Italian Family Sunday Sauce Gravy Recipe

SUNDAY SAUCE

aka GRAVY

SUNDAY SAUCE with MY COUSINS

At MACARI VINEYARDS

 

New York Italian Mafia Restaurants

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ROCCO'S

Now CARBONE

  All that's left of the old Rocco's Restaurant on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village is the old Neon Sign which now has CARBONE plastered over where it used to say ROCCO .. ROOCO'S was one of the last few remaining Old-School Italian Red Sauce Joints left in downtown Manhattan. It was there on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village for some 70s years until the owners were forced-out by a Skyrocketing Rent Increase that they could not afford. Rocco's was replaced by CARBONE, a place that charges $56 for Veal Parm when the average price around the city for VP is $27 elsewhere. .

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CAFFE DANTE

Caffe Dante was a Favorite of The late "JIMMY LOLLIPOPS" "VINNY THE CHIN GIGANTE" and other local Mobsters ... Dante opened in 1915, and sadly closed its doors on its 100th Year Anniversary in 2015. .

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LANZA'S Since 1904

The same year my Grandparents Giuseppina & Fillipo Bellino came to New York

from LERCARA FRIDDI SICILY ....

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LANZA'S

SINCE 1904

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Woody Allen famously used the restaurant to film a scene in his 1993 film, Manhattan Murder Mystery.  Characters played by Diane Keaton and Allen himself had dinner at an “Italian mafia joint” in New Jersey, which was actually Lanza’s. One regular was Carmine “Lilo” Galante, who also frequented neighboring Italian haunts, John's Restaurant and DeRobertis Pastry Shop  .  Galante’s family, the Bonanno’s, as well as the Gambino family, loved Lanza’s.  In fact, according to the NY Times, after Galante was assassinated in 1979, his funeral service was held at Lanza-Provenzano Funeral Home (owned by the same Lanza family) a few blocks down Second Avenue from Lanza’s, and the restaurant’s maitre d’ and co-owner at the time, Bobby Lanza, was also the mortician in charge of the service. The Lanza name, however, is most notoriously associated with Joseph “Socks” Lanza, cousin to Lanza’s Restaurant owner Michael Lanza, labor rackateer, head of the Genovese crime family, and controller of the Fulton Fish Market during the 40’s and 50’s (from this alone, he received over $20 million in profits).  Although Michael Lanza never reached the crime status of his cousin or was part of organized crime officially, he did a little wheeling and dealing himself.  According to the NY Times, in 1976 he, along with two other men, was arrested for bribery, conspiracy, and gambling.  The men had paid over $18,000 in bribes to police officers for matters involving illegal activity at the restaurant.  No records indicate that the men served time.  Although now under new ownership, stepping into Lanza’s and ordering some Chicken Parm still feels like stepping into a vintage piece of East Village history.

ROBERT DeNIRO in LANZA'S Shooting a scen for ANGEL HEART

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DeNIRO as LUCIFER

at LANZA'S with EGG

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MICKEY ROURKE with ROBERT DeNIRO at LANZA'S

LUCIFER'S EGG SCENE in the Motion Picture ANGEL HEART

Starring MICKEY ROURKE & LISA BONNETT

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Joseph Socks

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Michael Lanza

DeRobertis Pastry Shop

1st Avenue ,  New York NY

Inside DeROBERTIS PASTRY SHOP

A Favorite of  Charles "Lucky" Luciano , Joseph "Socks" Lanza ,  Carmine "Lilo" Galante , and numerous other Mobsters over the years.

We’ve already established that the mafia in the East Village liked their Cannolis and their veal scallopini.  This next bit of history is is consistent with that pattern.  Lanza’s Restaurant, located at 168 1st Avenue in a tenement built in 1871, was opened in 1904 by Sicilian-Italian transplant Michael Lanza.  It is rumored that in Italy he had been chef to King Victor Emmanuel III.  And this regal influence is definitely apparent in the kitschy interior of large painted murals of places like Mount Vesuvius and the stained glass windows.  These elements, along with the tin ceiling, are all original or very close to it.  Also original to this turn-of-the-century throwback: the customers.  According to an interview done by Eater, 90% of the patrons are long time regulars.

Inside DeROBERTIS

Sadly closed in 2015 , after more than 100 Years serving Italians, normal citizens and Gangsters for so many years.

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JOHN'S

East 12th Street New York , NY

NOTE : JOHN'S is still in Business and Not Part of LOST ITALIAN NEW YORK

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MOB BOSS

CHARLES "LUCKY" LUCIANO

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Luciano grew up in the East Village (LES) of New York where he immigrated to with his parents at the age of 9 , from LERCARA FRIDDI SICILY, the same town the SINATRA FAMILY and Best Selling Italian-Cookbook Author DANIEL BELLINO "Z" hail from. And coincidentally Daniel Bellino worked as a Waiter / Bartender for 7 years when he was in his 20s ...

