My homeboy Tony writes in from my home state of New Jersey: “Hey Jimmyd, Have a good 4th .... If you were here in NJ, I would grill you some really good sausage made with cheese and bracoli rabe. I know it's rough in Calif for good Italian ingredients, but I would never put those links in the water, no matter how fatty, dude! All the best, Tony”

jimmyD sez: You’re absolutely right, Tony. California ain’t the easiest place on the planet to find genuine, authentic, delicioso Italian ingredients. And in a perfect world, I wouldn’t boil the 'saw-see-gh' first either. But sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do… capiche? By the way, Tony, I’m from New Jersey myself—born and raised there. So I know about Italian food that’s sono buoni.

My pal Mastrick wrote in with another Italian recipe: “Well try this goomba. Get some scallopined chicken breasts and tenderize with a mallet. Fine chip about three cloves of garlic. Put some olive oil in a pan, enough to cook with. Have a decent dry white wine available. Heat up the oil and add some rosemary and fresh oregano (chopped.) Julienne the chicken and toss that in there, followed by the garlic. Increase temperature and add some white wine, salt and pepper. Cook until done and serve over rice. Real easy, Italian as all hell. -–Matrick”

jimmyD sez: Sounds fuckin great Mast…. But I think I’d use more garlic. You can never use too much garlic, capiche paisano? And for the rest of ya’s, you might not remember or you might not know, but I put up some other Italian recipes on the site a while back. You can find the recipe for braciolla, or what I like to describe as “turds in bondage,” right HERE. And you can find the recipe for everyone’s favorite, Italian meatballs, right over HERE

Buono appetito!




"