For My Father
My father fed people. That was the thread that ran through his whole life, in every kitchen he ever stood in, at every table he ever set. He cooked for his family, for his friends, for strangers who became friends by the time they finished a plate. This book is his.
He was born and raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and he spent his whole life cooking and feeding people. It started as a teenager at A. Marucca and Sons, the produce business, run by his best friend Jimmy. After my father married, he had the luncheonette in the Deal Pharmacy, and then opened Johnny’s Good Food and Games with my uncle Joe. After that came the summers running the snack bar at the Philips Avenue Beach Club with his father, my grandfather, Anthony “Duke” Falco. My brothers and I used to sit in the back and watch the two of them cook, while my mother, Marsha, took orders from customers.
He cooked the way the best cooks do, by feel. A handful of this, a handful of that, never a measuring cup in sight. He tasted everything, off the spoon, start to finish, and trusted his mouth over anything written down. That is what made this book so hard to put together: his measurements lived in his hands. What you hold is our best effort to set down what he simply knew. Treat the amounts as a place to begin, the way he would have. Taste as you go. Make it your own.
Every chapter is a person.
- Part OneNonno’s Ristorante6Pasta al Nonno, Mussels Anisette, Rigatoni al Nicolina, Balsamic Cheesesteak, Tiramisu…
- Part TwoJohn Falco57Johnny’s Meatballs, Pizza Rustica, Chicken Scarpariello, Baccalà, Jersey Tomato Salad…
- Part ThreeElizabeth Brown80Baked Rice Balls, Frigadils, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Cheese Ball, Griddle Cakes…
- Part FourNicolina “Nana Nellie” Brown88Artichokes, Ham and Escarole, Pizzagain, Chocolate Pudding…
- Part FiveMarsha Falco95Crab Dip, Asparagus with Parmigiano Reggiano, Stuffed Calamari, Italian Ricotta Cheesecake…
- Part SixGrandma Falco101Waffles, Ginginettes, Sponge Cake, Custard, Easter Bread…
- Part SevenAunt Freda107String Beans and Potatoes, Cream Puffs, Conch Salad, Baccalà Salad
- Part EightUncle Joe, Betty Sylvester & Aunt Rose115Uncle Joe’s Special B‑B‑Q, Monkey Bread, Betty’s Morsetts, Aunt Rose’s Pound Cake
- Part NineFeast of the Seven Fishes121The history, the Christmas Eve menu, Fried Eel, Stuffed Lobster Tail, Seafood Salad
- ClosingIn Loving Memory128The Falco Family · John Falco, from Rudy, Nicholas & Michael
Nonno’s Ristorante
Retirement did not suit him. So when Nick came to his father about opening a restaurant, John lit up. They called it Nonno’s; the name came from Sophia, his granddaughter. Nick ran the kitchen. John was out front, the face to go with the name, working the dining room and greeting everyone like family. He brought his friends in to sing on dinner-and-music nights: Nicky Addeo, Johnny Petillo, Steve Siciliano.
The recipes in Part One came from him, from Nick, and most of all from the two of them together — his instincts and Nick’s, argued over, tasted, and agreed upon.
John Falco
More than anything, he loved to feed people, and Sunday was when he did it. Sunday dinner was not optional; you were home for it. Marsha. Rudy and Michael. His mother, Elizabeth Brown. His brother Joseph. His niece Nicolina. The same table, every week — and on Christmas Eve, the Feast of the Seven Fishes was his and his alone.
Part Two is the food that never went on any menu: the dishes he cooked at home, for the family.
Elizabeth Brown
The women of his family were every bit their equal at the stove. His mother, Elizabeth Brown, was an extraordinary cook who fed the family and held it together, and who passed down everything she knew. Every holiday was at the house, the cooking passed back and forth between Marsha and her.
Nicolina Brown
His grandmother, Nicolina — the one everyone called Nana Nellie — cooked the way the family still does: escarole and ham in golden olive oil, artichokes with breadcrumbs, a Sunday stuffing of ricotta and egg spooned into pasta and baked, made for a crowd. Her Easter Pie, the pizzagain, is still on the table every spring.
Marsha Falco
She took the orders at the beach club snack bar while John and Duke cooked in the back. She ran A&J Produce with him for decades. And every Sunday and every holiday, the cooking passed back and forth between Marsha and her mother-in-law. Her crab dip is the one that never makes it off the table.
Jessie Falco
He came from people who cooked. Duke was a baker by trade, and Duke had learned it from his own father, Joseph, the man everyone knew as Grandpa Falco, a master baker who taught some of the best bakeries at the Shore how to make Italian bread. Three generations of Falco men with flour on their hands. Grandma Falco’s recipes are the sweet side of that house: waffles with a hint of orange, Easter cookies, a sponge cake built on a dozen eggs.
Alfreda Brown
A generation before Nonno’s, John’s aunt Alfreda “Freda” Aldarelli was running Freda’s Restaurant on Ridge Avenue in Asbury Park — by her own advertisement, the most famous Italian restaurant along the Jersey coast. Her conch salad and cream puffs are in the book; so is the ad.
Uncle Joe, Aunt Betty
& Aunt Rose
The Brown side of the table. Uncle Joe’s slow-simmered pulled pork and his gooey monkey bread; Betty’s twice-baked morsetts with orange and anise; Aunt Rose’s pound cake. The recipes came on index cards and in the margins of letters, and they’re set down here exactly as they were given.
Five generations, one table.
The two family-tree sheets from the front of the book, as printed. Drag to move, pinch or scroll to zoom. Sheet one is the Falco line; sheet two is the Brown & Aldarelli families.
134 pages, full color.
A few pages, unbuttoned. Ingredients and directions stay in the book.
Feast of the Seven Fishes
A tradition passed for generations. On Christmas Eve the table belonged to the sea — and the cooking was his, and his alone.
- Shrimp Scampifrom the Nonno’s menu
- Linguine with Clam Saucefrom the Nonno’s menu
- Fried Eelcapitone — the heart of the old supper
- Stuffed Lobster TailJohn and Marsha Falco
- Seafood Saladconch, calamari, shrimp, lemon
- Stuffed CalamariMarsha Falco
- Baccalàsalt cod, soaked two days ahead
For many Italian American families, Christmas Eve belongs to the sea. The table is given over to fish, course after course, in a long and unhurried meal that can run from early evening until it is time to leave for midnight Mass. The name is an American one — in Italy the night is La Vigilia, and the meal has no fixed count of dishes at all.
Two fish appear so often that many consider them the heart of the original supper: capitone, the eel, and baccalà, the salt cod. Around those anchors swims everything else the season and the family favor. Beneath the debates over numbers and names, the meaning of the evening has never been in doubt: a way to hold on to who you are, and to bind yourself to the relatives at the table and the ones long gone.
John Falco
He and my mother worked themselves to the bone when we were small, so that my brothers and I could have a good education and a good life. Family was everything to him. It was the reason he worked as hard as he did, and everything he built, he built for us.
These recipes are part of what he left us. They passed through five generations before they reached these pages, and we have kept them exactly as they were given to us. We miss you.
Now available
Bring the book home.
Cook from it, taste as you go, feed the people you love. His legacy lives on every time someone does.
A Jersey Shore Memories publication · Written by Nicholas John Falco · Cover & illustrations by Rudy Falco