Nonna's Italo-American Recipes

By Bill Russo

He was a 14 year old fishmonger's delivery boy and she was a floor scrubber, sold by her Father to a nunnery near Palermo. With a love stronger than all obstacles they crossed the ocean to the United States in 1910. Now, 105 years later, their grandson has written a moving tribute to the lovers in the form of remembrances and recipes. The recipes are from his Nonna and the remembrances are from long Sunday afternoons watching his grandmother make culinary magic and feed as many as 20 relatives from her tiny kitchen, on an even smaller food budget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Russo
• Release date: Jun 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310443282

Bill Russo

Bill Russo had lived in an area of Massachusetts called the Bridgewater Triangle for many years and never knew that it was said to be inhabited by scary swamp creatures until he met one. It happened on a midnight walk. Years later, two film producers read his blog about it and featured him and his story in their documentary, The Bridgewater Triangle. He also was approached by Discovery channel producers and was featured in the opening segment of Monsters and Mysteries in America - Season two, Episode two. Among his work, are two anthologies featuring the Bridgewater Triangle Universe. One is strictly fiction and the other contains his account of meeting the swamp creature - plus other stories from New England. As a disc jockey, he was the first person to play and promote the trucking classic "Tombstone Every Mile". He counted as a friend, the first man to cross the musical color line, in a 1940s Jazz Band. The "Human Jukebox", who opened for both Elvis and Roy Orbison, was a neighbor of his. Stories of these and other artists are included in "Crossing the Musical Color Line". Bill's background for writing comes from a Boston education at the venerable white shirt & tie, Huntington School for Boys. He followed that up with a study of journalism, music, and broadcasting at the famed Kenmore Square institution, Grahm Jr. College, where he said he learned more about music from an African American gentleman who was the school's janitor, than he ever could in a classroom. He introduced me to Gloria Lynne, Bill said. Years after he learned of her, she had a mega hit with I Wish You Love. One of Grahm's well known graduates was performance artist Andy Kaufman who created his Taxi TV character Latka while at Grahm. Andy also claimed he learned Transcendental Meditation at Grahm, although it was not taught there. But who knows? It could be true. Bill Russo learned music from the Janitor. Maybe someone in bookkeeping was a guru and gave Andy the secrets of TM. At various times during his career, Russo was a New England Newspaper Editor, a Disc Jockey, and a Radio newswriter and newscaster for a number of stations. He also has had stints as an iron worker, and a low level manager for a major mail order clothing retailer. One of his favorite jobs was partnering with Bill Barry, the inventor of a jewelry polish called Clear Bright n Shiny. The 'Bills' as they called themselves toured New England selling...

Book preview

Nonna’s Italo-American Recipes

by Bill Russo

Smashwords Edition

Copyright© 2016 Bill Russo

Published by CCA Media

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages for use in reviews.

Cover photo "Macaronis farcis à la sétoise" by JPS68 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Fisherman’s Boy and the Floor Scrubber

Chapter two: Steerage to the States

Chapter Three: Faster Pasta

Chapter Four: Man Does Not Live by Prov-alone

This is a short volume with some hot new recipes and some old memories from the Italian-American perspective.

These great new, time-tested menu treats are not your grandma’s old recipes! They are MY grandma’s old, time-tested recipes!

I promise that you are going to find some unique new ways of preparing old favorites. You will also get to go back in time more than a hundred years and meet my grandmother and grandfather as I tell part of their amazing story of coming to America, mixed in