December 30, 2025 • 43 mins
Bradley Jay Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea:
MasterChef 10 contestant and Chef of Live, Laugh and Cook Italian Kenny Palazzolo has been cooking since he was a kid. He was born and raised in Little Italy in the North End of Boston and grew up in a family with generations of great cooks. Kenny stopped by and taught the basics of cooking classic Italian dishes at home! Get out those pans and start chopping garlic now!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you, Feasy
Boxton's beech for you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good to be with you, and it's good to be
with my guest. Kenny Palozzolo's scheduled to stay an hour,
but he's got so much to share that we had
to keep mixt and he's really a great guest. Kenny
is a cook, longtime cook, the fifth generation of Cook's.
His great grandmother used to cook with his great grandmother
(00:28):
in the North End. He's the real deal. He's got
the real cred. We're glad to have him. Has a
Facebook channel called Live, Laugh and Cook Italian and his
family's from the Avellino area, just like Tom Menino's family.
And Kenny, you said to you, you went there, you
visited the homeland, and you walked through the doors of absolution.
(00:51):
So end with the doors of absolution and just tell
me how you happen to go there, what it was
like in the Evellino area in Naples area.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Uh, you know, we all went as a family. We
we wanted to go through the doors. It was a
jubilee year at the Vatican and my mother was coming
so we could go through as a family, and we
had never been to Malta Facconi to see where you
know Nana and and that's where Nona came from. That's
my great grandmother. So you know, we were traveling all
(01:24):
over Italy. We went to know eight ten different cities.
We were there for fifteen days, but I remember, oh yeah, yeah.
We started in Rome. We spent three days in Rome.
From Rome, we went to Avellino. I spent two nights
in Avellino. We took a day trip to Malta Faconi.
We left Aavellino, we went to Pompeii. We had a
(01:44):
guided tour of Pompeii. Then we continued on. We spent
three days in Sorrento.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I knew you werez.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We went to the Isle of Capri and into the
Blue Grotto. Then from there we took we went back
to Naples. We got on the train. We took the
train to Malan. We saw the Last Supper and the cathedral,
and we went to a small town called Trento to
visit my mother's childhood friend, father Claudio, who's a retired
priest there, and we spent the day in Trento. Then
(02:14):
we took a high speed train from Milan over the
northern Italian Alps, and we went into Zurich and we
spent three days in Switzerland. We had a day in Zurich,
a day in Man, a day in Lucerne, and then
we flew home from Zurich.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
So was that like two weeks?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
It was? It was fifteen days.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Trip of a lifetime. It was.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It was a trip of a lifetime. My daughters had
never been to Italy, and you know, all the things
that I have seen experienced, especially in Rome, I wanted
them to experience. And you know, I just wanted to
walk the streets that my great grandparents walked in Malta
Faconi now Avelino is it's an auditorist spot. It was,
(02:54):
you know, very very populated, and it was just a
small city, was an inner city, and I loved it.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was it's a kind of a suburb of Naples.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yes, well, like I said, is like a town. It's
if you looked at if you looked at Capania, the
region of Italy. Capania is like Massachusetts, and Naples would
be like Boston, and Avellino would be like Dorchester, and
Malta Faconi would be like Mission Hill inside of Dorchester.
(03:27):
The multifachoi is like they call it a burrow of avellino, And.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
You said, Sorrento. That's the home of lots of lemon cello.
O crazy. The lemons, lemons, big giant lemons is big
as a man's head hanging. It was so big.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
My wife looked at once. She goes, what is that.
I went, honey, that's a lemon. She goes, no, it's not.
I went, honey, that's a sorrento lemon. They were, they
were bigger than grapefruits.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
And these lemon groves owned by people. They make their
own lemon cello, right, and they sell it in the grove.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
They make everything lemon and sorrento. It's amazing, you know.
We tried to take some home, but I was very
I was very hesitant to bring glass and liquids to
fly home from from Italy with. But we did bring
some lemon shallow home.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I have a little little story. I hope you don't mind.
We have the time I did go in that er,
to that area, and I'm I'm a rule follower, but
I realized that on the way down on the train
that no one checked the tickets, and I thought, oh,
you know, no one's It was a short ride. I
was going to go from Sorrento to maybe back to
(04:35):
I don't know. I was on the train. I thought,
I'm not going to buy a ticket. I'm just it
was a waste of money last time. I thought, soon
as I get on the train, the police get on
the train because I cannot commit a crime and get
away with it. As soon as I get on, there
they are, and I think, oh man, And they're coming
(04:55):
up the aisle, check them tickets slowly, and I'm thinking
I'm doomed. But they were. Just as they were getting
to me, the train stopped at a stop. I got off.
Got I had to get off. I didn't want to
get busted. It turns out that was the stop right
at the foot of Vesuvius, and I had to figure out.
(05:16):
I got to get out buy a ticket, but there
was no place to buy a ticket. There was no
actual station, so I had a hitchhike to the little
town nearby to buy a ticket at some little store,
hitchhike back and get back on the train. But I
hitchhiked at the foot of Vesuvius, which was everyone's very friendly.
Then they pick you up by the way, so not
(05:38):
to take away from your story, I want to know
about the gates of absolution on that this only happens
on the jubilee.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Every twenty five years is a jubilee year, So two
thousand was a jubilee year, twenty twenty five, the next
one will be in twenty fifty. And our whole trip
started with that. Where my mother who had gone in
two thousand. You know, she's basically said to me, she says,
this will be the last time I ever go through
the doors. How many time has she been this? This
(06:07):
was her second time she went in two thousand, But
of course the next time is in twenty fifty and
she would be one hundred and one. Right, So I says, well,
I've never gone through. Let's play a family trip, and
that's kind of where it started. And you know, I said,
let's go to Malta Faconi and the girls, my daughters
wanted to go to Sorrento, and I go, well, we're
(06:29):
going to go to Sorrento.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Let's see where. Why do they want to go there?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, you know, the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento is one of
the most beautiful possibility and you know, everyone kind of
threw out where they want to go, and you know,
I says, well, listen, I would love to see the
Lost Supper. Leonardo da Vinci's the Lost Supper in Milan.
And my mother said, well, we're going to Milan. We
have to go to Trento to see Father Claudio. And
my wife said, well, if we're going there, you know,
(06:55):
well she's from Switzerland. She says, I want to see
where you know, my grandmother is from in Switzerland. And
before you know it was spending fifteen days in Europe.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We're going to get back to the food. But one
more question about the gates of absolution. Very interesting. I
did not even know there was such a thing as
the gates of Absolution. And that's at the Vatican.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yes, yes, they send you in from Saint Peter's Square
into the Basilica. And they're actually really small. The doors
aren't big. And you know, when I was what's the
actual gate, Well, there's not a gate, front door. The doors.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Is it the front door.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
No, it's not the front door. It's a side door.
And they only open for this year and now for
the next twenty four years they'll be closed.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So you get absolved of all your sins. You don't
have to confess anything, just whatever you did.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
You're good up to that moment when you walked through
the doors.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, and you don't have to pay any money or
anything that No, it's not like selling indulgences that they're
not making money.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Well, you do have to pay an admission for the
vatic in like the Sistine Chapel, the regular admission though,
regular admission. Yes, yes, that's a pretty good thing to
get absolved for no matter what you did.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
You're absolved no matter what you did. Usually to do
that you have to go to the church and do confession,
right yep. So you if you lived that long and
you made it to those gates of absolution, but booth,
that's you're all good.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I guess you're good.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, and then yes, you know, probably five minutes later
you'd sin.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Well, no matter, it might have been a little longer
than that, you know. Sunday morning came and we're still
in Rome, and my mother goes, well, we got to
find a church, and we know we need to go
to church, right, And I'm like, oh, she's like, we
just went through the doors. She goes, you're already going
to commit a sin and I'll go to church. So
we found a church in Rome and went to a
seven o'clock mass.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So once you when you went to the doors, did
you say to yourself, I'm I'm not going to sin anymore.
I'm clean now, I'm good, I'm not going to send anymore.
Did you say that?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Did you feel it clean? Do you feel different?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I gotta be honest with you, Bradley. When we were there,
it was one hundred and nine degrees. It was the
hardest Italy had been in decades. You know. At the
farm machine of the sign read forty three degrees celsia.
