Saint Josephs Day New York

Festa di San Giuseppe

SICILIAN AMERICAN FOOD WINE & TRAVEL CLUB

Our Saint Joseph’s Day Feast at CAIO VINO Restaurant, New York

Author Daniel Bellino, Silvio, Paola, Carolina, Linda, and ???

Our Sicilian American Group celebrated another Festa di San Giuseppe today. It was another wonderful day of getting together with friends around the Sicilian Table and the most important holiday of all to Sicilian as it celebrates the Patron Saint of Sicily, Saint Joseph, aka San Giuseppe …

Their was a great famine in the Middle Ages and Sicilians prayed to their Patron Saint San Giuseppe to let it rain so crops could grow and the people might be fed. These Sicilians who prayed to San Giuseppe that if he answered their prayers that they would have a great feast to celebrate and honor him. It rained, crops grew, and the people kept their promise to Saint Joseph and had feast all over Sicily to celebrate the Saint and the occasion .. It is now tradition to celebrate and on honor Saint Joseph every march 19th .. We have traditional foods that are prepared and eaten at our Festa di San Giuseppe like Maccu (Fava Bean Soup0, Pasta con Sarde (Pasta with Fennel, raisons, and Sardines), and Sfinci (Saint Josephs Day Pastry) of baked or fried dough filled with Sweet Ricotta and Candied Fruit.

So it was, once again that our little group of about 50 once again celebrated San Giuseppe at our favorite Siclian Restorante in New York, Cacio e Vino on Second Avenue in New York’s East Village, a neighborhood that at one time was great Sicilian enclave in New York that housed non other than one Charles “Lucky” Luciano who moved to the Lower East Side of New York in 1907 when his parents Antonio and Rosalia immigrated to the United States from Lercara Friddi, Sicily when young Salvatore (Lucky’s real first name) was 9 years old …

Anyway we had a wonderful dinner with our traditional menu of Maccu (Fava Soup), Caponata, Arancini (Sicilian Rice Balls), Sicilian Pizza, Pasta con Sarde, and Saint Josephs Day Pastry, Sfinci …

See the pictures and for some great recipes of Sicily’s favorite dishes, see Grandma Bellino’s Italian Cookbook / Recipes From My Sicilian Grandmother by Daniel Bellino “Z”

Our MACCU

Sicilian Fava Bean Soup

RECIPE

Our SICILIAN PIZZA with ANCHOVIES

and a Glass of NERO d’AVOLA

Yummm !!

Our PASTA ????

PASTA con SARDE

DOLCE

SFINCI al SAN GIUSEPPE

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GRANDMA BELLINO’S ITALIAN COOKBOOK

Recipes From My Sicilian Grandmother

by Daniel Bellino “Z”

FRANK SINATRA

Salvatore Lucinao

aka

CHARLES “LUCKY” LUCIANO

Sinatra Bellino Luciano n Cappuccino

Best Selling Italian Cookbook Author

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke and Frank Sinatra

Family’s are from LERCARA FRIDDI, SICILY

FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA

ROOTS Are From LERCARA FRIDDI, SICILIA, ITALIA

Best Selling Cookbook author Daniel Bellino-Zwicke has some things in common with the late-great Francis Albert Sinatra and famed Mafia Kingpin Charles “Lucky” Lucciano … What? Their families all hail from the town Lercara Friddi, Sicily in the Provence of Palermo in Italy … Lucciano was born there in 1897 and immigrated with his parents in 1907 to New York and the United States. Sinatra’s father Martino Sinatra was born in there in 1892 and his parents immigrated to New York in 1903 … Bellino’s maternal grandparents Josephina and Philipo Bellino were born in Lercara Friddi and immigrated to the United States to New York City in 1904, and later settled in the Italian Conclave of Lodi, New Jersey where Daniel’s grandfather set up a Shoemaker shop on Main Street … Take note that Sinatra’s grandfather was also a shoemaker in Lercara Friddi, and it is certain the these two grandfathers must have known each other in the small Sicilian town.

More on LERCARA FRIDDI

Lercara Friddi is a commune (municipality) in the Province of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily , located about 45 kilometers (28 mi) southeast of Palermo .

Founded in 1595 by local feudataries, it is on the slopes of Madore Hill, between the valleys of Fiumetorto and Platani rivers. In the past it was an important mining center, the only one in the province of Palermo where sulfur was excavated.

On December 25, 1893, eleven people were killed in the massacre Lercara Friddi During The Fasci Siciliani

uprising after a rally of peasants and sulfur miners That asked for the abolition of taxes and better working conditions.

Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile (1878-1964), politician

Mauro Picone (1885-1977), mathematician

Anthony Martin Sinatra (1892-1969), professional boxer and father of singer, Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)

Lucky Luciano (1897-1962), gangster

Pietro Scaglione (1906-1971), magistrate

Nicolo Nicolosi (1912-1986), football player and manager

Pietro Lo Forte (1920-2004), musician

Frédéric François (b. 1950), singer-songwriter

Daniel Bellino-Zwicke (b. 1958), cookbook author

GRANDMA BELLINO’S ITALIAN COOKBOOK

RECIPES From My SICILIAN GRANDMOTHER

by Daniel Bellino-Zwicke

Based on Sicilian Recipes from Daniel’s Maternal Nonna Giuseppina Bellino ..

The Recipes are mostly Sicilian as well as Neapolitan dishes from Giuseppina’s friends who hailed from Napoli, Salerno, and the surrounding cities and towns of Naples.

RECIPES : ARANCINI (Sicilian Rice Balls), CAPONATA, STUFFED ARTICHOKES, BRACIOLA, ZUPPA LENTICHE (Lentil Soup) SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS, PASTA LENTICHE, and More ….

CHARLES “LUCKY” LUCIANO

Charles “Lucky” Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-American mobster and Crime Boss. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of the first Commission. He was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. He was, along with his associates instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States.

Luciano was tried and successfully convicted for compulsory prostitution in 1936 after years of investigation by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Luciano was given a thirty-year prison sentence, but was allowed to live his life freely outside the United States when he struck a deal with the government during World War II while still imprisoned.