Ex-Mob Boss Cooks Mafia Style Pasta Pomodoro (Old Family Recipe)

➡ This text is about a person sharing their cooking process and thoughts on wine. They emphasize using fresh basil and quick cooking methods for pasta and tomatoes. They also discuss wine, explaining that price doesn’t always reflect quality and that the aroma and taste are subjective. They share their preference for accessible, reasonably priced wines and good Italian bread to accompany the meal.
➡ The speaker shares his love for pasta and how he enjoys it in various forms. He also talks about his preference for dry wine and his own wine from Armenia. He then explains his process of making pasta with tomatoes and basil, emphasizing the importance of not overcooking the pasta and letting the tomatoes’ juices mix with the oil. He ends by mixing the pasta with the sauce and expressing his satisfaction with the result.
➡ Michael enjoys cooking as much as his wife and is proud of his dishes. His favorite meal is pasta, which he usually has on Sundays. On Mondays, he prefers soup, a tradition from his childhood in New York. His favorite type of soup is chicken soup.

But you can cut them in half and put them there, too. Also, the juices flow out, but it’s really good either way, whatever you prefer. Always fresh basil. Don’t use anything but fresh basil. I guarantee you’re going to love this dish. No question about it. And like I say, if you’ve got a timer on, see how quick this all goes. The longest thing here is really just boiling the pasta. Everything else goes very fast. The tomatoes, obviously, they cook quick in there, in the hot oil. Always fresh basil. Do you love the smell of fresh basil? I do.

I love it. For those of you that, you know, I wouldn’t consider you a wine snob. There are a lot of them out there, but for those of you that are not, do you ever sit around with somebody that drinks wine and they start talking about all the different things, like the aroma and all of that, and you’re sitting in the air, you don’t want to ask, but you say, yeah, I wonder what all that means? They never really describe it. They just say the aroma is good. The taste is good. They give you all these different terms that you don’t know what they’re talking about.

But, you know, when they say the bouquet or the aroma, it just means how it smells. I mean, there’s brain surgery there. You know, is it fruity? Is it oaky? Is it like grandma’s jam? You know, something like that, they’ll always give you a different kind of smell or aroma around it. But, to me, it smells good. I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know all of those senses. If my wife were here or some people that really, you know, are wine connoisseurs or sommeliers, they’ll tell you all the different smells. To me, it just smells good.

I can tell if it’s sour or not, but other than that, it just smells good. I got to tell you, this is, you know the crazy thing about this? I’m going to tell you this, people. If you do a blind taste on wine, blind taste, have five glasses of wine there, and you have different bottles, obviously with no labels on them. One is a $300 bottle of wine, the other is a $25 bottle of wine. You put them out, it’s very subjective. I guarantee you, people will say the $25 bottle of wine is better than the $300 bottle.

It’s very subjective. You don’t have to go out and spend a zillion dollars on wine. You know, I’ve spent a crazy amount of money on wine. Somebody gave me once a $15,000 bottle of wine, and I tasted it, and I said, it’s okay, but I’m not spending $15,000 on a bottle of wine. It’s not necessary. This, just as good, and a lot less, believe me. Okay, so the aroma, they can say it smells like fruit, like grandma’s jam, to me, just smells like good wine. All right. Now, we just let this simmer a little bit. You’ll see the garlic starts to brown.

That’s what we want. It starts to get soft and brown a little bit. We let it simmer. Okay, we get in there. So, like I said, you know what I’m going to do? I’ll show you just for demonstration. I’ll cut up some of them, and I’ll leave some of them uncut. And by the way, if you have any questions or comments, we had a lot on the meatballs and a lot of good comments. And now people asking me for all different kinds of recipes, and believe me, I got a million of them, you know, a million of them.

