Learn to make some delicious recipes, straight from your neighbor’s cookbook!
If you’d like to submit a recipe, please email x@historicgermantown.org.
Quarantini Sauce with Meatballs and Choice of Pasta
During the 1960’s, the neighborhood around Providence College was a rich ethnic enclave of Italian Americans, mostly from the area around Naples. Scattered across this community were markets specializing in all manner of Italian delicacies (think prosciutto!) and amazingly aromatic bakeries (think cannolis!).
My place was the top floor of a tenement building whose elderly owners, Pasquale (Pat) and Maria (Mary) DeQuattro, lived below. Every Wednesday (a cliche, but, true) around five I’d hear a gentle tap on my door. There would be Pat, smiling, and presenting me with a steaming casserole dish of this week’s pasta...always served with two links of Italian sausage and Mary’s special “gravy.” When I copied her creation this week it spurred so many vivid memories of these wonderful human beings and how they lovingly embraced me and my new family.
This posting is in memory of Mary and Pat. This simple recipe took me beyond the confines of Germantown and made this pasta Wednesday a very special day.