The titular neighborhood of Frank Pellegrino's Rao's: Recipes from the Neighborhood is Manhattan's East Harlem, home to an Italian immigrant population. The area also boasts Rao's, Pellegrino's Southern Italian restaurant that was discovered by local "worthies" and is now New York City's toughest reservation. The book, a follow-up to the bestselling Rao's Cookbook, offers 125 recipes for the kind of fare offered Rao's, and by Pellegrino's extended family and neighbors--dishes like Pizza Rustica, Penne Rigate with Cauliflower, Veal Milanese, and My Mother's Stuffed Calamari. This deeply satisfying, utterly unpretentious cooking is easy to do, but must be handled with care to avoid debasing an already hybrid cuisine. The book scores in this, offering exemplary versions of Old-to-New World dishes, and is neighborhood-authentic down to the use of American convenience products like garlic powder. Readers will also relish the wide recipe range, which includes sweets such as Simple Ricotta Cheesecake and Noni's Chocolate Ravioli, as well as Pellegrino's headnotes, which reveal who made what when. (Of the contributor of Wedding Soup, for example, he says, "his grandmother and my grandmother ... both came to America in 1911 in the same ship.") This flavorsome background, plus homey photos and other memorabilia like Our Kitchen Table make this modest book particularly welcome. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
With Rao's Cooks For The Neighborhood, Frank Pellegrino-of New York's celebrated East Harlem restaurant Rao's-returns to what he knows best: authentic Italian food. With over one hundred recipes and beautifully illustrated with both full-color and vintage black & white photographs, Rao's Cooks For The Neighborhood is Pellegrino's tribute to the place he grew up and the women who taught him how to cook. From Ida's baked chicken to Rose Milano's Spaghetti Frittata, everything a home cook needs to reproduce their favorite home-style meals is in this book.
This classic cookbook is filled with newly discovered recipes of generations past, as well as holiday cooking, kitchen secrets, and some of the favorite menu items from Rao's. It's a love story devoted to Italian family cooking and its heritage. Every single dish is easy to prepare and satisfying to eat. Rao's Cooks For The Neighborhood will be eagerly awaited by readers who loved The Rao's Cookbook, but will also attract new fans who have come to know Rao's through the successful national brand of sauces sold throughout the U.S.
From the Inside Flap
Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood is a tribute to generations of cooks and the delicious Italian home-style meals that are America's favorite foods to make in their own kitchens-they're also the kind of dishes served at Frank Pellegrino's inimitable New York restaurant, Rao's, and have helped make Rao's famous. Richly illustrated with full color photography as well as vintage photographs and studded with essays on the great Italian heritage of home cooking, this book is an inexhaustible source of ideas for any enthusiastic home chef. With a full range of dishes from antipasti to desserts, this book includes the kind of recipes you beg relatives to write down, such as: Rose Caiazzo's lasagna, stove-top chicken cacciatore, Frankie's meatballs, Susan di Sesa's oven-roasted peppers, Rao's lemon chicken adapted for the grill, and Maria Pugia's biscotti. You will turn to this cookbook again and again-to get ideas for a quick midweek pasta dinner with the family, for chicken dishes to feed a crowd, for holiday baking recipes that are simple to make and satisfying to share. Over a hundred years of traditional Italian-American cooking is behind Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood and will make it a beloved favorite in your kitchen.
From the Back Cover
Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood is a tribute to generations of cooks and the delicious Italian home-style meals that are America's favorite foods to make in their own kitchens-they're also the kind of dishes served at Frank Pellegrino's inimitable New York restaurant, Rao's, and have helped make Rao's famous.
Richly illustrated with full color photography as well as vintage photographs and studded with essays on the great Italian heritage of home cooking, this book is an inexhaustible source of ideas for any enthusiastic home chef. With a full range of dishes from antipasti to desserts, this book includes the kind of recipes you beg relatives to write down, such as: Rose Caiazzo's lasagna, stove-top chicken cacciatore, Frankie's meatballs, Susan di Sesa's oven-roasted peppers, Rao's lemon chicken adapted for the grill, and Maria Pugia's biscotti.
You will turn to this cookbook again and again-to get ideas for a quick midweek pasta dinner with the family, for chicken dishes to feed a crowd, for holiday baking recipes that are simple to make and satisfying to share. Over a hundred years of traditional Italian-American cooking is behind Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood and will make it a beloved favorite in your kitchen.
About the Author
Frank Pellegrino is the owner and impresario of the restaurant Rao's. He also distributes a hugely successful national brand of pasta sauces and other products under the Rao's name (sold at upscale groceries and big retailers like Bed, Bath and Beyond). And he's a sometime actor who has a recurring role on "The Sopranos" (look for him more frequently in the new 2004 season).
Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood: Frank Pelligrino Cooks Italian with Family and Friends FROM THE PUBLISHER
Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood is a tribute to generations of cooks and the delicious Italian home-style meals that are America's favorite foods to make in their own kitchens-they're also the kind of dishes served at Frank Pellegrino's inimitable New York restaurant, Rao's, and have helped make Rao's famous.
Richly illustrated with full color photography as well as vintage photographs and studded with essays on the great Italian heritage of home cooking, this book is an inexhaustible source of ideas for any enthusiastic home chef. With a full range of dishes from antipasti to desserts, this book includes the kind of recipes you beg relatives to write down, such as: Rose Caiazzo's lasagna, stove-top chicken cacciatore, Frankie's meatballs, Susan di Sesa's oven-roasted peppers, Rao's lemon chicken adapted for the grill, and Maria Pugia's biscotti.
You will turn to this cookbook again and again-to get ideas for a quick midweek pasta dinner with the family, for chicken dishes to feed a crowd, for holiday baking recipes that are simple to make and satisfying to share. Over a hundred years of traditional Italian-American cooking is behind Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood and will make it a beloved favorite in your kitchen.
Frank Pellegrino is the owner and impresario of the restaurant Rao's. He also distributes a hugely successful national brand of pasta sauces and other products under the Rao's name (sold at upscale groceries and big retailers like Bed, Bath and Beyond). And he's a sometime actor who has a recurring role on "The Sopranos" (look for him more frequently in the new 2004 season).
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Rao's Cookbook featured the home-style Italian American food served at Pellegrino's tiny but nationally known family restaurant in Manhattan's East Harlem. In this second book, he offers more of the same from family, friends, and his own kitchen: e.g., Peppers and Eggs, Christmas Eve Seafood Pasta, and Stove-Top Chicken Cacciatore. Pellegrino is very engaging-his personality is one of the major reasons for Rao's continued popularity (even though it's almost impossible to get a reservation)-and the text reflects his warmth and sincerity. The first book included vignettes and reminiscences from celebrity customers, while this one sticks closer to home. However, Rao's line of pasta sauces is distributed nationwide, and the first cookbook was a best seller. For area libraries and larger collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
Book Info