And we’re going to be sharing a lot. I think you’re going to enjoy this whole series that we’re doing. I certainly hope you do. And any of you that have had the fruit wines, comment. Let me know how you like them. And of course, R. Rainey, also, we want to hear from you. We’re always looking to please our customers. All right. Another term I should say that you might hear is, what is the body of the wine? You know, body, you know, how does it feel? How heavy is it? Is it light like skim milk? Is it full like heavy cream? And the Rainey, it’s kind of right in the middle to me.

It’s not too heavy, and it’s not real light. You notice me, I don’t like anything too heavy. I don’t like my coffee very heavy. I don’t like anything heavy. I like it light. As a matter of fact, you know, when I drink my coffee, I put half and half in there, well, cream. And my wife says, you know, you’re having a little coffee with your cream. I don’t like anything too heavy. And there’s certain coffees, when they’re really heavy, I can’t drink them. I was in Turkey once, in Istanbul, and I went to the, we were in the airport.

And I went to the counter, and I got three coffees, which by the way, was like 30 bucks. I couldn’t believe it. And I taste, I couldn’t drink it. It was like, gosh, it was so heavy, and it was like mud. I couldn’t drink it. That’s not for me. I like something that’s not too light, a little bit heavy, kind of right in the middle, and that’s already delicious. Great for the holidays, and it isn’t breaking the bank. I can tell you that right now. You know, I made it a point early on that whatever product I was going to get behind, or whatever business I was going to be in, I wanted accessible to everybody.

I’m not looking to outprice or overprice things for people. Believe it or not, I’m kind of a, you know, what could I say, I’m not an extravagant guy. And people are, come on, Michael, you had a jet plane at one time, you had a helicopter. I don’t know that that was an extravagance, but back in the day, I kind of needed those tools to get around in different ways, because I was doing a lot of things. I wish I had it now, with all the traveling I do now, but I’m not into that, not to look into those kind of extravagances.

I enjoy my vacations. I enjoy, you know, wearing decent clothes. If you see me online, I don’t dress up to the nines or do anything like that. I’m kind of a middle of the road type of guy in that regard. Same with my wine. You know, I love a bottle like this that I can bring home and enjoy, and people can enjoy, and like I said, it’s not going to break the bank, and you’re going to love it. And if it was a blind taste against any of the big expensive wines out there, I guarantee you many of you will pick this.

And with this pasta, the best. Okay, did you ever hear the term tannins? Okay, I’m sure you did. If you drink wine, you heard the term tannins. And, you know, a strong tannin can make your mouth like dry. It’s like strong tea, you know, the tannins in it. It’s part of the flavor. It shouldn’t scare you, because people say with some of the tannins, that’s what gets you a little bit drunk if you drink too much. And that’s true. Already, smooth tannins, bold taste, the tannins are very low. In all Armenian wine, the tannins are low.

That’s why you can drink more of it, believe it or not. You really can. Not a sales feature, it’s just the truth. And you don’t get a headache. You really don’t. And you know, I’m crazy. One thing I don’t like, I can take pain, but I don’t like a headache, because it stops me from thinking properly. I never get a hangover and never get drunk with this. I don’t drink too much anyway, but it just sits with me really right. Now, one thing you’ve got to eat with pasta, you’ve got to have Italian bread. No doubt.

You’ve got to warm it up, you’ve got to have Italian bread. You know, one thing I found out in a restaurant, when the bread they serve you is not right, I always get a hold of the waiter. I say, is the manager the owner here? I said, you’ve got great food in this restaurant. Why don’t you serve good bread? It’s not good. It’s just as easy to get good bread as it is to get bread that’s not that good, and it costs the same. It’s not like good bread is so expensive. I don’t like when I go to a restaurant and they serve the bread and the bread is just not good.

You need good Italian bread to start the meal. You agree? Let me know. Okay, getting close. The water is almost boiling. You bring the water to a boil. I’m sure everybody knows that. That makes pasta. This is looking good. The garlic is nice. Now, as soon as I put the pasta in, which takes normally about nine, ten minutes, that’s when I’ll stop putting the tomatoes in. And the tomatoes will get nice and soft, and that’s the body of the sauce. It’s the oil, obviously, and the tomatoes. Terrific. Let’s do this now. Making one pound here today.