Luciano frequented both JOHN'S and LANZA'S Italian Restaurants which have been around since the early 1900s. He also ate at Brunetta's on 1st Avenue as well as the former La FOCACCERIA on the same block. La FOCACCERIA was a SICILIAN restaurant that sold Sicilian Specialties like (opened til 2010) the beloved sandwich of PALERMO called Pane Milza (Vastedda) along with Panelle, Arancini (Rice Balls) and Sfingione which is the true Sicilian Pizza ... 

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RECIPES FROM MY SICILIAN NONNA

by Daniel Bellino "Z"

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Above : NEW YORK TIMES HEADLINE of LUCIANO GENOVESE VALENTI SHOOTING

in Front of JOHN'S Italian Restaurant on East 12th Street

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Well Dressed Gunmen:

Vito Genovese and Lucky Luciano

On August 11th 1922 Umberto Valenti was having a plate Chicken Parmigiana. Some time around noon, Valenti and six laughing companions emerged from their lunch at John's on East 12th Street. Walking eastward when smiles turned into frowns. Suddenly, Valenti spooked and bolted towards Second Avenue as two slick, well-dressed gunmen whipped out revolvers and fired. Gangland legend holds that one of the shooters was none other than Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Masseria's newest protégé was future Geovese Crime Family Boss Vito Genovese. The Chain of Evenets Follows : 1.Umberto Valenti emerges from John’s of 12th Street. Lucky Luciano and another assassin open fire. 2. Valenti draws a revolver and is hit in the chest with a bullet. He staggers to a waiting taxicab and dies. 3. The gunmen shoot two innocent bystanders before disappearing into a tenement. "It was the coolest thing I ever saw. People were shrieking and running in all directions, and this fellow calmly fired shot after shot. He did not move until he had emptied his weapon. With blood spurting from his clothing, Valenti tried to raise up his pistol but his wounds prevented him from doing so. He made for a waiting taxicab, collapsing on the Northwest corner of 12^th Street."

Click Here o READ The NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE from 1922

CHICKEN PARM at JOHN'S

RECIPE in SUNDAY SAUCE

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UMBERTO'S CLAM HOUSE

Mulberry Street LITTLE ITALY NEW YORK

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MOB BOSS "CRAZY JOE GALLO" was Whacked at UMBERTO'S on April 8 , 1972

Gallo had arrived at Umberto’s shortly after 5 a.m. and, according to witnesses, was loud and happy. The party ordered house specialties such as scungilli, calamari and mussels. Wine was brought to the table. Besides the Gallo party, there were nine other customers in the restaurant, which opened three weeks ago. The gunman entered through a side door and went directly to behind Gallo’s table. The man, described as about 5-foot-8, stocky, about 40 years old and with receding dark hair, fired twice, striking Gallo in the left shoulder and, as the hood fell over, in the left buttock. Diapioulas drove for cover but was also hit in the buttock. The killer calmly turned and walked out into Mulberry St. to a waiting car. Diapioulas apparently fired three times at the gunman. Other Gallo hoods ran to the street and began blasting at the car as it sped away. .

GALLO

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"GET THE VEAL, it's the Best in the CITY"

AL PACINO , Sterling Hayden , and AL LITTERI

at LOUIE'S RESTAURANT in The BRONX

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The Restaurant used as LOUIE'S RESTAURANT in The GODFATHER

was The Old LUNA'S RESTAURANT on White Plains Road

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Italian restaurants have been thriving for so long in New York City, it seems strange to imagine a time when there were none. That was just before Enrico & Paglieri opened on West 11th Street off Sixth Avenue. “Countless people’s first Italian table d’hote meal was had here at this proudly immaculate place which, going and growing since 1908, now takes the underparts of three brownstone houses,” states 1948 restaurant guide Knife and Fork in New York. .

Learn How to Make SALSA SEGRETO

The RECIPE is in SEGRETO ITALIANO

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SUNDAY SAUCE

WHEN ITALIAN-AMERICANS COOK

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Neapolitan Ragu History and Recipe Italian Gravy

 

RAGU NAPOLETANA

NEAPOLITAN RAGU

HISTORY & RECIPE

PREPARING The RAGU

MAKING The BRACIOLE

SUNDAY SAUCE

aka GRAVY

NEAPOLITAN RAGU

RECIPES

AMAZON.com

Ragu Napoletana

 

GENARO CATALDO

"WHAY am I COOKING So GOOD" ??? !!!