It's one hundred and nine degrees. And what happened to
us is when we came out of the Sistine Chapel,
Normally you would go right into Saint Peters Square and
(09:25):
right through the doors. Well, the Pope was having a
mass for Ukraine, and the gods basically said you can't
go in because the Pope is having a mass. Come
back at three o'clock. Well, thirty thousand people came back
at three o'clock. And the doors are you know, there's
two doors, they're probably four feet each. So you have
an eight foot opening and thirty thousand people are trying
(09:46):
to get through those doors at one hundred and nine degrees,
and it was it wasn't much on my mind other
than I wanted to do make it doors.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You did make it.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
We did make it my guide. I have a friend Marco,
who was you know, we had a private guy in
Rome in a two days and you know he said
to me, he goes, it's gonna be hot, It's gonna
be long, I says Maco. We based our whole trip on.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Going sins that need to absolve it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I says, if you would please, you know, wait with
us and do it, because you know you pot of
the tour guide. You go through a special line. But
we still waited two and a half hours to get
through those doors.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I'm sure it was well worth it. We want to
get to chicken Sultan Buca and Taramas Sue learn how
to make those, and would love to hear from you
if you have any questions or suggestions. Maybe you've tried
to make some Italian dish and it went wrong, or
maybe you want to improve on it. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. This is now in a more loose hour,
(10:41):
we have time to play with, so feel free to call.
Talk to Kenny Palozzolo of Live Left and Cook Italian
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Coming up night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Okay, now the funny business is over, we're gonna get cooking.
I guess it's gonna tell us about how to make chicken.
Saltan bukan.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
What is that salt and buca? It's you can either
make it with chicken or veal. It's a dish where
you layer f ajuto and some fresh sage leaves on
top of your We're gonna sit, We're gonna make chicken.
The recipe for chicken.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Detail.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Okay, So what I normally do is I'll split a
chicken breast in half and I'll make two pieces, and
typically I'll make two pieces per person.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So, so this is a boneless chicken breast.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
This is a boneless, skinless chicken breast filet in half. Now,
the top half that has the tendons, that's the side
that you want to tend rise. So take your two
top hoffs, put a piece of plastic wrap over them,
hit them with the the pin points of a meat
tender rizer. So you can break up all those tendons.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Why do you put a plastic over it before you
hit it?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
M see, you don't send raw chicken flying all over
your kitchen?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Okay, got it?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah? Typically the plastic wrap won't break right, it'll from splattering. Yeah,
it'll withstand the hit of the tenderizing mallet. And you
don't send raw chicken all over your kitchen. Good, But
only tend rise that top piece, the bottom piece. If
you try to hit that with the tender rizon is
going to turn to mush. It's it's already tender. You're
(12:28):
only using that to break up the tendons that are
on the top of the chicken.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
How long do you have to use the mallet? Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I'll give each one four or five good whacks. Don't
be don't be afraid to whack it good? Okay, yeah, yeah,
don't be afraid to hit it hard with the mallet.
Four or five.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I thought you were going to say four or five minutes. No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Five, five good whacks across across the tendons, and it
should be it should be good.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
What's next?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So I put two pieces of FJ though, so we're
gonna have four pieces two chicken breasts. I go to
the deli and I haven't cut me. You know, if
I need eight pieces, I'll say, cut me eight pieces
of perjutto. You might want to get a couple of
extra they're good for snacking, and I'll put two pieces
across the top of the chicken breast. Then I'll take
(13:14):
two of the largest fresh saves leaves that are in
the pack.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You need to get the best persutto for this or not.
It's not necessary. In addition, I mean it's.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
It's not necessary. You know, the price of prejuto varies greatly.
I mean, if you are in market basket, you can
get a corando perjutto for nine pound. If you are
in the North End and you are in Solomaritia, you're
gonna pay thirty dollars a pound for presuto. So you
know you're gonna pan sert so it's gonna end up
(13:44):
being crispy. Anyways, go get the cheap stuff. So to
be honest with you, I usually do. I'll usually go
for the corndo perjutto. If i'm if I'm making a
salt and buca, very good, and I'll put two. Like
I said, the two leaves, and then gotta get you toothpick,
and you come up through the bottom fresh sage, big leaves.
(14:06):
You want two big leaves. And if you leaves aren't
that big, I'll put three. So if if they're if
they're a good three to four inches, I'll use two
of them. If they're smaller leaves and there's only two inches,
I'll use three of them.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
And so it's the chicken that you've tender rized. Then
the persuto, then big yep.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And now you take your toothpick through the bottom, through
the chicken, through the perjutto, through the sage leaf, fold
it back over, come back down through the sage leaf,
through the perjutto, and into the chicken breast. So you
basically went up, down and through and you folded it
to hold the perjutto and the sage to the chicken breast.
All right, then you make your dredge. I dredge.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
What's dredge?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Most people dredge with flour.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
But what is it? Well, what's the word means?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Well, you put your meat through it, both both sides
of your meats. They call it dredging in flat Ever
heard of that? Yeah, it's called dredging, I use corn starch.
I started using corn starch because my daughter has Sealiact
disease and corn stotch is gluten free versus flour. But
I quickly realized that the crust that I get with
the corn starch was better than I got with the flour.
(15:18):
There wasn't any taste difference, it was just a better crust.
So now I use corn starch with all of my dredging.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Is the chicken wet enough for the flour or the
cornstarch to stick to?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, you don't have to wet the
chicken at all. You know, you want your chicken actually
fairly dry. If it's wet todd to work with. So
you want it fairly dry when you're putting your projuto
and sage on it, you'll be slipping all over the
place someways.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
How thick is the layer of the corn start or flour.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, I'll usually take maybe a half a cup. I'll
put it in a in a like a pie dish.
I'll add some some garlic powder, some salt, some pepper.
You season your cornstarch.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
How much garlic powder?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So if you're using a half a not a half
a cup. We're only using I'm sorry, we're only using
four pieces of chicken. Because I'm normally a large cook.
I cook a lot of food. But for four pieces
of chicken, use a quarter cup of cornstarch, a teaspoon
of darlic powder, teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of
(16:19):
ground pepper. Okay, to a to a quarter cup of
corn stoch very good. Dredge dredge both sides a right,
dreddred dredge both sides of your of your chicken. Now,
you got two pans on your stove. One pan is
going to be the pans here your your salt and booker,
and the other is going to be to make your
(16:40):
sauce sauce, the salt and booker sauce.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Gravy.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
No, no, this is a sauce.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
That's not okay, what's the difference. I was all set
to say gravy, and I've already screwed up.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
No gravy for me is only what's what's made with tomatoes?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Okay, So this is not a tomato thing. No, okays,
no tomato. Yeah, it's it's it's a it's a massala wine. Right,
So you take your your pan.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Staring pan, and you heat it up, put it on
I only put it on six, so a little above medium,
and I'll let it get hot. And once it gets hot,
put a little bit of olive oil and a pad
of butter. Let that melt, and then I'll put my
pieces of chicken in prejuto sage side down. And it's
(17:31):
like cooking scallops. Once you put it in the pan,
you really don't want to move it. You want to
just let it sit there. And you want that po
to get a nicer sage, to get nice and crispy
and nice crust on it. Now on the side the
other the other pan, turn that on medium low, and
you're gonna start with four chicken breasts, four tablespoons of butter.
(17:53):
Put it in there, let it start to melt. Right.
Your chicken probably gonna be about three four minutes on
that prejuto side. Take a pair of tongs, lift it up,
look underneath to make sure you have a nice crisp
on the prejuto in the sage, and then you'll flip
it over and do the other side on the other pan.
(18:13):
Once your butter is melted, put a quarter of a
cup of massala wine in there and let it, let
it bubble up. You know, you want to cook off
the wine for a couple of minutes. You want to
cook off the alcohol, salt and pepper it to taste.
I always let people put their own salt and pepper.
Some people you know who has high blood pressure, who
can't eat that much salt. Always salt and pepper to
(18:35):
your own taste, and let that roll for a minute
with the massala while you're cooking the other side of
your chicken. If you're worried about your chicken and you
want to use a meat thermometer, always take your chicken
out at one six. One sixty five is like the
cardinal degree for chicken. When it's one sixty five, you
know it's good. I typically don't use it, but I've
(18:59):
been cooking chicken a long time.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You just know.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
My wife asked me all the time, She how do
you know what it's like? Look what's done?
Speaker 5 (19:06):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
You do something so long?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
You just know? Did she ever test you?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
No, I'd be interested to know if if how accurate
you really are.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I believe you, though, I mean I've never had anything
come back raw, so I always air on the side
of a little more. I'd rather it, you know, I'd
rather be safe than sorry. And then once your wine
is cooked down, I'll add a tablespoon of fresh chopped
possly and I'll add another two tablespoons of butter. That
(19:37):
second two tablespoons of butter. At the end you'll whisk
in and that will thicken your sauce. And basically, you know,
you want the chicken to be coming out of the
pan at the same time your sauce is ready. So
you put your chicken on your plate with your sauce
on top, and you serve it right away.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
What do you serve it? What sides do you usually
go well?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Uh with?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Typically, I'll make just a white rice. I'll just boil
a white rice and I'll put, you know, layer the
chicken on top, and I'll pour the sauce on and
I'll let the salt and boocha sauce flavor the rice
right over the chicken. You know. Typically it's it's a
meal in its own And in Italy they don't serve
(20:25):
pasta with meats. That's an American thing, Like you don't
find spaghetti and meatballs in Italy. You never find meat
and pasta, so.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
He wouldn't find chicken palm on pasta.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
There is no chicken palm in Italy. Chicken palm is
an American thing.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
The only poo in Italy is eggplant. That's it. They
don't make veal palm. They don't make chicken palm. And
if you find chicken palm in Italy you are in
a real tourist place. You're in a real tourist restaurant,
because just about anyway you go in Italy, I'm knocking
to fine chicken palm on the menu.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, there's a lot of misconceptions about American eyes the Italian
cooking that until you go to Italy you realize it's
it's American eyes.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Any others.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
While we're on the subject, Well, you know, we use
a lot of cream. There isn't a lot of cream
in Italy. There's there's no cream. Well, there's no alfredo.