Now, I wonder how many of you out there, maybe the guys, how many of you on your own can eat a pound of pasta? When I’m feeling good, I can eat a pound. No doubt about it. Usually, I’ll eat a half a pound, maybe three-quarters of a pound. I always have a second bowl. When I’m in a restaurant, obviously not, but my wife never finishes hers 100%, so I normally finish some of hers. I absolutely love pasta. It is my favorite meal, no doubt about it. All different kinds. But like I said, this has become just about my number one because it’s light.

I can eat a lot of it. It’s delicious. It’s flavorful. That’s it for me. Got a nice loaf of Italian bread. Put it in the oven. Heat it up a little bit. When you put the bread in the oven, it’s really up to you. I mean, I have it right now at 300. It’ll just warm up a little bit faster. But you just want to get it warm. You know, if you’re making garlic bread or cheese bread or something like that, you cut it in half. You put the cheese and garlic on it, and then you’re going to broil it because you want it to get a little bit dark on the top.

But to me, I just love Italian bread, so I heat it up a little bit, cut it, a little bit of butter, dip it in the oil. It’s great with the pasta. Absolutely great. All right. Let’s go with the tomatoes. Start them, get them in there. Like I said, you could either… And then when they get soft, you smash them up a little bit. Don’t skip on the tomatoes. Because this is the body of your sauce. Matter of fact, we’re going to throw them all in there. How’s that? I don’t know if you got a timer on, but this is all…

This is a 20-minute to 25-minute deal. That’s it. So what do the terms dry and sweet mean in wine? Well, dry means it’s not sweet. Very, very simple. You know, simple as that. Sweet wine is normally fruity, and it’s not always a dessert wine, but it just has a little bit of a sweetness to it. And usually because it’s got a more fruity flavor. I like everything dry. I’m not too much into, you know, sweet unless it’s my fruit wines. Because the fruit wine is supposed to be sweet. But again, you know, for me, it’s the blackberry and the strawberry.

But I don’t know, you know, I’ve been getting so many comments on all of them. Some people like the… The pomegranate was the number one seller. But we introduced that first, and then the rest are coming after that. The blackberry is catching on very, very fast. And I’ve been hearing a lot about the other two also. So, you know, who knows? I mean, but for the holidays, terrific. You’ve got to have it, no doubt about it. And if you’re having pasta, it’s going to be our or any for sure. All right, let’s see how this is doing.

Excellent. All right, now it’s time to add a little bit of basil. Gives a little bit of a flavor. Always fresh basil, like I said, going to put a little bit of black pepper is good. All right, so remember, we have some basil. I’m going to put a little bit more. Now, remember, this is it’s on kind of low heat and we’re getting the tomatoes really soft. And the whole tomatoes, like I said, you can cut them in half like we did, just showing you both. And the whole tomatoes, we’re going to wait until they get sauce.

And then we’re going to just smash them a little bit so that the juices come out into the oil. And I’m sure many of you have heard the term al dente when it comes to pasta. The one thing you don’t want to do ever is overcook the pasta. Cannot do that. It’s got to be al dente, which means it’s a little bit hard, but you don’t want it mushy or soft in your mouth because that will totally ruin it. It just ruins that. It takes the flavor out of it. Al dente is the term. I got to tell you, there’s nothing like the smell of fresh garlic when you’re cooking.

It’s just terrific. So people have always asked me, Michael, what are your top three Italian foods? What do you really like to eat the best? Well, pasta, just about any kind, is number one. My grandmother used to make these homemade raviolis. Now, if I really, really feel ambitious, because that’s a big job. I mean from scratch, making the dough and making the raviolis from scratch. If I really feel ambitious and energetic, I know how to do it and I’ll do it. I don’t know if any of you are going to take the time to do that because it’s time consuming, but the raviolis are the best.

