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Tyler Pasta e Fagioli seems like a family classic at this point. When do you usually make this dish? Who in the family liked it?
Gram The kids have been gone for so long, so I don’t remember who used to like it. I know Joey likes pasta fagioli and so does Janine. It was always like a Friday night dish for when you didn’t know what to make. Besides pizza from Ralph’s, that was the Friday night dinner, especially during Lent, or any night when you were just stuck with whatever ingredients you happen to have in the house.
Tommy I think Uncle Robert loved it because his farts have always been notorious. Must have been the beans!
Tyler This is one of the dishes from “cucina povera” isn’t it? Along with pasta e ceci and pasta e lenticchie. Dishes made from cheap ingredients that are easy to put together.
Gram Grandpa didn’t like chickpeas, but we did eat the pasta and lentils on Friday nights, or any nights. It’s just a good, filling meal, and we always have leftovers. We always had the ingredients for these dishes in the pantry.
Pasta e Fagioli
Recipe serves…one family
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 8oz. can tomato sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 15 1/2 can of cannellini beans (undrained)
- 1/2 lb. ditalini macaroni
- Fresh parsley and grated cheese
In a saucepan fry the garlic gently in oil until golden brown. Add the tomato sauce and water and cook 10 minutes.
Add beans, stir and continue to simmer gently.
Cook pasta until al dente, drain (save some water) and add to bean mixture. Stir gently. If it is too thick add a little water. Add parsley.
Serve immediately or it will become too thick. Add grated cheese and a little hot pepper.
Tyler Did you all eat at the same time every day?
Gram Always. It was hard when the kids started to play sports, but we always tried to sit together, even in that little kitchen. The table in the kitchen was so tiny, because there was a wall between the dining room and the kitchen. The wall had a little door. And, if you sat by the wall, you could never get up again! You couldn’t leave until everyone else was finished so they could let you out.
Tommy Eating together was one of the best things about our childhood and I think that’s why we all still love to eat together. We laughed a lot. We got grilled about our grades and we figured out our batting averages, too!
Tyler For Joey’s sake let’s hope you didn’t do the same for your grade point averages. Who got the wall seat? I imagine there was lots of fighting over who had to sit by the wall.
Gram Definitely not Grandpa! He would always sit at one of the heads of the table. The table was just big enough for us to sit together. There was no fighting, mainly because Tommy and Robert were so easygoing. It was uncle Joey that always caused the problem. I once put soap in his mouth.
Tyler Some things never change.
Gram Oh, and if you sat on the other side of the table, your back would be right up against the stove, and you only had about a foot to move. It was definitely a hazard!
Tommy Grammie, who has a servant’s heart, always sat there so she could serve us. Aunt Janine always helped too.
Tyler When the kids were young, was it mostly just you guys eating dinner together? Now, whenever I go to your house I will run into 20 people from the neighborhood.
Gram It was mainly Grandpa’s mom, my mom, and aunt Grace. There was always someone there.
Tommy Always fun with Aunt Grace there!
Gram When we had a holiday, it was in the dining room, and you could hardly fit anyone in there either! It’s much better now that we took that wall down.
Tyler Where’d you get this recipe?
Gram The recipe is just one I know, probably handed down to me from someone older than me, but if you want a recipe you could look at Dom DeLuise’s book Eat This! (It’ll Make you Feel Better). Dom DeLuise is hysterical, oh my God. He was so good. So he’s got that really simple recipe in there. I only had to read it once or twice before I could estimate the amounts.
Tyler He was the first in the now-classic “comedian to Italian cookbook writing” pipeline.
Gram Like Stanley Tucci! I haven’t read his memoir yet. Amanda gave me the book for Christmas but took it back because she wanted to read it!
Tyler That book was the inspiration for this website! Okay, I have to admit, I’m not sure I understand pepperoni and eggs.
Gram What do you mean you don’t understand? There’s three ingredients!
Tyler So you put the pepperoni in the frying pan?
Gram You slice it up into strips, put it in the frying pan (NO OIL!) There’s so much oil you don’t need any extra. It doesn’t take long. You don’t want it to get too crispy, you just want the oil to ooze out of it. Then you add your eggs, mix it up, and put it into the sandwich.
There was never a Giant home game that Grandpa didn’t want Pepperoni and Eggs. He wasn’t into hamburgers, hot dogs (except for hot dogs from the Franklin Ave. truck) or steak sandwiches. Just Pepperoni and Eggs.
Pepperoni and Eggs
Serves 1 Giants tailgate
- 1/2 lb. slicing pepperoni from the deli
- 8 to 10 eggs, beaten
Slice pepperoni in strips. Put them in frying pan without oil. Gently fry until they are soft. Add beaten eggs and cook until desired doneness. Pile them into good Italian rolls and enjoy.