Alfredo is an American thing. There's one restaurant that was
in the Square in Rome that that made an Alfredo sauce.
(21:33):
But you travel anywhere in Italy there is no alfredo
on the menu anywhere that that's an American thing.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
A lot of things we think are Italian.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
There's no cream and caccio at Peppi. You know a
lot of people put creams in different sauces. They don't
use a lot of cream.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Pizza is it's pizza an American thing?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
They haven't the pizza place. Pizza is a in Italy?
Is it the same or different?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
What's it like?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well depends where you are. I mean there are places
here where you can get a really good Napolitani pizza.
You know. I think that some of the most authentic
pizza is Umbertos on Hannova Street and then auth End
the Sicilian pizza. We were in Shaka a number of
years ago and it was like one o'clock in the
(22:25):
morning and I remember looking a little o com stop
and I need something to eat. And we went down
into this little shop and we got some pizza and
if I closed my eyes, I would have been an
Unberthos at Hannah Street. I didn't realize how authentic Umberto's
was until I was in in Shaka, Sicily with a
piece of pizza in my hand, going wow, this is
like identical to Umberto's. The rice ball, theatachinis, everything, everything
(22:50):
that they make and Umbertos was truly authentic.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So Umberto's is that all right on Salem.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
To be on Pomenta Street. When I was a kid,
it was just a bakery. It was down the step
right on R Streets. It was on Pomenta Street and
they just had bread and pizza.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And they were only opened a little while.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, and the pizza became more popular and more popular
and more popular. And then one day the brothers Paul
and Ralph, they closed that little bakery and they opened
up on Berthos in Hannah Street and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Good for them. Oh, I have a question, but I can't.
This is this is a big one. This is worth teasing.
Is this will get everybody to stay through the break.
I need you, a person who grew up in the
North End and is an Italian chef, to tell me
the best restaurant, A couple of versions of the best
(23:48):
restaurant in the North End. I asked this all the time.
I get answers that they are wrong because I try
them out and it's not true. So I'm gonna get
your opinion on that. After this break on WBS.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We continue with our guest Kenny Palozzolo of Live, Laugh
and Cook, Italian North End Guy, Italian chef. There's probably
no one on the planet that's more qualified to ask
this question. I've asked it of many persons and never
gotten it satisfactory answer. And part of the reason maybe
(24:28):
there may be no satisfactory answer. But the fact is
that rightfully so, the North End is a big tourist
that's the nation because it's legit, it's cool, it's easy
to get to, it's real. And there are many Italian
restaurants serving folks from Minnesota and every in Japan and
everywhere else, and so they cater to the tourists because
(24:50):
that's that's who's there. However, a lot of people live there.
It seems to me there must be some small a
couple of small places on the side street where the
locals would go and you'd get a big bang for
the buck, and at least well the one that's as
good as you're gonna get in the North End. And
(25:11):
I've asked other people, no good answer. Now I'm asking you,
Kenny Alazolo. I trust you. Now I'm depending on you.
I'm counting. As a matter of fact, we're all counting
on you.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Well, I've been asked that question a lot, Bradley, And
my first answer when people say where do you go
to eat in the North End, my first answer is
my grandmother's house right right now. Unfortunately my grandmother passed
away last year. She was ninety six. But you know,
first of all, it's hard for me, as an Italian
chef to go out for Italian food, even in the
(25:46):
North End. I'm a big food critic, and you know,
I critique Italian food to the max, and you know,
sometimes it's hard to please me. I definitely, you know,
I'm that definitely a food critic.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Uh restaurants, So we know now that when you can
tell us a restaurant, it's going to be carefully uh
you know, curated.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
So you know, my my first question to most people
is what do you want to eat? So you know,
if you want seafood, you have a couple of good restaurants.
You have the Daily Catch, been there a long time.
You also have made one of Frankie Deepest Squally's restaurants
that's down the Little Alley. Two very good seafood restaurants.
(26:32):
You know, if you want pizza. Of course, if you're
looking for square pizza, it's Unbirdos, or it's Puzzy Ali's.
It's Puzzi Ali's on Print Street. They've been making pizza.
I remember when Bee would sit outside with her table
when I was a little kid, selling the trays of pizza.
Puzzy Ali's has a great Sicilian pizza round pizzas. I mean,
(26:56):
I grew up with Regina. I can say that the
Regina that's there today is definitely not the same Regina
that was there when I was a kid. You know,
they they serve more people than I think that oven,
that hundred, one hundred and twenty year old oven that's
built into that building there that it can serve. So
you got to catch Regina on a good day. There's
(27:19):
a there's a restaurant on hand of a street called
ben Corto's and when we were when we were kids,
that was Circle Pizza. And the person who opened that
restaurant friend of mine, war and he got that recipe
for Circle Pizza and he makes that pizza and Ben
Cartos And every time I go in there and I
(27:41):
sit down and I have a pizza, it just I immediately
flash back to being, you know, ten twelve years old
sitting in circle.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Pizza Bitz is a big deal. It was this iconic thing.
It's in books and stuff, right, oh yeah, oh yeah.
It was there for a long, long, long time. And
you know, Ben Cortos also has a lot of.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Other good dishes. There's shrimp ram is probably one of
the best ones that that I've ever had. If you
want a gluten free pizza, my daughter has Celiac disease.
Benavento's on Salem Street has a really good gluten free
pizza and they also have a good gluten free pasta
there as well. My daughters in town, she'll typically go
(28:20):
there and get a gluten free pizza. I like Mama
Marias in North Square. What's square North Square? It's kin
where Paul Rivera's house is, you know, Sacred Hot Church,
Paul Ravera's house. There's the cobblestones there that have the
big steel drape chains around them. And right on the
(28:44):
corner there of Garden Court Street is Mama Maria's really
really good restaurant, old school restaurant.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
You recommend there.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
They have a three a three lamb dish. They have
La Chops, roasted lamb and lamb Ravioli's all on one
dish that's phenomenal. And they have oysters rockefella. They're phenomenal.
And the last time I was there, I had this
scallops and they were phenomenal. Everything they put out. I
(29:18):
don't think I've ever had a bad dish at Mama Maria's.
It's really really good there.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
From what you say Ben Benkanto, Bencotto, Bencotto, I feel
like that I'd like to try that.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
It's a really good restaurant.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
And a little while ago, we'll get to James in
a moment we talked about the best bakery and you said,
depends on what you want, and you said, hey, pizza,
don't say pizza dolge.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
If I'm buying a it would be okay. What would
you get at the other places? I would get Canoli's
at Mike's. I like Mike's. Canoli's. I'd actually get my
cookies from Pazziali's, the backup to Umbertos for pizza. I
(30:06):
would get my cookies there. And I think Bova's. Anything
that you get in Bova's is gonna be good. They
have a lot of pastries. When you walk into Bovas,
they have just you know, the case on the left
is just Gym's got to be thirty five forty different
pastries there. You could pick any one of them and
(30:26):
it's going to be delicious. Bovas doesn't make anything. And
over the years the secret came out. You know, you
would always have the lines at Mike's, the lines at Morden,
and you could walk down Prince Street and get to
Bova's and you know, walk right in and get something.
Not anymore, really, not anymore. No, the line at Bova's
(30:47):
is now there constantly, just like it is at Mike's
and Marden. So the secret over the years has gotten
out that Bova's, you know, is a is a great
old school bakery that puts out a great product.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I used to go to Boston bar were down on Salem,
Oh yeah, and go I'm up too. Recently tell my
barber left because I would get a beer drim and
then go to Bova's. And I got to say that
I just love good service. The young woman who worked
there was so nice and made all the difference. I
(31:19):
walked out there feeling like a million bucks just because
somebody was decent to me.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Usually you can walk into Bolva's at any time of
the day and night and find someone with the lost
name Bova working in the bakery, still working in the bakery.
That's that's cool, It's still it's still a true family
run business.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Let's talk to James and uh why tom Anino's town
hide Bark?
Speaker 5 (31:46):
How are you doing, James, Hi, I'm just listening to
your progovid and they would talking about the piece of
shop down here Hanover Street, right, and and I'd like
to know how far is it on the re statue
there I'll find is it from Revere statue? Okay?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
So Paul Revere statue. He's talking about the parrado which
is in the backdrop of the old mar Church. It's
basically Paul Revere is facing Saint Stephen's Church on Hannover Street.
