsalted butter)

6 tbsp cold apple cider

Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add lard and work with fingers (or mixer) until just slightly crumbly. Add cider and work quickly until it forms a ball. Add more cider if necessary. Divide ball in halves. Roll out, making two crusts.

Filling:

6 or 7 cooking apples (Granny Smith or Cortland)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ stick butter

Preheat over to 350º. Peel and core apples then slice thin. Put into bowl adding sugar and cinnamon. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Place one crust on a 9-inch pie pan. Pile the apple mixture and dot with thin slices of butter. It should be very full.

Place second crust on top and trim excess crust around edges. Seal edges closed with a fork. Poke hole in the top crust to allow steam to escape. Place pie pan on top of a cookie sheet covered with foil. Place in preheated oven and turn up heat to 450° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375° for 60 minutes. Then brush pie with a little milk and brush with granulated sugar and bake for additional 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Easter Bread

Large electric mixer with dough hook

2 cups scalded water

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 cake compressed or 1 envelope dry yeast

8 cups flour

¼ cup lukewarm water

2 eggs beaten

8 raw eggs washed thoroughly

Preheat oven to 400º. Crumble or sprinkle yeast in the lukewarm water. Pour the 2 cups hot water over salt, oil and sugar in mixing bowl.

When the hot mixture turns lukewarm, add yeast water, eggs and flour gradually. When the sides of the mixing bowl become clean, turn the dough onto floured surface and knead with hands until smooth and elastic.

Put into bowl and cover and set aside to rise until double. Take dough out of bowl and divide into two equal pieces. Take one half and divide into 2 pieces. Take one of the halves and divide into three equal pieces. Take the larger piece and form into oblong loaf. Take the three pieces and roll each one into a long roll about 1½ inches thick.

Braid these pieces into braid and place it onto of the loaf starting at one end and as you work the braid up to the other end, place an egg in each opening of the braid. Continue making sure to secure the braid at both ends of the loaf. Repeat with second loaf.

Bake on stone for 45 minutes or until golden brown