SUSAN DEFAZIO/SPECIAL THE REGISTER

The Dominic Montuoro family from Tiriolo, Italy, carries on the tradition of Sunday dinners with the family. Left to right: Frank Montuoro, Christien Beckman (guest), Elena Montuoro, and son Dom and his wife, Michelle, both of Urbandale.

Cook authentic Italian dishes

By ERIN CRAWFORD
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

October 25, 2006

The last time the Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa put together a cookbook, it had no more than 15 recipes in it. That was 30 years ago.

Their most recent effort is a little more fitting for a community well known for its food. Italians have started some of Des Moines' most famed and longest-running restaurants.

Ring-bound and hard-covered, "Cucina Italiana" holds nearly 400 recipes, plus some history lessons about the Italian-American community in Iowa.

In other words, readers will find a lot more than marinara sauce.
 

The book includes:
-Appetizers and beverages such as antipasto, mussels marinara and limoncello
-Soups and salads, including minestrone and panzanella
-Vegetables and side dishes
-Pasta and sauces, of course, from manicotti to linguine with clam sauce
-Main dishes
-Desserts
-Holiday fare

All are billed as "authentic Italian recipes from the families and friends" of the cultural center. It took a year to collect the volume, with a wealth of choices for each course of an Italian meal.

Some recipes traveled vast distances, from as far away as Australia, to earn their place in the book. There are recipes from first-generation immigrants to the United States, and others passed down from parent to child more than once.

Rather than choose which eggplant recipe was best, the cookbook committee put every recipe submitted to them in the book. "People had written these out, and if they went to that trouble, they deserved to have it in," said Susan DeFazio, a member of the team that collected recipes and compiled the cookbook. "A lot of recipes were old family recipes passed down from generation to generation."

They were contributed by different families, often from different generations. As such, some have the simplicity of a modern 30-minute meal, while other recipes are all-day affairs involving homemade pasta dough.

A few recall the history of Italian cooking - "old-time preservation methods" are featured, including recipes that take days to finish.

Mary Sitroneto included a bean recipe that takes three days.

Lucretia Cimino of Des Moines contributed one for green tomatoes preserved in a crock with green peppers and fennel. That one takes a month to complete.

"It takes two generations (to create this sort of cookbook) - including those with computer experience - and we couldn't have done it without the people who cook," DeFazio said.

For some families, contributing to the cookbook was a way to ensure their traditions stay alive.
"I put my mother-in-law's recipes in there to pass them down," said Michelle Montuoro of Urbandale. Montuoro had to try to record some that had never been written down.

That, too, is a tradition. Des Moines resident Frank Celsi, who contributed recipes to the book, remembers being a newlywed and how hard it was for his wife to try to record a recipe for his family's pasta sauce.

Kathy Foggia, a member of the cookbook committee from Des Moines, was sent by her husband to his aunt's house to try to learn the best meatball recipe in the family.

Others opted against passing out family secrets, and instead just passed on a good recipe.

Chuck's Restaurant offers diners some beloved dishes, but Linda Bisignano passed on dishes that she typically makes for private parties, rather than at the restaurant.

Lou Ann Lemmo, who helped compile the cookbook, is famed for her pink frosted Wanda cookies. She's not dishing on how to make your cookies like hers. "We have certain recipes we don't distribute. There are just some recipes you don't share," said Anthony Lemmo, her son and owner of Cafe DiScala. Instead, "I have one (recipe in the cookbook that) I found and picked and tweaked."

It seems like local cooks are eager to learn whatever the Cultural Center is willing to teach. The cookbook's first run sold out.

Then again, Judge Thomas Renda isn't shy about passing out his famed fried pepper recipes. But that doesn't mean just everyone can make the peppers. "People always say, 'They don't taste like yours,' " he said.

Reporter Erin Crawford can be reached at (515) 284-8438 or ecrawford@dmreg.com