So you're gonna tell let's see, if you if you
you're looking at Saint Stephen's Church and you take a
right onto Hannov Street, you have let's see, there's Clock Street,
(32:32):
there's Fleet Street, there's Little Prince Street. So you're gonna
pass three streets. You're gonna pass Clock Street, Fleet Street
and Little Prince Street and then in between Little Prince
Street and Richmond Street you'll find Dunbertos. It's it's more
toward the Richmond Street and so it's about three and
a half blocks away from the Paul Revere statue in
(32:53):
the Parado. Okay, and I recommend you recommend you get
there early. They usually open about a quarter of eleven,
and by eleven o'clock the line is out the door.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Next, we're gonna learn how to make tira massoux, which
I can't really believe it. It seems like impossible. I
don't believe you can really teach me but us, but
we'll give you a shot. Coming up on WBZY, it's.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Night Side with Dan Ray on wb Boston's news radio
final segment.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Here tonight we're with Kenny Palazzolo Live Left and cook Italian,
and he says he can teach us to make tira massoux.
We'll see it seems impossible.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
No, it's actually really really simple. And once again, I
have this recipe video on the YouTube channel. You can
always go there and watch me make it hands on,
step by step. But there's really three pots to tara masoux.
You have the lady fingers, you have the Mosca pony cream,
and then you have the assembly. So I know we're
(33:58):
gonna getting close on time. I'm gonna give it to
you as quick as possible. We we have a full
ten minutes, okay. So the first thing you need to
do is you need to make an expresso dip for
your lady fingers. That's eighteen ounces of espresso. That's one
and a half ounces of kalua and one and a
half ounces of frangelico. So you make your make your espresso,
(34:21):
add your khalua, add your fra angelico, and you add
three eighths of a cup of sugar. Stir it all
up so the sugar is dissolved, and put that off
to the side and let it sit and cool. Not
in the fridge, just put it off to the side,
become room temperature. Now you're gonna make your cream. So
what you do is you take six eggs and you
separate them yolks and whites. Take your whites, put them
(34:45):
off to the side. Now you really need a mixer,
either a hand electric hand mixer, or if you have
a kitchen aid. It's it's always a good no no
kitchen aid.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
One of those big things.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
With the bowl. Yeah that has a whisk in it, okay,
or a handheld whisker mixer, you know electric one. Okay, okay,
Because so you take your your six egg yolks and
seven tablespoons of sugar, and you get your mixer and
you start mixing, and you mix that until it looks
like lemon pudding. You mix that for a good couple
(35:21):
of minutes. Right once that's done, you're all gonna add
in a little bit at a time, a pound and
a half of musca pony cheese, and you put in
a couple of scoops, turn on your blunt mixer, mix
it up, mix it up till all your musca pony
is in and it's all incorporated and mixed. Well, take
(35:41):
that bowl, put it off to the side, clean your whiskers,
and now bring your egg whites in. You're gonna turn
your egg whites into stiff peaks for those who don't
know what stiff peaks are. You mix your egg whites
until when you pull the but when you pull the
whisker out, it makes a little peak of a mile
and it'll just flip over the top. You've got to
(36:02):
be very careful because you can overwhip your eggs. If
they start to separate, you've overwhipped them and you need
six new egg whites to start all over. So you
test them, you know, as you see it start to
get you know, like clouds, puffy, yep, pull pull, pull
it out. If it folds over hot, give it another
twenty seconds, keep checking it and you'll eventually get that
(36:23):
stiff peaks again. You can watch the video because I
do it in detail on the video. Once you have
your stiff peaks, you bring back your Musca Pony mixture
and you gently fold those stiff peaks into the Musca
Pony mix that you just made. That's now you're filling. Okay,
(36:43):
So you come back to your espresso, which is now cooled,
and you need I normally buy six double packs of
Lady fingers. You might have a few extra, but they've
got to snack on it with a cup of coffee.
And what you do is the way my mother taught me,
is your dipulated fingers in the expresso mix for five seconds.
(37:04):
So I take one on each finger. I submerged them
in the expresso one two, three, four five. I picked
them up and I let them drain. One two three
and then I put them in the pan.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So we're gonna be careful here. Five seconds or five seconds?
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Like is it? No? No, one two three four five,
that's five seconds?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Well, it's like one second.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Well again if you want, Like I said, the video
is great because you can watch me do it. So
it's a quick five seconds. It's it's a one two
three four five if you don't want to submerse them
too long, because when you could have pulled them out,
they're gonna turn to moush and just break a pot.
And so there's a very fine line.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Dip one two three four five, drain.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
We pull them out, hold them over the hold them
over the expresso, let them drip one two three, and
then place them in the pan. Illumine them. Use an
aluminum pan, like a half sheet aluminum pan, and you
do a layer of the lady fingers dipped an espresso.
Then you get your Mosca pony mix and you do
a layer of Mosca pony. Then you go back and
(38:09):
you do another layer of dipped lady fingers. You top
it with the second layer of Mosca pony. Then you
get some sweet coca powder, sprinkle it on the top.
If you have a bar of some nice Doc chocolate.
You can shave some on the top, cover it with
(38:29):
plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for at
least four hours. Typically, I like to make it the
day before I'm gonna serve it and let it sit
in there. Yeah, let it sit in the fridge for
twenty four hours. You can use it within four hours.
Just remember one thing, it's made with raw eggs. So
(38:50):
when you take it out of the fridge and you're
gonna serve it, put it on the table for twenty minutes.
When you're done, cover it and put it back in
the fridge. It has raw eggs. And this is this
is the true way a lot of people wore raw eggs.
That's the way it's made. That's the way it's made
in Italy. I mean, that's just you know, you got
to get past the raw egg thing, because that's truly
(39:10):
how it's made. Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
In a related question, so you're not gonna make it,
you don't have time. Where in the North End would
you go to get your best? Terra Massou?
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I have to be honest with you, Brelly, I don't
think i've had Okay, I figure a massioux, especially from
the bakeries, like I've never bought in one. I've always
made it.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
You must have tasted some of the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
No, no, wow, No I can't. Yeah, I can't say
that I've ordered. Typically, Again, being an Italian cook and
making it myself, it's very hard to impress me in
a restaurant. So usually I won't order things that that
I typically make because I'll always critique them.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
One final, well, one more question, at least one more.
Are you who the kind of cuku cleans as you
go or wait till the end they're with a big pile?
Speaker 3 (40:06):
No I am? I am. I like to consider myself
very organized, so clean as you go. Yeah, you know,
an organized chef. It's more fun that way, is a
productive chef. You know, if you're tripping all the stuff
and you're looking for stuff and you can't find it
and you gotta mess here, it's usually not how I operate.
(40:26):
I like to have all my ingredients laid out, everything
I need. I don't want to have to stop and
look for something. Preparedness is fifty percent of cooking, having
your ingredients being prepared. You know, I have a serf
safe Manager's certificate. So I went through all those courses.
So you know, if I'm cooking with chicken, I might
(40:47):
wash my hands fifteen times. I just have the soap,
the towel and constantly wash the hands. Wash the hands,
washed hands, Wash the counter. We'll checking out washed the counter.
You know clean, that clean that you know have the
Syruf Safe made me look at cooking a little differently
as far as you know cleanliness and backt area and
temperatures and things like that. So I'm always conscious of that.
(41:10):
But a clean, prepared cooking surface is a happy cooking surface.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
What's the next big cooking you're doing? Big family event?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Well, we just did the Feast of the Seven Fishes
for Christmas Eve. That is my favorite meal of the
entire year. Where you know we still make the stuffed
klamadis and the kalamadi gravy and.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Who is the mis klamari in the and not fried
but grill calamari. Well, anywhere in the Boston.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
I'll tell you don't find stuffed klamadies too often on
a menu. But there's a place on Broadway in Somerville
called Vinnie's and it's a sub shop in front but
you can go in the back and you can sit down.
They have a restaurant and they have a stuffed klamadi
that's on their menu regularly. That's out of this world.
(42:01):
And for me to say that about a stuffed calamadi
is a big statement.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Okay. So where in Zimerville.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
It is more towards Sullivan Square. It's probably within those
first few blocks coming out of Sullivan Square heading down Broadway.
In Somerville. It's on the left side, little corner place.
It's called Vinnie's. And you know, we would go there
when I would work in the development in Charlestown. And
one day we were sitting down and I was like, wow,
(42:27):
stuffed colamadia go.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
You don't see that.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
And they offer a homemade fuzily. And I got the
stuffed calamadis with the homemade fuzili and it impressed me.
That's a statement.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Okay, good, Well, just about out of time. I want
to once again spend twenty seconds talking about telling people
how to get to your YouTube channel. Yup.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
It's a live laughing cook Italian. It's me and my
mother and we share all of our family recipes. A
good portion of them will passed down by my great
grandmother from Alveolino. But like I said, I'd like to
call it reality cooking perfect.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
You're a great guest. We'll have to have you back.