GENARO CATALDO

RAGU NAPOLETANA

RAGU NAPOLETANA

ANTONIO SORRENTINO

SUNDAY SAUCE

AMAZON.com

RAGU NAPOLETANA

SAUSAGE RIBS & BRACIOLE

BRACIOLE

Are You Making SUNDAY SAUCE this Sunday

 

CLEMENZA SHOWS MICHAEL HOW to MAKE SAUCE

RECIPE

WATCH The VIDEO

"MAKE The SAUCE" !!!

CLEMENZA (Richard Castellano ) 

Show MICHAEL ( AL Pacino ) HOW to MAKE SUNDAY SAUCE

In Francis FOrd Coppola's The GODFATHER

SUNDAY SAUCE

alla CLEMENZA

all BELLINO alla PACINO

aka The GODFATHER COOKBOOK

AMAZON.com

SUNDAY SAUCE 

•   "Are You Making SUNDAY SAUCE This Sunday ?

•     What do you put in your Sauce ?

•     Do you call it Suace or Gravy ?

•     Do You Know How to Make it ? ( The Recipe is in The SUNDAY SAUCE COOKBOOK )

•      Do you make enough Meatballs to make MEABALL SANDWICHES on Monday ?

Brief History of Italian New York NY NYC

AL PACINO

SICILIAN AMERICAN

Native NEW YORK ITALIAN

BRONX, NEW YORK|

New York City has the largest population of Italian Americans in the United States of America as well as North America, many of whom inhabit ethnic enclaves in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. New York is home to the third largest Italian population outside of Italy, behind Buenos Aires, Argentina (first) and São Paulo, Brazil (second). Over 2.6 million[1] Italians and Italian-Americans live in the greater New York metro area, with about 800,000 living within one of the five New York City boroughs. This makes Italian Americans the largest ethnic group in the New York metro area.

The first Italian to reside in New York was Pietro Cesare Alberti, a Venetian seaman who, in 1635, settled in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam that would eventually become New York. A small wave of Protestants, known as Waldensians, who were of French and northern Italian heritage (specifically Piedmontese), occurred during the 17th century, with the majority coming between 1654 and 1663.^[ A 1671 Dutch record indicates that, in 1656 alone, the Duchy of Savoy near Turin, Italy, had exiled 300 Waldensians due to their Protestant faith.

The largest wave of Italian immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Between 1820 and 1978, 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the United States, including over two million between 1900 and 1910. Only Irish and Germans immigrated in larger numbers.

The first New York neighborhood to be settled by large numbers of Italian immigrants – primarily from Southern Italy (mostly from Sicily) – was East Harlem, which became the first part of the city to be known as "Little Italy". The area, which lies east of Lexington Avenue between 96th and 116th Streets and east of Madison Avenue between 116th and 125th Streets, featured people from different regions of Italy on each cross street, as immigrants from each area chose to live in close proximity to each other.

"Italian Harlem" approached its peak in the 1930s, with over 100,000 Italian-Americans living in its crowded, run-down apartment buildings.  The 1930 census showed that 81 percent of the population of Italian Harlem consisted of first- or second- generation Italian Americans. This was somewhat less than the concentration of Italian Americans in the Lower East Side’s Little Italy with 88 percent; Italian Harlem’s total population, however, was three times that of Little Italy. Remnants of the neighborhood's Italian heritage are kept alive by the Giglio Society of East Harlem. Every year on the second weekend of August, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated and the "Dancing of the Giglio" is performed for thousands of visitors.

After World War II, the original Italian settlements such as East Harlem declined as Italian Americans moved to the North Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn's southern tier. The geographic shift coincided with a new wave of Italian immigration. An estimated 129,000 to 150,000 Italian immigrants entered New York City between 1945 and 1973. Bypassing Manhattan, they settled in Italian American neighborhoods in the outer boroughs and helped reinvigorate Italian culture and community institutions. With the influx of postwar immigrants, Bensonhurst became the largest Italian community in New York City, with 150,000 Italian Americans in the 1980 census.

The best-known "Little Italy" in Manhattan is the area currently called that, which centers around Mulberry Street. This settlement, however, is rapidly becoming part of the adjacent Chinatown as the older Italian residents die and their children move elsewhere. As of the 2000 census, 692,739 New Yorkers reported Italian ancestry, making them the largest European ethnic group in the city. In 2011, the American Community Survey found there were 49,075 persons of Italian birth in New York. 

Charles "Lucky" Luciano

Charles Lucky Luciano was born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily.

His parents immigrated to New York when he was 9 years old.

The Luciano's settled on East 1oth Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The neighborhood, a 100 years ago, when Lucky was growing up, was primarily

a Sicilian neighborhood, as well as Neapolitans, and Italian immigrants from Geno and Abruzzo as well.

