Seeing Daniel Bellino-Zwicke at a café feels like a scene straight out of one of his own books. As a writer who practically lives and breathes the atmosphere of Greenwich Village and the storied cafés of Italy, he is often found capturing the essence of “The Good Life” (La Dolce Vita) over an espresso or a glass of wine.
If you’ve spotted him with a notebook or laptop, he’s likely weaving together his signature blend of culinary history, personal anecdote, and Italian-American culture. His writing style is conversational and evocative, often making the reader feel like they are sitting right across the table from him.
Sunday Sauce & Secret Recipes: He is best known for Sunday Sauce and Segreto Italiano, books that treat recipes as sacred family oral histories.
Travel Journals: He frequently writes about his adventures in Venice, Rome, and Sicily, focusing on the small, authentic bars and trattorias that tourists often miss.
Pop Culture Narratives: From The Big Lebowski Cookbook to stories about Sinatra and Scorsese, he often explores the intersection of food and iconic cinema.
NOTABLE WORKS by Daniel Bellino Zwicke
SUNDAY SAUCE. – The Definitive Guide to Italian-American “Gravy” aka Sunday Sauce,
and ITALIAN FAMILY Traditions
The FEAST of The 7 FISH – A deep dive into the Classic Italian-American Christmas Eve Seafood
Feast – Recipes
GRANDMA BELLINO’S ITALIAN COOKBOOK – Italian Heritage Recipes of author Daniel
Daniel Bellino’s Z’s Sicilian Nonna
NONNA BELLINO
La TAVOLA – Italian-American New Yorkers Adventures of The Table. Blending the Joy of Travel Cooking and Eating Italian-Food
Bellino-Zwicke doesn’t just write about food; he writes about the feeling of a place. Whether he’s at a small zinc bar in Paris or a corner spot in the Village, the café is his natural habitat—a place to observe the world and translate it into “the secret sauce” of his next chapter.
“BELLINO & PACINO”
Daniel Bellino is an Italian-American author who highlights Al Pacino in his cookbooks, particularly focusing on Italian-American cooking, “Sunday Sauce” (meat-based Red Sauce), and shared Sicilian roots, Bellino’s family from Lercara Friddi, Sicily, and Al Pacino – “Believe It or Not” hails from Corleone, Sicily.
Bellino’s books, such as Grandma Bellino’s Cookbook, discuss recipes like Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, which is noted as a favorite of Al Pacino.
Daniel Bellino’s Connection: Daniel Bellino Zwicke is known for writing books about Italian-American life, food, and culture. He features “Sunday Sauce” and mentions Sicilian-American connections.
Daniel writes in his book of the times when he was the Wine Director of Barbetta Ristorante in New York, where Pacino occasionally dined at. When Daniel was taking Mr. Pacino’s food order, Al would always ask if the kitchen would make him Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Spaghetti with Garlic & Olive Oil). “The dish was not on the menu, that why Al asked if we could make us. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse,” states Bellino. And of course we always made it for Al, and he was a wonderful client to have dining with us.” The rest is history, shall we say. Al Pacino’s favorite paste was Spaghetti with Garlic & Oil (Aglio e Olio). We know this thanks to Daniel Bellino, who felt with Pacino first hand. Bellino tells this story in his book Sunday Sauce
Al Pacino and Aglio Olio you ask? What about it? Well it’s just that Spaghetti Aglio Olio always reminds me of that great fellow New Yorker Sicilian American, the one-and-only Al Pacino from da Bronx. It’s not a big deal, just a wonderful little memory for me. When I was the Wine Director at the famed Barbetta Ristorante on Restaurant Row in New York’s Theater District (where Al often performs on stage), Al Pacino used to come and eat there every now and then. He never wanted anything to fancy, but something that just about all true blooded Italian-American wants, and that dish is Spaghetti Aglio Olio, plain and simple, yet it’s in our blood. That’s what Al wanted and that’s what we gave him, and Al loved it and you will too.
Note: As has already been noted, you can make Spaghetti w/ Garlic & Oil, simply by making the above recipe, and omitting the Anchovies, and you’ll have it just like Al Pacino does.
Enjoy!
Excerpted form GRANDMA BELLINO’S ITALIAN COOKBOOK
by Daniel Bellino Zwicke
.
DiMAGGIO & BELLINO
features Joe DiMaggio and his family’s culinary traditions in his Italian-American cookbook, SUNDAY SAUCE. The book highlights recipes like “Mamma DiMaggio’s Sunday Gravy,” honoring the mother of the legendary Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio.
Joe DiMaggio was one of the most recognizable and popular men in mid-twentieth century America. He was celebrated in song and literature as an iconic hero, and he was married, briefly, to the nation’s number one glamour girl. On March 16, 1999, the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring him “for his storied baseball career; for his many contributions to the nation throughout his lifetime; and for transcending baseball and becoming a symbol for the ages of talent, commitment and achievement.”1
But first and foremost Joe DiMaggio was a ballplayer. Known as the Yankee Clipper, he was the undisputed leader of New York Yankees teams that won nine World Series titles in his 13-year career that ran from 1936 to 1951, with three years lost to duty in World War II. He was three times the American League’s Most Valuable Player and he holds what many consider to be the most remarkable baseball record of all, a 56-game hitting streak in 1941. As the son of immigrants, he was the embodiment of the American Dream, a rags-to-riches story played out in pinstripes.
Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio on November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California, 25 miles northeast of San Francisco. His parents, Giuseppe and Rosalia (Mercurio) DiMaggio, had settled there after emigrating from Sicily. After Joe was born they moved the family to San Francisco, where Giuseppe continued to work as a fisherman. Joe was the eighth of their nine children, one of five sons. Two of his brothers, Vince and Dominic, would also play in the major leagues.
Unlike two of his older brothers, Joe had no interest in joining his father on the fishing boat. Instead, he played for several amateur and semi-pro teams in baseball-rich San Francisco. It was 19-year-old Vince, who was then playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, who got Joe into professional ball. When the Seals found themselves in need of a shortstop near the end of the 1932 season, Vince convinced Seals manager Ike Caveney to give his 17-year-old brother a chance. Joe played in the final three games of the season, and then was signed to a contract in 1933 for $225 a month.
Moved to the outfield because of his erratic arm, DiMaggio hit .340 and set a PCL record by hitting in 61 straight games. In 1934, he hit .341, but a knee injury that sidelined him in August made major-league teams leery of signing him. The Yankees offered to buy his contract for $25,000 and five players, but with the contingency that he remain with the Seals in 1935 to prove he was healthy. DiMaggio made a convincing case by hitting .398, with 34 homers and 154 runs batted in.
In 1936, only two years after the departure of Babe Ruth, the heralded rookie came to spring training facing big expectations. Writing in The Sporting News on March 26, Dan Daniel noted, “Yankee fans regard him as the Moses who is to lead their club out of the second-place wilderness. . ..” It didn’t take long for the rookie to make his mark. Halfway through the season, when he was hitting around .350 and had started in right field in the All-Star Game, his photo was on the cover of Time magazine. For the year he hit .323 with 29 homers and drove in 125 runs.
DiMaggio was the classic five-tool player; in addition to hitting for average and power, he could run, throw, and field. Joe McCarthy, the Yankees manager from 1931 to 1946, called him the best base runner he ever saw. His all-around play led the 1936 Yankees to the first of four straight World Series titles. The 21-year-old sensation had established himself as the successor to Babe Ruth. After the Series, he received a hero’s welcome in his home town of San Francisco, where Mayor Angelo Rossi gave him the key to the city.
DiMaggio finished second in the MVP vote in 1937, despite leading the American League in home runs, slugging percentage, runs, and total bases. He won the first of his three MVP Awards in 1939, when he led the league with a career-best .381 average. Following that season, he married 21-year-old Dorothy Arnold, a singer, dancer, and actress he met while filming a bit part in the movie Manhattan Merry-Go-Round.
By then the 6-foot-2, 190-pound outfielder was acknowledged as the best player in baseball, but to some his ethnic background was still ripe for stereotypical portrayal. In a cover story in the May 1, 1939 issue of Life magazine, Noel Busch identified DiMaggio as a “tall, thin Italian youth equipped with slick black hair” and “squirrel teeth.” But the young ballplayer apparently confounded Busch’s general perception of Italian Americans. “Although he learned Italian first, Joe, now twenty-four, speaks English without an accent and is otherwise well adapted to most U.S. mores. Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti.”3
After winning a second consecutive batting title in 1940, DiMaggio reached a new level of fame in 1941. He set one of the most enduring records in sports by hitting in 56 consecutive games. On May 15, the day the streak began, the Yankees were in fourth place, and DiMaggio had batted a lowly .194 over the previous 20 games. On June 17, DiMaggio broke the Yankee hitting-streak record of 29 games, set by Roger Peckinpaugh in 1919 and equaled by Earle Combs in 1931.
One of those rare athletes — like Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali — who transcended the world of sport, DiMaggio has been called by more than one writer the last American hero. Revisionist historians later offered a more nuanced view, portraying him as a flawed hero who became increasingly reclusive and suspicious of others. Nevertheless, when he died his enduring status as a cultural icon was confirmed by an outpouring of adulation which few public figures, in any walk of life, could evoke. His death was front-page news in every major newspaper, was covered extensively on television newscasts and specials, and was the cover story in Newsweek magazine. Referring to the frequent bulletins on DiMaggio’s health that had been issued in the months prior to his death, Frank Deford wrote that it was “as if he were some great head of state.”25 As one Brooklyn native put it, DiMaggio “epitomized an era when, for a lot of us, baseball was the most important thing in life.”
The answer to Paul Simon’s question — Where has Joe DiMaggio gone? — remains the same: Nowhere. He remains firmly lodged in the American consciousness as a stylish symbol of a time when baseball was the undisputed national pastime and America was enjoying unprecedented prosperity. On April 25, 1999, two months after his death, DiMaggio’s monument was unveiled in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, joining those honoring Miller Huggins, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Mickey Mantle. The inscription reads, in part, “A Baseball Legend and An American Icon.”
