FRANK SINATRA
COME FLY WITH ME
SUNDAY SAUCE and SINATRA
COME FLY WITH ME
SUNDAY SAUCE and SINATRA
It's an old tradition in my family, that most Sunday the Bellino Family gathers together and we eat Sunday Sauce Italian Gravy. The whole family gets together and Grandma House, or Aunt Helen's, but mostly at Aunt Fran's House in Lodi, New Jersey. It's a wonderful all day affair, starting with a little antipasto, followed by the star of the show, Sunday Sauce. Aunt Fran or Aunt Helen usually make the Sauce (Gravy), which is the most supreme dish of all. It's a long simmered tomato sauce laden with special meat treats, that include: Sausages, Meatballs, and Braciole. We eat it with short maccheroni, usually rigatoni. "It's the Best Thing ever," we all just love it, and who wouldn't, it's so damn tasty, it is.
After the Sunday Sauce, it's on to dessert and coffee, which is a 3 or 4 hour affair, as the grownups sit around the table drinking Espresso (with Anisette) and eating all the tasty desserts that's made of a whole array of sweet treats, like: Aunt Fran's Ricotta Cookies, Cannoli, Sfogliatelle, and whatever sweets that other visitors might bring. And there's a whole lot of talking about this that and every other thing: sports, politics, gossip and what not, all as Frank Sinatra records play softly in the background. Always. Aunt Wanda loves Jerry Vale, and Dino has his turn too. Those were warm and wonderful days spent with loved ones, and sadly all of the older generation is gone, and we miss them dearly. But me, I think of them often, and especially when it comes to Sundays, eating all day long, cahtting and having fun, eating maccheroni, sausage, Meatballs, and Braciole, listening to Sinatra, and loving it all. My cousins Joe, Tony, and I keep it going. We try to organize as many get-together s as we can, always centered around food, whatever it may be: fresh fish, pasta, Steak, and our all-time favorite Sunday Sauce. And don't forget Sinatra, Francis Albert that is. Or just simply Frank.
Basta !
Frank Sinatra
The SUMMER WIND
A Pot of SUNDAY SAUCE
"GRAVY"
FRANK and FRIENDS
At JILLY'S
NEW YORK
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