Gram Aunt Janine brought a friend to a Giants game, one of Steph’s friend’s mom’s from Holy Angels. And I made the sandwiches for them to take. The woman was going crazy, she said she hadn’t had it in years and years and years.
Tyler Wait a minute, this is a dish other people know? People actually eat this?!
Gram It’s so delicious. You don’t need ketchup, you don’t need anything
Tyler I’m going to the store after this to get the ingredients.
Gram Yeah, get a nice Italian roll. Delicious.
Tommy All of these simple “cucina povera” dishes you’ve been discussing with Grammie were at the heart of our table. Many of the things we eat are now on menus at fancy restaurants. But it wasn’t really about the food - although it was always delicious. It was being together, laughing, arguing, telling stories and learning lessons that was what I remember and value most about that little table at 103 Joerg Ave.
Tyler This is something you’d eat at the game? Or you’d eat it in the living room while watching?
Gram No, if we were at home we’d eat macaroni! But always when Gramps went to the game that’s what he wanted. He wouldn’t have liked all the fancy things they do now. He was just happy with the pepperoni and eggs and a beer. That was enough for him.
Tyler So Grandpa had season tickets, right?
Gram Yes, for many years. At the old Yankee stadium in the Bronx, then in Connecticut when the Giants didn’t have a stadium, and then finally to the meadowlands.
The morning of game day his friend Harrington used to come over. When grandpa got these tickets there was a group of guys who had maybe six tickets. They were all high school friends, and his friends. One of them was a guy named Bill Harrington. One of the guys died, so Grandpa’s friend Gary (we used to call him Guinea) asked Gramps if he wanted to buy the season tickets. They did. So, they would come over every time there was a Giants game, and I would go and buy buns in the morning and they would come over and have coffee and buns, except Harrington would always have beer. It was 8 in the morning, for God’s sake! He used to put beer in an empty milk container to bring into the stadium. And then one day Janine went to the game with him because she’s a big Giants fan, and he made her put beer in all the pockets of her big parka jacket! In her pockets, in her sleeve. You’ll have to ask her about it.
One day Harrington told Gramps that “you don’t need to drive me home, I’m meeting my friends after the game.” So Grandpa comes home and goes to bed. He gets a call, it must have been 2am - it was from Harrington! He couldn’t find his friends! He was in the parking lot all by himself, walking around. There was nobody in the parking lot! And when Grandpa got up to find him and bring him home to Irvington, he was the only person there, no cars, nobody! Those were funny stories with Harrington.
Tyler So, was Grandpa laughing while this was happening?
Gram Oh, he wouldn’t have had time! He just came straight home after dropping Harrington off, showered, and then left for work. He was so tired.
And Harrington kept saying “Toooommyyyy,” since he was so drunk, “you’re such a good guyyyy”
Tommy Like your Uncle Joey, Grandpa was the person people would go to when they needed help or were in trouble. He would always be there when you needed him. And would always go with someone two miles when they asked for one. He told it like it was, he was level-headed and pragmatic. Just what you need when you were in trouble. That’s why Harrington loved Grandpa so much.
Gram Harrington died, but he was the one who had the tickets. And when Grandpa wanted to get the tickets transferred, he had to do all these things to prove he was eligible to have the tickets in his name. He had to bring in a death certificate and everything.
Tyler The Giants needed to see the death certificate?
Gram That’s when everyone actually wanted to see the Giants play.
Tyler *Was it cheap to buy tickets then? *
Gram Everything was cheap then. I went to the safe deposit box to put something in this morning, and I found a bill from when Grandpa had to go to the hospital in Miami for the boil on his ass. The room was $12/day. The view was beautiful. He stayed for I don’t know how many days, I think it cost $50-60. The operation itself cost $50! That’s an aspirin now, and that doesn’t even cover the cost of them bringing the aspirin to you!
Tyler Did you go to any games?
Gram I did!
Tyler Did you eat pepperoni and eggs?
Gram I did!
Tyler Did you drink beer at 8 am?
Gram I did not!
Tyler So the Giants were a big part of your life when my parents’ generation was young?
Gram Oh yeah, a big part. Between the Giants games, uncle Joey’s wrestling, and your dad’s acting, we were traveling all the time!
Tyler You’d travel to see my dad perform?
Gram Oh yeah
Tyler Even in New York?
Gram Oh many times. It cost Grandpa a fortune! He was always trying to invite everyone - a priest from here, a guy from golf there.
Tommy For as many performances as I did in all the shows I was in - especially during my time on Broadway, I was never more excited than when I knew my parents were in the audience… usually with friends or relatives. I loved that.