Thanks for staying the extra hour, and thanks for all
the honest recommendations. I'll talk to you tomorrow, same time
on WBZ.
It's night side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you, Feasy
Boxton's beech for you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Good to be with you, and it's good to be
with my guest. Kenny Palozzolo's scheduled to stay an hour,
but he's got so much to share that we had
to keep mixt and he's really a great guest. Kenny
is a cook, longtime cook, the fifth generation of Cook's.
His great grandmother used to cook with his great grandmother
(00:28):
in the North End. He's the real deal. He's got
the real cred. We're glad to have him. Has a
Facebook channel called Live, Laugh and Cook Italian and his
family's from the Avellino area, just like Tom Menino's family.
And Kenny, you said to you, you went there, you
visited the homeland, and you walked through the doors of absolution.
(00:51):
So end with the doors of absolution and just tell
me how you happen to go there, what it was
like in the Evellino area in Naples area.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Uh, you know, we all went as a family. We
we wanted to go through the doors. It was a
jubilee year at the Vatican and my mother was coming
so we could go through as a family, and we
had never been to Malta Facconi to see where you
know Nana and and that's where Nona came from. That's
my great grandmother. So you know, we were traveling all
(01:24):
over Italy. We went to know eight ten different cities.
We were there for fifteen days, but I remember, oh yeah, yeah.
We started in Rome. We spent three days in Rome.
From Rome, we went to Avellino. I spent two nights
in Avellino. We took a day trip to Malta Faconi.
We left Aavellino, we went to Pompeii. We had a
(01:44):
guided tour of Pompeii. Then we continued on. We spent
three days in Sorrento.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I knew you werez.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We went to the Isle of Capri and into the
Blue Grotto. Then from there we took we went back
to Naples. We got on the train. We took the
train to Malan. We saw the Last Supper and the cathedral,
and we went to a small town called Trento to
visit my mother's childhood friend, father Claudio, who's a retired
priest there, and we spent the day in Trento. Then
(02:14):
we took a high speed train from Milan over the
northern Italian Alps, and we went into Zurich and we
spent three days in Switzerland. We had a day in Zurich,
a day in Man, a day in Lucerne, and then
we flew home from Zurich.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
So was that like two weeks?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
It was? It was fifteen days.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Trip of a lifetime. It was.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It was a trip of a lifetime. My daughters had
never been to Italy, and you know, all the things
that I have seen experienced, especially in Rome, I wanted
them to experience. And you know, I just wanted to
walk the streets that my great grandparents walked in Malta
Faconi now Avelino is it's an auditorist spot. It was,
(02:54):
you know, very very populated, and it was just a
small city, was an inner city, and I loved it.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It was it's a kind of a suburb of Naples.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yes, well, like I said, is like a town. It's
if you looked at if you looked at Capania, the
region of Italy. Capania is like Massachusetts, and Naples would
be like Boston, and Avellino would be like Dorchester, and
Malta Faconi would be like Mission Hill inside of Dorchester.
(03:27):
The multifachoi is like they call it a burrow of avellino, And.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
You said, Sorrento. That's the home of lots of lemon cello.
O crazy. The lemons, lemons, big giant lemons is big
as a man's head hanging. It was so big.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
My wife looked at once. She goes, what is that.
I went, honey, that's a lemon. She goes, no, it's not.
I went, honey, that's a sorrento lemon. They were, they
were bigger than grapefruits.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
And these lemon groves owned by people. They make their
own lemon cello, right, and they sell it in the grove.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
They make everything lemon and sorrento. It's amazing, you know.
We tried to take some home, but I was very
I was very hesitant to bring glass and liquids to
fly home from from Italy with. But we did bring
some lemon shallow home.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I have a little little story. I hope you don't mind.
We have the time I did go in that er,
to that area, and I'm I'm a rule follower, but
I realized that on the way down on the train
that no one checked the tickets, and I thought, oh,
you know, no one's It was a short ride. I
was going to go from Sorrento to maybe back to
(04:35):
I don't know. I was on the train. I thought,
I'm not going to buy a ticket. I'm just it
was a waste of money last time. I thought, soon
as I get on the train, the police get on
the train because I cannot commit a crime and get
away with it. As soon as I get on, there
they are, and I think, oh man, And they're coming
(04:55):
up the aisle, check them tickets slowly, and I'm thinking
I'm doomed. But they were. Just as they were getting
to me, the train stopped at a stop. I got off.
Got I had to get off. I didn't want to
get busted. It turns out that was the stop right
at the foot of Vesuvius, and I had to figure out.
(05:16):
I got to get out buy a ticket, but there
was no place to buy a ticket. There was no
actual station, so I had a hitchhike to the little
town nearby to buy a ticket at some little store,
hitchhike back and get back on the train. But I
hitchhiked at the foot of Vesuvius, which was everyone's very friendly.
Then they pick you up by the way, so not
(05:38):
to take away from your story, I want to know
about the gates of absolution on that this only happens
on the jubilee.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Every twenty five years is a jubilee year, So two
thousand was a jubilee year, twenty twenty five, the next
one will be in twenty fifty. And our whole trip
started with that. Where my mother who had gone in
two thousand. You know, she's basically said to me, she says,
this will be the last time I ever go through
the doors. How many time has she been this? This
(06:07):
was her second time she went in two thousand, But
of course the next time is in twenty fifty and
she would be one hundred and one. Right, So I says, well,
I've never gone through. Let's play a family trip, and
that's kind of where it started. And you know, I said,
let's go to Malta Faconi and the girls, my daughters
wanted to go to Sorrento, and I go, well, we're
(06:29):
going to go to Sorrento.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Let's see where. Why do they want to go there?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Well, you know, the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento is one of
the most beautiful possibility and you know, everyone kind of
threw out where they want to go, and you know,
I says, well, listen, I would love to see the
Lost Supper. Leonardo da Vinci's the Lost Supper in Milan.
And my mother said, well, we're going to Milan. We
have to go to Trento to see Father Claudio. And
my wife said, well, if we're going there, you know,
(06:55):
well she's from Switzerland. She says, I want to see
where you know, my grandmother is from in Switzerland. And
before you know it was spending fifteen days in Europe.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We're going to get back to the food. But one
more question about the gates of absolution. Very interesting. I
did not even know there was such a thing as
the gates of Absolution. And that's at the Vatican.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yes, yes, they send you in from Saint Peter's Square
into the Basilica. And they're actually really small. The doors
aren't big. And you know, when I was what's the
actual gate, Well, there's not a gate, front door. The doors.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Is it the front door.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
No, it's not the front door. It's a side door.
And they only open for this year and now for
the next twenty four years they'll be closed.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So you get absolved of all your sins. You don't
have to confess anything, just whatever you did.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
You're good up to that moment when you walked through
the doors.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, and you don't have to pay any money or
anything that No, it's not like selling indulgences that they're
not making money.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Well, you do have to pay an admission for the
vatic in like the Sistine Chapel, the regular admission though,
regular admission. Yes, yes, that's a pretty good thing to
get absolved for no matter what you did.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
You're absolved no matter what you did. Usually to do
that you have to go to the church and do confession,
right yep. So you if you lived that long and
you made it to those gates of absolution, but booth,
that's you're all good.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I guess you're good.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, and then yes, you know, probably five minutes later
you'd sin.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Well, no matter, it might have been a little longer
than that, you know. Sunday morning came and we're still
in Rome, and my mother goes, well, we got to
find a church, and we know we need to go
to church, right, And I'm like, oh, she's like, we
just went through the doors. She goes, you're already going
to commit a sin and I'll go to church. So
we found a church in Rome and went to a
seven o'clock mass.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So once you when you went to the doors, did
you say to yourself, I'm I'm not going to sin anymore.
I'm clean now, I'm good, I'm not going to send anymore.
Did you say that?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Did you feel it clean? Do you feel different?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I gotta be honest with you, Bradley. When we were there,
it was one hundred and nine degrees. It was the
hardest Italy had been in decades. You know. At the
farm machine of the sign read forty three degrees celsia.
It's one hundred and nine degrees. And what happened to
us is when we came out of the Sistine Chapel,
Normally you would go right into Saint Peters Square and
(09:25):
right through the doors. Well, the Pope was having a
mass for Ukraine, and the gods basically said you can't
go in because the Pope is having a mass. Come
back at three o'clock. Well, thirty thousand people came back
at three o'clock. And the doors are you know, there's
two doors, they're probably four feet each. So you have
an eight foot opening and thirty thousand people are trying
(09:46):
to get through those doors at one hundred and nine degrees,
and it was it wasn't much on my mind other
than I wanted to do make it doors.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You did make it.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
We did make it my guide. I have a friend Marco,
who was you know, we had a private guy in
Rome in a two days and you know he said
to me, he goes, it's gonna be hot, It's gonna
be long, I says Maco. We based our whole trip on.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Going sins that need to absolve it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I says, if you would please, you know, wait with
us and do it, because you know you pot of
the tour guide. You go through a special line. But
we still waited two and a half hours to get
through those doors.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I'm sure it was well worth it. We want to
get to chicken Sultan Buca and Taramas Sue learn how
to make those, and would love to hear from you
if you have any questions or suggestions. Maybe you've tried
to make some Italian dish and it went wrong, or
maybe you want to improve on it. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty. This is now in a more loose hour,
(10:41):
we have time to play with, so feel free to call.
