Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

  Italian cuisine is a celebration of nature. Some dishes like this one are deceptively simple. In order to pull this off only the freshest and best ingredients will do. A wonderful Roman female chef calls this complex simplicity This is a delicious and healthy dish great on a rainy night, for example. .  

  Playing cards on the park in the famous Arthur Avenue Little Italy In The Bronx. This is the only true Little Italy surviving in new York City. The more well known one on Mulberry Street is now actually part of the ever expanding Chinatown. Only some stores and Italian restaurants proclaim this area as an Italian neighborhood with the caveat that there are hardly any Italians left. The players were enjoying the game on a late summer afternoon.                                        

  Uno spaghettino con salsa di pomodoro e melanzana siciliana. I pomodori erano freschi. Ho tagliato parte della melanzana a cubetti e l'ho aggiunta alla salsa prima di finire la cottura. L'altra parte l'ho fritta. A questo punto ho aggiunto basilici rigorosamente tagliato a mano e la pasta al dente. Ho mantecato bene aggiungendo acqua di cotture. A fuoco spento ho messo un filo d'olio crudo. Ho impiattato e le fette di melanzana per decorazione e per sapore. Na buona manciata di pecorino siciliano ovvero incanestrato ha chiuso il piatto. Naturalmente gli spaghetti erano italiani. Questa non e' pasta alla norma. This  spaghetti dish consists of a fresh tomato sauce with a Sicilian eggplant that was partly cubed and  sliced. Both were fried. When the sauce was almost done, I added the cubed eggplant and soon after I added the spaghetti al dente to the sauce. At this point I added basil cut by hand and all was stirred to allow  the flavors to meld while adding cooking...

  Shot in side a coffee shop in Provincetown, Cape cod.

  I recently discovered this gem of a restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens (NYC). At 65-17 Fresh Pond Road. Rustico Taverna. The food is fantastic and the staff very friendly.  just returned frm Castellammare del Golfo, a sea town with incredible fish restaurants and ordered the Zuppa di pesce at Rustico and was very satisfied. Try it if you are in the area; you will not be sorry.

  The Gare D'Orsay in Paris was converted to a museum housing an extensive collection of impressionistic paintings. I always visit this amazing place every time I'm in Paris.

                    My beautiful Castellammare del Golfo, my native town. A truly wonderful place.

  This is the area that became to be known as DUMBO. Brooklyn in the eighties. Now this area is totally gentrified

  Pasta con patate e salsiccia. Pasta with potatoes and sausage. An appropriate dish for the end of summer.

The famous feast os San Gennaro is now in full sswing on Mulberry Street, Manhattan. It's a NY tradition and the street food is very good. The saugae and pepper hero is the star of the feast and must be savored. Buon appetito.  

  Remembering my Mookie, a Belgian Sheep Dog in a class by itself. He filed my life with joy for 15 years. I miss him dearly.

  This is what is comically known as Sunday gravy but in this case I prepared authentic salsa alla bolognese or bolognese sauce. I naturally used imported Italian rigatoni. A feast to the palate. Un piatto goloso.