Absolutely the best. So they’re one of my favorites. I don’t normally order them in a restaurant. I always order a light pasta in a restaurant. Sometimes with a vodka sauce is great. All different ways, you know, and so many restaurants make it to their own style really good. Pasta number one, I love meatballs. I’ll be honest with you. Every restaurant now I go to, I order the meatballs because that’s a test for me. If they make good meatballs, then they really know what they’re doing. They’re really Italian. And that’s an indication to me that the rest of them, I always order them in advance because now they make them as appetizers quite a bit.

You can order it up front as an appetizer. If the meatballs are good, I said, okay, I think we’re in for a good meal. If it’s a new restaurant that I haven’t been to yet. So I love meatballs. You know, people ask me, do you like veal parmesan? Of course I do. Veal parmesan is terrific. Chicken parmesan, terrific. You know, all of these Italian food. Arancini, the rice balls, I love them. If they’re made right, delicious. Yes, I can make them and show you how to do that also. We’re going to come up. We’re going to make all the Italian dishes that you love.

And then I’m going to give you a treat. I also love Mexican food and I play around with Mexican food also. My wife’s a great cook there. Maybe my wife will come on with me. We’ll do it together. She’s terrific. Believe me. But Mexican food is amazing. All right, we’re getting there. Tomatoes are getting soft. Like I said, we smash them a little bit because that lets the juice go out into the oil. And that’s what we want. You can see the oil starting to get a little bit red because these juices are coming out. And gosh, they taste so good afterwards.

Let’s see how this bread is doing. All right, getting nice and warm. Got the strainer to drain the pasta. Let me check. Make sure it’s al dente. Another minute we’ll be good to go. Okay, tier one. Have you ever heard that term with wine before? It’s kind of a rare term. You don’t hear that that often, but it means where it’s from. Where did it come from? Well, you know, our wine is from Armenia, the world’s first vineyards under the new civilization. It talks about the soil, the region, the vibe. You know, it all comes together under terra, I think we call it.

I don’t even know how to pronounce it. But my wines, again, straight from Mount Ararat, from the country of Armenia and the world’s oldest birthplace of wine. Now, this is true. You could look it up. I mean, we’ve studied this before. I wanted to relay that to people. I really did my homework and studied it. And it really is the world’s first vineyards. Now, you know, the country of Georgia also has very old wines. But according to our research, we got them beat by a little bit. So these really are the world’s oldest vineyards. And these are the world’s original wines under the new civilization.

All right. All right. Getting close, people. Another taste. Remember what I said. It’s got to be identity. Ready to go? Now, there’s another little hint I can give you, a little trick. I’m not doing it right now is, but when we make another kind of pasta, you leave some of the water. Don’t drain it all out. You leave some of the water in there. Put the pasta back in there and let it soak up for a minute again. It just it’s kind of the juice of the pasta tastes really good when you mix it in with the sauce.

Really delicious. OK. All right. We’re just about ready. So what we do now. Is we take this delicious pasta. And we’re going to pour it right here into the sauce, just like this. And we’re going to stir it all around. That’s it. We want to get that juice, that sauce and these tomatoes all over the pasta and this delicious oil. That looks delicious. Absolutely delicious. I hope I make it as delicious as my wife does. I think so. She’d be proud of me right now. Tomatoes and sauce all around. It looks terrific. You know, people have asked me all the time, you know, Michael, what is your favorite? What is your go to dish each day of the week? Well, we don’t have it planned out.

I mean, Sunday, always pasta. Ninety nine percent of the time, pasta on Monday and growing up because Sunday meals were always so big. We eat all day on Sunday. Monday, we used to have soup. And especially remember, I grew up in New York where it’s cold in the winter. We always had soup. My mother made a chicken soup or a beef soup. We do the same now. Kind of lighter. And by the way, my favorite chicken is soup chicken. You can’t. [tr:trw].