Author Daniel Bellino "Z"

SICILIAN AMERICAN

Daniel Bellino Z, also lived in the East Village,which was known

as part of the Lower East Side when Lucky Luciano lived there.

Daniel lived on Avenue A at Saint Mark's Place for 11 years, from 1982

to 1993. While living there, he worked 2 jobs for 7 years. He'd cook at French and Italian restaurants during the day, and at night he waited tables at John's on 12th Street for 7 years. John's opened in 1908 and is still in business today (2023). 

Not only did "Lucky" Luciano eat at John's and Lanza's around the block

on 1st Avenue, he is said to have "Whacked" (murdered) someone on the East 12th Street, right in front of John's Sicilian Restaurant.

Lucky also frequent DeRoberti's Pasticceria, a Sicilian Pastry Shop next toLanza's Restaurant on 1st Avenue. Veneiro's Italian Pastry Shop which opened on East 11th Street in 1890, is just about 50 feet away from Lanza's and DeRoberti's.

The BELLINO FAMILY

Giuseppina & Fillipo Bellino

Immigrated to New York from Lercara Friddi in 1906

The same years as the LUCINAO Family, both Families, along with

Martino Severino Sinatra (Frank's Father) are from LERCARA FRIDDI, Sicily.

The Bellino's; Fillipo, daughter Lucia - my Mother, Antonino and Giuseppina

are pictured here in Lodi, New Jersey, where they moved to, after 2 years in NYC

Fillipo opened a Shoemaker Shop on Main Street in Lodi, where there was a little

gambling room in the back, where local Italian men played cards and bet on Numbers.

RECIPES From My SICILIAN NONNA

GIUSEPPINA SALEMI BELLINO

From LERCARA FRIDDI

And Other SICILIAN & ITALIAN RECIPES

AMAZON.com

SUNDAY SAUCE

WHEN ITALIAN AMERICANS COOK

aka The GODFATHER COOKBOOK

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Martin Scorsese

Sicilian-American

Famed Italian-American director Martin Scorsese grew up in 

a 6 floor walk-up in a Sicilian Neighborhood on Elizabeth Street

just south of Houston Street with his Sicilian-American parents

Catherine and Charles Scorsese.

His ancestral Sicilian Family are from the town of Pollizzi Generosa

in the Province of Palermo, near the towns of Corleone and

Lercara Friddi, Sicily.

Joe Pepitone has Passed Away

 

JOE PEPITONE

"It's a sad day in New York, and especially for Italian-American New Yorker's, and those who loved the late great Joe Pepitone, of Brooklyn, New York. 

The Yankees are deeply saddened by the passing of former Yankee Joe Pepitone, whose playful and charismatic personality and on-field contributions made him a favorite of generations of Yankees fans even beyond his years with the team in the 1960s,” the Yankees said in a statement.

“As a native New Yorker, he embraced everything about being a Yankee during both his playing career -- which included three All-Star appearances and three Gold Gloves -- and in the decades thereafter. You always knew when Joe walked into a room -- his immense pride in being a Yankee was always on display. He will be missed by our entire organization, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends and all who knew him."

Joe Pepitone with Mickey Mantle

and Roger Maris

If Joe Pepitone were a car, he’d be a Ferrari — powerful, Italian, and high-performance. Though his career .258 batting average may not evidence power, Pepitone placed in the American League’s top 10 in total bases twice, in RBI twice, and in home runs thrice in his 12-year major-league career (1962-1973). He also clouted seven grand slams.

Defensively, Pepitone showed merit at first base in the junior circuit with a top-10 ranking four times for putouts, four times for assists, and four times for double plays. He also occupied the number-one slot in fielding percentage three times; in addition to first base, he played all three outfield positions.

But it is Pepitone’s off-the-field exploits that often grab more attention. For a Yankee in the 1960s, New York City was a playground of nightclubs, saloons, and crash pads; Pepitone soaked it up like a sponge with teammates, mobsters, and women. There was no If Joe Pepitone were a car, he’d be a Ferrari — powerful, Italian, and high-performance. Though his career .258 batting average may not evidence power, Pepitone placed in the American League’s top 10 in total bases twice, in RBI twice, and in home runs thrice in his 12-year major-league career (1962-1973). He also clouted seven grand slams.

Defensively, Pepitone showed merit at first base in the junior circuit with a top-10 ranking four times for putouts, four times for assists, and four times for double plays. He also occupied the number-one slot in fielding percentage three times; in addition to first base, he played all three outfield positions.

JOE PEPITONE

ART by artist PhilMcKenney

SUNDAY SAUCE

AMAZON.com