Talk to Kenny Palozzolo of Live Left and Cook Italian
on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Coming up night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Okay, now the funny business is over, we're gonna get cooking.
I guess it's gonna tell us about how to make chicken.
Saltan bukan.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
What is that salt and buca? It's you can either
make it with chicken or veal. It's a dish where
you layer f ajuto and some fresh sage leaves on
top of your We're gonna sit, We're gonna make chicken.
The recipe for chicken.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Detail.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Okay, So what I normally do is I'll split a
chicken breast in half and I'll make two pieces, and
typically I'll make two pieces per person.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So, so this is a boneless chicken breast.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
This is a boneless, skinless chicken breast filet in half. Now,
the top half that has the tendons, that's the side
that you want to tend rise. So take your two
top hoffs, put a piece of plastic wrap over them,
hit them with the the pin points of a meat
tender rizer. So you can break up all those tendons.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Why do you put a plastic over it before you
hit it?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
M see, you don't send raw chicken flying all over
your kitchen?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Okay, got it?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah? Typically the plastic wrap won't break right, it'll from splattering. Yeah,
it'll withstand the hit of the tenderizing mallet. And you
don't send raw chicken all over your kitchen. Good, But
only tend rise that top piece, the bottom piece. If
you try to hit that with the tender rizon is
going to turn to mush. It's it's already tender. You're
(12:28):
only using that to break up the tendons that are
on the top of the chicken.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
How long do you have to use the mallet? Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I'll give each one four or five good whacks. Don't
be don't be afraid to whack it good? Okay, yeah, yeah,
don't be afraid to hit it hard with the mallet.
Four or five.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I thought you were going to say four or five minutes. No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Five, five good whacks across across the tendons, and it
should be it should be good.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
What's next?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So I put two pieces of FJ though, so we're
gonna have four pieces two chicken breasts. I go to
the deli and I haven't cut me. You know, if
I need eight pieces, I'll say, cut me eight pieces
of perjutto. You might want to get a couple of
extra they're good for snacking, and I'll put two pieces
across the top of the chicken breast. Then I'll take
(13:14):
two of the largest fresh saves leaves that are in
the pack.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You need to get the best persutto for this or not.
It's not necessary. In addition, I mean it's.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
It's not necessary. You know, the price of prejuto varies greatly.
I mean, if you are in market basket, you can
get a corando perjutto for nine pound. If you are
in the North End and you are in Solomaritia, you're
gonna pay thirty dollars a pound for presuto. So you
know you're gonna pan sert so it's gonna end up
(13:44):
being crispy. Anyways, go get the cheap stuff. So to
be honest with you, I usually do. I'll usually go
for the corndo perjutto. If i'm if I'm making a
salt and buca, very good, and I'll put two. Like
I said, the two leaves, and then gotta get you toothpick,
and you come up through the bottom fresh sage, big leaves.
(14:06):
You want two big leaves. And if you leaves aren't
that big, I'll put three. So if if they're if
they're a good three to four inches, I'll use two
of them. If they're smaller leaves and there's only two inches,
I'll use three of them.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
And so it's the chicken that you've tender rized. Then
the persuto, then big yep.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And now you take your toothpick through the bottom, through
the chicken, through the perjutto, through the sage leaf, fold
it back over, come back down through the sage leaf,
through the perjutto, and into the chicken breast. So you
basically went up, down and through and you folded it
to hold the perjutto and the sage to the chicken breast.
All right, then you make your dredge. I dredge.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
What's dredge?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Most people dredge with flour.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
But what is it? Well, what's the word means?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Well, you put your meat through it, both both sides
of your meats. They call it dredging in flat Ever
heard of that? Yeah, it's called dredging, I use corn starch.
I started using corn starch because my daughter has Sealiact
disease and corn stotch is gluten free versus flour. But
I quickly realized that the crust that I get with
the corn starch was better than I got with the flour.
(15:18):
There wasn't any taste difference, it was just a better crust.
So now I use corn starch with all of my dredging.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Is the chicken wet enough for the flour or the
cornstarch to stick to?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, you don't have to wet the
chicken at all. You know, you want your chicken actually
fairly dry. If it's wet todd to work with. So
you want it fairly dry when you're putting your projuto
and sage on it, you'll be slipping all over the
place someways.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
How thick is the layer of the corn start or flour.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, I'll usually take maybe a half a cup. I'll
put it in a in a like a pie dish.
I'll add some some garlic powder, some salt, some pepper.
You season your cornstarch.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
How much garlic powder?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So if you're using a half a not a half
a cup. We're only using I'm sorry, we're only using
four pieces of chicken. Because I'm normally a large cook.
I cook a lot of food. But for four pieces
of chicken, use a quarter cup of cornstarch, a teaspoon
of darlic powder, teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of
(16:19):
ground pepper. Okay, to a to a quarter cup of
corn stoch very good. Dredge dredge both sides a right,
dreddred dredge both sides of your of your chicken. Now,
you got two pans on your stove. One pan is
going to be the pans here your your salt and booker,
and the other is going to be to make your
(16:40):
sauce sauce, the salt and booker sauce.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Gravy.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
No, no, this is a sauce.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
That's not okay, what's the difference. I was all set
to say gravy, and I've already screwed up.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
No gravy for me is only what's what's made with tomatoes?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Okay, So this is not a tomato thing. No, okays,
no tomato. Yeah, it's it's it's a it's a massala wine. Right,
So you take your your pan.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Staring pan, and you heat it up, put it on
I only put it on six, so a little above medium,
and I'll let it get hot. And once it gets hot,
put a little bit of olive oil and a pad
of butter. Let that melt, and then I'll put my
pieces of chicken in prejuto sage side down. And it's
(17:31):
like cooking scallops. Once you put it in the pan,
you really don't want to move it. You want to
just let it sit there. And you want that po
to get a nicer sage, to get nice and crispy
and nice crust on it. Now on the side the
other the other pan, turn that on medium low, and
you're gonna start with four chicken breasts, four tablespoons of butter.
(17:53):
Put it in there, let it start to melt. Right.
Your chicken probably gonna be about three four minutes on
that prejuto side. Take a pair of tongs, lift it up,
look underneath to make sure you have a nice crisp
on the prejuto in the sage, and then you'll flip
it over and do the other side on the other pan.
(18:13):
Once your butter is melted, put a quarter of a
cup of massala wine in there and let it, let
it bubble up. You know, you want to cook off
the wine for a couple of minutes. You want to
cook off the alcohol, salt and pepper it to taste.
I always let people put their own salt and pepper.
Some people you know who has high blood pressure, who
can't eat that much salt. Always salt and pepper to
(18:35):
your own taste, and let that roll for a minute
with the massala while you're cooking the other side of
your chicken. If you're worried about your chicken and you
want to use a meat thermometer, always take your chicken
out at one six. One sixty five is like the
cardinal degree for chicken. When it's one sixty five, you
know it's good. I typically don't use it, but I've
(18:59):
been cooking chicken a long time.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You just know.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
My wife asked me all the time, She how do
you know what it's like? Look what's done?
Speaker 5 (19:06):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
You do something so long?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
You just know? Did she ever test you?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
No, I'd be interested to know if if how accurate
you really are.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I believe you, though, I mean I've never had anything
come back raw, so I always air on the side
of a little more. I'd rather it, you know, I'd
rather be safe than sorry. And then once your wine
is cooked down, I'll add a tablespoon of fresh chopped
possly and I'll add another two tablespoons of butter. That
(19:37):
second two tablespoons of butter. At the end you'll whisk
in and that will thicken your sauce. And basically, you know,
you want the chicken to be coming out of the
pan at the same time your sauce is ready. So
you put your chicken on your plate with your sauce
on top, and you serve it right away.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
What do you serve it? What sides do you usually
go well?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Uh with?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Typically, I'll make just a white rice. I'll just boil
a white rice and I'll put, you know, layer the
chicken on top, and I'll pour the sauce on and
I'll let the salt and boocha sauce flavor the rice
right over the chicken. You know. Typically it's it's a
meal in its own And in Italy they don't serve
(20:25):
pasta with meats. That's an American thing, Like you don't
find spaghetti and meatballs in Italy. You never find meat
and pasta, so.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
He wouldn't find chicken palm on pasta.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
There is no chicken palm in Italy. Chicken palm is
an American thing.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
The only poo in Italy is eggplant. That's it. They
don't make veal palm. They don't make chicken palm. And
if you find chicken palm in Italy you are in
a real tourist place. You're in a real tourist restaurant,
because just about anyway you go in Italy, I'm knocking
to fine chicken palm on the menu.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah, there's a lot of misconceptions about American eyes the Italian
cooking that until you go to Italy you realize it's
it's American eyes.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Any others.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
While we're on the subject, Well, you know, we use
a lot of cream. There isn't a lot of cream
in Italy. There's there's no cream. Well, there's no alfredo.
