Sunday Sauce "When Italian-Americans Cook," is a best-selling cookbook written by wine and restaurant professional Daniel Bellino Zwicke. Published in November 2013, the book blends authentic, slow-simmered Italian-American recipes with cultural histories, personal family anecdotes, and famous pop-culture culinary moments. [
Key Highlights of the Book
Cinematic Recipes: Learn to cook iconic dishes from film history, including Clemenza's Brooklyn mob war sauce for 20 people from The Godfather and the prison sauce from Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas.
Celebrity Favorites: Features specific recipes like Frank Sinatra’s Sunday Sauce, Dolly Sinatra's Spaghetti & Meatballs, and Joe DiMaggio’s mother's Sunday Gravy.
The "Meat Trio" Foundation: Details how traditional family variations lean on combinations of sausages, savory meatballs, pork ribs, and beef braciole simmered for hours.
Cultural Stories: Explores the deep-rooted immigrant traditions of New York and New Jersey, capturing the classic debate over whether to call the dish "sauce" or "gravy".
Purchase Options
The book is widely available across major online book retailers:
Positano The Amalfi Coast - Travel Guide Cookbook is a hybrid book by Daniel Bellino Zwicke that blends regional recipes with travel advice and personal essays. Published in February 2021, it draws from the author's 35 years of travel experience in Southern Italy to help readers plan a trip or recreate the flavors of the coast at home.
CORE BOOK FEATURES
Dual Purpose: It functions as both a travel guide (covering Positano, Naples, Capri, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast) and a cookbook featuring over 100 regional recipes.
Recipe Highlights: Includes classic dishes such as Spaghetti alle Vongole, Insalata di Polpo, Arancini, Eggplant Parmigiano, and Polpette (meatballs).
Narrative Style: Unlike standard guidebooks, this is written as a series of essays and "delightful stories" intended to educate and inspire dream vacations.
Visual Style: Note: The book contains no pictures. It relies entirely on text to convey information. There is however a companion website to the book - Positano-Amlafi-Coast.com that contains Hundreds of Beautiful Pictures of Postiano, Capri, Naples, & The Amalfi Coast, and is is updated with articles, info, and pictures every week.
Practical Info: Provides tips on where to stay, top restaurants (like Da Vincenzo and Chez Black), transportation, and historical sites like Ancient Roman Ruin of Minori, and nearby Pompeii, and Herculaneum.
Sinatra Sauce "Music Metaballs & Merriment" and Living The Good Life. "Like Frank" .. Yes, it's about Frank. That is one Francis Albert Sinatra, the Greatest Singer of The 20th Century, and Icon of American, especially of the Italian-American Enclave in America. Frank Sinatra was many things, first and foremost a Great Italian-American singer, Love & Adored by Millions. Mr. Sinatra was also an actor, citizen, and Entertainer Par Excellence. Yes this book is about those things, Frank Sinatra : the incomparable singer, actor, recording artist, Teen Idol of the 1940s, philanthropist, and Las Vegas & Nightclub Entertainer. He was like no other, Sinatra was one-of-a- kind, and he had a lust for life, “Hanging with Friends,” - sipping cocktails, with good food, and making good times. That's what this book is about, Frank Sinatra, eating (Italian Food), enjoying a cocktail or two, and the company of family and friends. Yes, Frank Sinatra lived life to its fullest. He wouldn't have it any other way, but "His Way."
This book “Inspires” and gives you the tools to live out your Sinatra Dreams. You can make it reality, with recipes of Frank’s Favorite Italian Foods, Pasta, Meatballs, Posillipo, Eggplant Parm and more. Eating, drinking, and having good times, all the time as Frank did. Meals with friends and family. Meals you can cook, with recipes in this book. The info and recipes are all here in Sinatra Sauce. Read it, put on some Sinatra (music), cook, eat, and create memorable times at the table, just like Frank. That’s what this book is about: Sinatra, Family, Friends, and Good Times. “The Best is Yet to Come”
Visit SINATRA SAUCE - The Website @ https://sinatrasauce.com
Author Daniel Bellino Zwicke is a lifelong Sinatra fan. He is a Best Selling author, who lives and writes in New York’s Greenwich Village. Daniel is currently working on several other projects.
He has authored : Sunday Sauce, La Tavola, Mangia Italiano, Grandma Bellino’s Cookbook, Segreto Italiano, and Positano The Amalfi Coast - Travel Guide / Cookbook.