JOE DiMAGGIO – CAREER MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STATS
GAMES PLAYED 1,736
LIFETIME BATTING AVERAGE. .325
HITS. 2,214
HOME RUNS. 361
RUNS BATTED IN (RBI) 1,537
On-BASE PERCENTAGE (OBP). .398
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE. .579
On-BASE PLUS SLUGGING .977
“BUT Was AFRAID to ASK” !!!
If you’re a fan of The Sopranos, you’ve likely adopted the term “gabagool” after hearing the clan discuss their love of cured meats every few episodes. If you were to order gabagool at a typical restaurant, you may receive some furrowed brows, but if you’re in a region with a large Italian-American population, like New Jersey, they’ll have a platter of capicola in front of you in no time.
Capicola, which SBS describes as a “moist and tender” cured meat made from the neck of a pig, is a delicious addition to charcuterie platters and antipasto, and is often served alongside other Italian meats such as prosciutto and salami. While many Americans have had a taste of this salty cured meat before, they probably don’t introduce it to their party guests as gabagool unless they’re Italian-American. So, where in the world did this word originate from and what does it actually mean?
The word gabagool was born when a variety of Italian dialects merged, but what it translates to in Italian is: nothing. Atlas Obscura confirms that gabagool is just a mutation of the word capicola, spoken with a very specific accent.
Naples-born linguistics professor Mariapaola D’Imperio explains to Atlas Obscura that Italian linguistics is far from straightforward. The Italian language, D’Imperio notes, was initially a smorgasbord of multiple dialects. Each old Italian “kingdom” spoke its own variation of the language up until unification, when Italian officials picked one language, known as Standard Italian, to make communication easier.
Italian-Americans — those responsible for the notorious term gabagool — speak an Italian that is nowhere near Standard Italian, claims Atlas Obscura. “Instead it’s a construction of the frozen shards left over from languages that don’t even really exist in Italy any more, with minimal intervention from modern Italian,” writes Atlas Obscura’s Dan Nosowitz. Regardless of the language’s progression, Italian-Americans on the East Coast can all agree that gabagool is capicola.
Over the years the Italian language in America has morphed into something new, and Italian-Americans continue to celebrate their heritage by not always speaking the language, but as Nosowitz puts it, “putting on an antiquated accent for a dead sub-language to order some cheese.” Or, of course, cured meat.
That said, we’re here to talk about capicola. It’s just one of many types of cured meats, and it’s probably one you’ve heard mentioned a lot on a certain sort of television show. Chances are pretty good you may have heard about it more than you’ve had it, and it’s definitely not a more mainstream sort of cured meat, like bacon. So what, exactly, is it? It is as unhealthy — and delicious — as bacon? What makes it different from all the other types of cured meats out there? Is it as authentically Italian as it seems, or is it just pretending?
Let’s find out.
Let’s clear up a big one here — what exactly are you eating when you take a bite of capicola? It’s actually impressively specific.
We’ll start with where it comes from, and according to DePalma Salumi, capicola (or capocollo) is one of a number of types of cured Italian meats. This one comes specifically from the area of the pig between the neck and the fourth or fifth rib of the pork shoulder. That’s what the word means, in fact: “capo” means “head” and “collo” means “neck.” Academia Barilla gets even more specific and says the pigs of choice are at least eight months old and weigh at least 300 pounds. Traditionally, the best of the best comes from large breeds typically raised in the south of Italy.
In case you’re wondering what makes this part of these pigs so special, SBS says it’s all because of the fat ratio. Capicola is 30 percent fat and 70 percent lean, and that means it’s both tender and moist, even after it’s been cured.
Cured meats are nothing new, and capicola definitely isn’t new. According to Academia Barilla, capicola goes back to the era of the colonies of the Magna Graecia… but what does that mean?
For that answer, we’ll need to turn to the Ancient History Encyclopedia. The Magna Graecia were areas along the coast of southern Italy that were colonized by the Greeks between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. We did say it’s been around a long, long time!
These ancient Greeks were attracted to the area by the particularly fertile lands and its perfect position within a larger trade network, and when they settled there, they made it completely Greek. Not only did they bring things like the Olympic Games
, but they also brought stuffed pork sausages. That kicked off the start of the area’s deep love of all things pork, and they’re still known for their large-breed pigs and their pork products today — including capicola.
Capicola, coppa, capocollo… which one is it?
These ancient Greeks were attracted to the area by the particularly fertile lands and its perfect position within a larger trade network, and when they settled there, they made it completely Greek. Not only did they bring things like the Olympic Games, but they also brought stuffed pork sausages. That kicked off the start of the area’s deep love of all things pork, and they’re still known for their large-breed pigs and their pork products today — including capicola.
Capicola, coppa, capocollo… which one is it?
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.
“BIG NIGHT”
“BRING IT OVER” !!!
“SPAGHETTI POMODORO”
New York Italian 