Alfredo is an American thing. There's one restaurant that was
in the Square in Rome that that made an Alfredo sauce.
(21:33):
But you travel anywhere in Italy there is no alfredo
on the menu anywhere that that's an American thing.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
A lot of things we think are Italian.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
There's no cream and caccio at Peppi. You know a
lot of people put creams in different sauces. They don't
use a lot of cream.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Pizza is it's pizza an American thing?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
They haven't the pizza place. Pizza is a in Italy?
Is it the same or different?
Speaker 2 (22:02):
What's it like?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well depends where you are. I mean there are places
here where you can get a really good Napolitani pizza.
You know. I think that some of the most authentic
pizza is Umbertos on Hannova Street and then auth End
the Sicilian pizza. We were in Shaka a number of
years ago and it was like one o'clock in the
(22:25):
morning and I remember looking a little o com stop
and I need something to eat. And we went down
into this little shop and we got some pizza and
if I closed my eyes, I would have been an
Unberthos at Hannah Street. I didn't realize how authentic Umberto's
was until I was in in Shaka, Sicily with a
piece of pizza in my hand, going wow, this is
like identical to Umberto's. The rice ball, theatachinis, everything, everything
(22:50):
that they make and Umbertos was truly authentic.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So Umberto's is that all right on Salem.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
To be on Pomenta Street. When I was a kid,
it was just a bakery. It was down the step
right on R Streets. It was on Pomenta Street and
they just had bread and pizza.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And they were only opened a little while.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, and the pizza became more popular and more popular
and more popular. And then one day the brothers Paul
and Ralph, they closed that little bakery and they opened
up on Berthos in Hannah Street and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Good for them. Oh, I have a question, but I can't.
This is this is a big one. This is worth teasing.
Is this will get everybody to stay through the break.
I need you, a person who grew up in the
North End and is an Italian chef, to tell me
the best restaurant, A couple of versions of the best
(23:48):
restaurant in the North End. I asked this all the time.
I get answers that they are wrong because I try
them out and it's not true. So I'm gonna get
your opinion on that. After this break on WBS.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's
News Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
We continue with our guest Kenny Palozzolo of Live, Laugh
and Cook, Italian North End Guy, Italian chef. There's probably
no one on the planet that's more qualified to ask
this question. I've asked it of many persons and never
gotten it satisfactory answer. And part of the reason maybe
(24:28):
there may be no satisfactory answer. But the fact is
that rightfully so, the North End is a big tourist
that's the nation because it's legit, it's cool, it's easy
to get to, it's real. And there are many Italian
restaurants serving folks from Minnesota and every in Japan and
everywhere else, and so they cater to the tourists because
(24:50):
that's that's who's there. However, a lot of people live there.
It seems to me there must be some small a
couple of small places on the side street where the
locals would go and you'd get a big bang for
the buck, and at least well the one that's as
good as you're gonna get in the North End. And
(25:11):
I've asked other people, no good answer. Now I'm asking you,
Kenny Alazolo. I trust you. Now I'm depending on you.
I'm counting. As a matter of fact, we're all counting
on you.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Well, I've been asked that question a lot, Bradley, And
my first answer when people say where do you go
to eat in the North End, my first answer is
my grandmother's house right right now. Unfortunately my grandmother passed
away last year. She was ninety six. But you know,
first of all, it's hard for me, as an Italian
chef to go out for Italian food, even in the
(25:46):
North End. I'm a big food critic, and you know,
I critique Italian food to the max, and you know,
sometimes it's hard to please me. I definitely, you know,
I'm that definitely a food critic.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Uh restaurants, So we know now that when you can
tell us a restaurant, it's going to be carefully uh
you know, curated.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
So you know, my my first question to most people
is what do you want to eat? So you know,
if you want seafood, you have a couple of good restaurants.
You have the Daily Catch, been there a long time.
You also have made one of Frankie Deepest Squally's restaurants
that's down the Little Alley. Two very good seafood restaurants.
(26:32):
You know, if you want pizza. Of course, if you're
looking for square pizza, it's Unbirdos, or it's Puzzy Ali's.
It's Puzzi Ali's on Print Street. They've been making pizza.
I remember when Bee would sit outside with her table
when I was a little kid, selling the trays of pizza.
Puzzy Ali's has a great Sicilian pizza round pizzas. I mean,
(26:56):
I grew up with Regina. I can say that the
Regina that's there today is definitely not the same Regina
that was there when I was a kid. You know,
they they serve more people than I think that oven,
that hundred, one hundred and twenty year old oven that's
built into that building there that it can serve. So
you got to catch Regina on a good day. There's
(27:19):
a there's a restaurant on hand of a street called
ben Corto's and when we were when we were kids,
that was Circle Pizza. And the person who opened that
restaurant friend of mine, war and he got that recipe
for Circle Pizza and he makes that pizza and Ben
Cartos And every time I go in there and I
(27:41):
sit down and I have a pizza, it just I immediately
flash back to being, you know, ten twelve years old
sitting in circle.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Pizza Bitz is a big deal. It was this iconic thing.
It's in books and stuff, right, oh yeah, oh yeah.
It was there for a long, long, long time. And
you know, Ben Cortos also has a lot of.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Other good dishes. There's shrimp ram is probably one of
the best ones that that I've ever had. If you
want a gluten free pizza, my daughter has Celiac disease.
Benavento's on Salem Street has a really good gluten free
pizza and they also have a good gluten free pasta
there as well. My daughters in town, she'll typically go
(28:20):
there and get a gluten free pizza. I like Mama
Marias in North Square. What's square North Square? It's kin
where Paul Rivera's house is, you know, Sacred Hot Church,
Paul Ravera's house. There's the cobblestones there that have the
big steel drape chains around them. And right on the
(28:44):
corner there of Garden Court Street is Mama Maria's really
really good restaurant, old school restaurant.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
You recommend there.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
They have a three a three lamb dish. They have
La Chops, roasted lamb and lamb Ravioli's all on one
dish that's phenomenal. And they have oysters rockefella. They're phenomenal.
And the last time I was there, I had this
scallops and they were phenomenal. Everything they put out. I
(29:18):
don't think I've ever had a bad dish at Mama Maria's.
It's really really good there.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
From what you say Ben Benkanto, Bencotto, Bencotto, I feel
like that I'd like to try that.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
It's a really good restaurant.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
And a little while ago, we'll get to James in
a moment we talked about the best bakery and you said,
depends on what you want, and you said, hey, pizza,
don't say pizza dolge.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
If I'm buying a it would be okay. What would
you get at the other places? I would get Canoli's
at Mike's. I like Mike's. Canoli's. I'd actually get my
cookies from Pazziali's, the backup to Umbertos for pizza. I
(30:06):
would get my cookies there. And I think Bova's. Anything
that you get in Bova's is gonna be good. They
have a lot of pastries. When you walk into Bovas,
they have just you know, the case on the left
is just Gym's got to be thirty five forty different
pastries there. You could pick any one of them and
(30:26):
it's going to be delicious. Bovas doesn't make anything. And
over the years the secret came out. You know, you
would always have the lines at Mike's, the lines at Morden,
and you could walk down Prince Street and get to
Bova's and you know, walk right in and get something.
Not anymore, really, not anymore. No, the line at Bova's
(30:47):
is now there constantly, just like it is at Mike's
and Marden. So the secret over the years has gotten
out that Bova's, you know, is a is a great
old school bakery that puts out a great product.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I used to go to Boston bar were down on Salem,
Oh yeah, and go I'm up too. Recently tell my
barber left because I would get a beer drim and
then go to Bova's. And I got to say that
I just love good service. The young woman who worked
there was so nice and made all the difference. I
(31:19):
walked out there feeling like a million bucks just because
somebody was decent to me.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Usually you can walk into Bolva's at any time of
the day and night and find someone with the lost
name Bova working in the bakery, still working in the bakery.
That's that's cool, It's still it's still a true family
run business.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Let's talk to James and uh why tom Anino's town
hide Bark?
Speaker 5 (31:46):
How are you doing, James, Hi, I'm just listening to
your progovid and they would talking about the piece of
shop down here Hanover Street, right, and and I'd like
to know how far is it on the re statue
there I'll find is it from Revere statue? Okay?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
So Paul Revere statue. He's talking about the parrado which
is in the backdrop of the old mar Church. It's
basically Paul Revere is facing Saint Stephen's Church on Hannover Street.
