ROSALIE JOSEPH
Lives with her husband, Thomas, in East Farmingdale, where they raised three children, Thomas, Matthew and Danielle. Works as a hairdresser at Jupiters Salon in Wantagh.
Why did you recently find yourself making pasta con le sarde? It's a Sicilian dish usually served on St. Joseph's Day in March. But it's one of our favorite dishes - half my family is Sicilian - so we make it all the time. Recently I made it for our family reunion; our first reunion was featured in a Newsday story about Italian food 35 years ago.
What was the reunion like? There were 100 people, at the East Farmingdale firehouse. And everybody made their specialty. We had cubanelle peppers stuffed with ricotta; pizza rustica; my bow-tie pasta lasagna; ziti with eggplant; pizza di grana; artichoke pie . . . penne alla vodka and even homemade wine . . . and Italian pastries.
Does that reflect your upbringing? I grew up in Ozone Park. We all lived on the same block: On my father's side, my uncle had a vegetable and fruit stand called Schembri's; on my mother's side, the DiPalmas, they were butchers.
Do you remember the first meal you ever cooked? I took a cooking class in school and made spaghetti with marinara sauce and garlic bread. After that, whenever we would visit family, my mother would say, 'Do you want Rosalie to cook?' And I'd make the marinara sauce and garlic bread.
How has your cooking changed over the years? My husband is German, a meat-and-potatoes man. I've diverted to making pot roasts, roast beef, pork roasts. I had to learn on my own.
Any cooking disasters along the way? When I was first dating my husband I was making French fries, so I decided to deep-fry the hamburgers. It was not good! They were full of oil and hard as rocks.
What would you whip up for unexpected guests? I always have some kind of frozen pasta - tortellini or ravioli - and sauce. Add a meat, and there's any amount of possibilities. And I always have an entire prepared meal in the freezer . . . Usually I also have frozen homemade manicotti crepes.
PASTA CON LE SARDE - For Recipe Click here...