Sinatra Sauce: Music Meatballs & Merriment by Daniel Bellino Zwicke. It was published on November 7, 2024, and is available for purchase on Amazon. The book features recipes of Frank Sinatra's favorite Italian dishes, combined with stories about the legendary singer and his favorite restaurants.
About the Cookbook
Recipes and stories: The book combines recipes with anecdotes and stories about Frank Sinatra's life, his passion for Italian food, and dining experiences with friends and family.
Family connection: It includes classic Italian-American recipes inspired by meals made by Sinatra's mother and father.
Dining experiences: It covers Sinatra's experiences dining at famous establishments such as Patsy's in Manhattan and Jilly's in New York.
Featured dishes: Recipes include classic Italian-American dishes like spaghetti and meatballs, eggplant parmigiana, lasagna, and clams posillipo.
Author: Daniel Bellino Zwicke is an Italian cookbook author and lifelong Sinatra fan who lives in New York's Greenwich Village.
Based on documented reports from his favorite restaurants and anecdotes from his family,
Frank Sinatra had several favorite Italian dishes. The recipes for these classic Italian-American foods are featured in the cookbook Sinatra Sauce: Music Meatballs & Merriment by Daniel Bellino Zwicke.
Veal Milanese
A breaded and fried veal cutlet was one of Sinatra's all-time favorite meals. At his regular New York haunt, Patsy's Italian Restaurant, the chefs would make his cutlets pounded extra thin and served crispy with a light arugula salad on top.
Sinatra had a deep appreciation for the Sunday sauce and meatballs he grew up with. He was known for his simple yet classic spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce. The Sinatra Saucecookbook features his mother Dolly's meatballs and a recipe for "Sunday Gravy".
Fusilli with Garlic & Anchovies
At Patsy's, Sinatra also enjoyed this simple pasta dish, which featured fusilli pasta with garlic, anchovies, and breadcrumbs.
Sicilian Stuffed Artichokes
Sinatra's preferred appetizer was stuffed artichokes. Just as with the clams, he requested that the restaurant go light on the garlic.
Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake
For dessert, Sinatra's sweet tooth was often satisfied with a slice of lemon ricotta torte.
Frank Sinatra did not eat a lot of sweets, but he loved this Cheesecake, and another favorite were "Regina Cookies" which are Sicilian Sesame Seed Cookies, and the recipe is in "Siantar Sauce" (Cookbook).
SINATRA BELLINO & "LUCKY" LUCIANO
Sinatra Sauce Cookbook by Daniel Bellino Zwicke, whose family is from the same town in Sicily that Frank Sinatra's father - Martino Severino Sinatra was from, the town of Lercara Friddi, Sicily. Also from this town was infamous Mafia Boss - Charles "Lucky" Luciano, born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, his parents immigrated to New York City 1906. The Luciano family settled into an apartment on East 10th Street in the East Village of New York City. Incidentally the author of the Sinatra Sauce Cookbook, Daniel Bellino Z, lived in the East Village as well when he firsted moved to New York City. Daniel had an apartment on the corner of Avenue A & St. Marks Place, just two short blocks from where "Lucky" Luciano once lived.
It's a well known fact that Tony wished he was Italian. You can see (hear) him say many times in his various Travel Food Shows that he dreamed of being Italian, and wished he had an Italian Grandmother (Nonna) to cook all the famed Italian dishes for him. And no Italian Restaurant could ever cool you better Italian Food than by an Italian Nonna. And there is no more Supreme Dish in the Italian Community than Sunday Sauce (aka Gravy), and Tony Loved just as much as any Italian born. "Well" ? Anyway, just because we Love Anthony so much, we'll (Italian-Americans) make Tony an Honorary Italian-American. "Yeah, we Love Tony"
So what is Sunday Sauce. Well first off, there is quite a Big Debate over what it is called. Some call it Sunday Sauce, some call it Gravy, some Sunday Gravy, as Bourdain does, and some simply Ragu.
Ragu Napoletana is the original from Naples Italy, and is made from sever different cuts of meat, browned, then slowly cooked in tomato sauce. Depending on who is making the dish, the meats can vary. In Naples, the most popular array of meats are : Pork Ribs, Pork Sausages, and Beef Chuck Steak or Roast. You can also put in Meatballs, Pork Neck, and Prok or Beef Braciole, or Pig Skin Braciole. This is the most popular way to make Ragu Napoletana, the original Sunday Gravy.
So Italian immigrants, immigrated to America, mostly from Naples and Sicily, and a smaller number from Calabria, Puglia, Abruzzo, and other parts of Italy.