So you're gonna tell let's see, if you if you
you're looking at Saint Stephen's Church and you take a
right onto Hannov Street, you have let's see, there's Clock Street,
(32:32):
there's Fleet Street, there's Little Prince Street. So you're gonna
pass three streets. You're gonna pass Clock Street, Fleet Street
and Little Prince Street and then in between Little Prince
Street and Richmond Street you'll find Dunbertos. It's it's more
toward the Richmond Street and so it's about three and
a half blocks away from the Paul Revere statue in
(32:53):
the Parado. Okay, and I recommend you recommend you get
there early. They usually open about a quarter of eleven,
and by eleven o'clock the line is out the door.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Next, we're gonna learn how to make tira massoux, which
I can't really believe it. It seems like impossible. I
don't believe you can really teach me but us, but
we'll give you a shot. Coming up on WBZY, it's.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Night Side with Dan Ray on wb Boston's news radio
final segment.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Here tonight we're with Kenny Palazzolo Live Left and cook Italian,
and he says he can teach us to make tira massoux.
We'll see it seems impossible.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
No, it's actually really really simple. And once again, I
have this recipe video on the YouTube channel. You can
always go there and watch me make it hands on,
step by step. But there's really three pots to tara masoux.
You have the lady fingers, you have the Mosca pony cream,
and then you have the assembly. So I know we're
(33:58):
gonna getting close on time. I'm gonna give it to
you as quick as possible. We we have a full
ten minutes, okay. So the first thing you need to
do is you need to make an expresso dip for
your lady fingers. That's eighteen ounces of espresso. That's one
and a half ounces of kalua and one and a
half ounces of frangelico. So you make your make your espresso,
(34:21):
add your khalua, add your fra angelico, and you add
three eighths of a cup of sugar. Stir it all
up so the sugar is dissolved, and put that off
to the side and let it sit and cool. Not
in the fridge, just put it off to the side,
become room temperature. Now you're gonna make your cream. So
what you do is you take six eggs and you
separate them yolks and whites. Take your whites, put them
(34:45):
off to the side. Now you really need a mixer,
either a hand electric hand mixer, or if you have
a kitchen aid. It's it's always a good no no
kitchen aid.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
One of those big things.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
With the bowl. Yeah that has a whisk in it, okay,
or a handheld whisker mixer, you know electric one. Okay, okay,
Because so you take your your six egg yolks and
seven tablespoons of sugar, and you get your mixer and
you start mixing, and you mix that until it looks
like lemon pudding. You mix that for a good couple
(35:21):
of minutes. Right once that's done, you're all gonna add
in a little bit at a time, a pound and
a half of musca pony cheese, and you put in
a couple of scoops, turn on your blunt mixer, mix
it up, mix it up till all your musca pony
is in and it's all incorporated and mixed. Well, take
(35:41):
that bowl, put it off to the side, clean your whiskers,
and now bring your egg whites in. You're gonna turn
your egg whites into stiff peaks for those who don't
know what stiff peaks are. You mix your egg whites
until when you pull the but when you pull the
whisker out, it makes a little peak of a mile
and it'll just flip over the top. You've got to
(36:02):
be very careful because you can overwhip your eggs. If
they start to separate, you've overwhipped them and you need
six new egg whites to start all over. So you
test them, you know, as you see it start to
get you know, like clouds, puffy, yep, pull pull, pull
it out. If it folds over hot, give it another
twenty seconds, keep checking it and you'll eventually get that
(36:23):
stiff peaks again. You can watch the video because I
do it in detail on the video. Once you have
your stiff peaks, you bring back your Musca Pony mixture
and you gently fold those stiff peaks into the Musca
Pony mix that you just made. That's now you're filling. Okay,
(36:43):
So you come back to your espresso, which is now cooled,
and you need I normally buy six double packs of
Lady fingers. You might have a few extra, but they've
got to snack on it with a cup of coffee.
And what you do is the way my mother taught me,
is your dipulated fingers in the expresso mix for five seconds.
(37:04):
So I take one on each finger. I submerged them
in the expresso one two, three, four five. I picked
them up and I let them drain. One two three
and then I put them in the pan.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So we're gonna be careful here. Five seconds or five seconds?
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Like is it? No? No, one two three four five,
that's five seconds?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Well, it's like one second.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Well again if you want, Like I said, the video
is great because you can watch me do it. So
it's a quick five seconds. It's it's a one two
three four five if you don't want to submerse them
too long, because when you could have pulled them out,
they're gonna turn to moush and just break a pot.
And so there's a very fine line.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Dip one two three four five, drain.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
We pull them out, hold them over the hold them
over the expresso, let them drip one two three, and
then place them in the pan. Illumine them. Use an
aluminum pan, like a half sheet aluminum pan, and you
do a layer of the lady fingers dipped an espresso.
Then you get your Mosca pony mix and you do
a layer of Mosca pony. Then you go back and
(38:09):
you do another layer of dipped lady fingers. You top
it with the second layer of Mosca pony. Then you
get some sweet coca powder, sprinkle it on the top.
If you have a bar of some nice Doc chocolate.
You can shave some on the top, cover it with
(38:29):
plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for at
least four hours. Typically, I like to make it the
day before I'm gonna serve it and let it sit
in there. Yeah, let it sit in the fridge for
twenty four hours. You can use it within four hours.
Just remember one thing, it's made with raw eggs. So
(38:50):
when you take it out of the fridge and you're
gonna serve it, put it on the table for twenty minutes.
When you're done, cover it and put it back in
the fridge. It has raw eggs. And this is this
is the true way a lot of people wore raw eggs.
That's the way it's made. That's the way it's made
in Italy. I mean, that's just you know, you got
to get past the raw egg thing, because that's truly
(39:10):
how it's made. Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
In a related question, so you're not gonna make it,
you don't have time. Where in the North End would
you go to get your best? Terra Massou?
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I have to be honest with you, Brelly, I don't
think i've had Okay, I figure a massioux, especially from
the bakeries, like I've never bought in one. I've always
made it.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
You must have tasted some of the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
No, no, wow, No I can't. Yeah, I can't say
that I've ordered. Typically, Again, being an Italian cook and
making it myself, it's very hard to impress me in
a restaurant. So usually I won't order things that that
I typically make because I'll always critique them.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
One final, well, one more question, at least one more.
Are you who the kind of cuku cleans as you
go or wait till the end they're with a big pile?
Speaker 3 (40:06):
No I am? I am. I like to consider myself
very organized, so clean as you go. Yeah, you know,
an organized chef. It's more fun that way, is a
productive chef. You know, if you're tripping all the stuff
and you're looking for stuff and you can't find it
and you gotta mess here, it's usually not how I operate.
(40:26):
I like to have all my ingredients laid out, everything
I need. I don't want to have to stop and
look for something. Preparedness is fifty percent of cooking, having
your ingredients being prepared. You know, I have a serf
safe Manager's certificate. So I went through all those courses.
So you know, if I'm cooking with chicken, I might
(40:47):
wash my hands fifteen times. I just have the soap,
the towel and constantly wash the hands. Wash the hands,
washed hands, Wash the counter. We'll checking out washed the counter.
You know clean, that clean that you know have the
Syruf Safe made me look at cooking a little differently
as far as you know cleanliness and backt area and
temperatures and things like that. So I'm always conscious of that.
(41:10):
But a clean, prepared cooking surface is a happy cooking surface.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
What's the next big cooking you're doing? Big family event?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Well, we just did the Feast of the Seven Fishes
for Christmas Eve. That is my favorite meal of the
entire year. Where you know we still make the stuffed
klamadis and the kalamadi gravy and.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Who is the mis klamari in the and not fried
but grill calamari. Well, anywhere in the Boston.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
I'll tell you don't find stuffed klamadies too often on
a menu. But there's a place on Broadway in Somerville
called Vinnie's and it's a sub shop in front but
you can go in the back and you can sit down.
They have a restaurant and they have a stuffed klamadi
that's on their menu regularly. That's out of this world.
(42:01):
And for me to say that about a stuffed calamadi
is a big statement.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Okay. So where in Zimerville.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
It is more towards Sullivan Square. It's probably within those
first few blocks coming out of Sullivan Square heading down Broadway.
In Somerville. It's on the left side, little corner place.
It's called Vinnie's. And you know, we would go there
when I would work in the development in Charlestown. And
one day we were sitting down and I was like, wow,
(42:27):
stuffed colamadia go.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
You don't see that.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
And they offer a homemade fuzily. And I got the
stuffed calamadis with the homemade fuzili and it impressed me.
That's a statement.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Okay, good, Well, just about out of time. I want
to once again spend twenty seconds talking about telling people
how to get to your YouTube channel. Yup.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
It's a live laughing cook Italian. It's me and my
mother and we share all of our family recipes. A
good portion of them will passed down by my great
grandmother from Alveolino. But like I said, I'd like to
call it reality cooking perfect.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
You're a great guest. We'll have to have you back.
Thanks for staying the extra hour, and thanks for all
the honest recommendations. I'll talk to you tomorrow, same time
on WBZ.
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