Just some Sicilian women making the fresh tomato sauce in the backyard!

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“Ha usare u trubelli vecchio e fino, per fare squalare i pomidore”. You have to use an old and thin tablecloth so you drain the tomatoes. These tomatoes have been par-boiled so the skins break. Now they are draining after coming out of the boiling water. Next, they will be picked up all together in the tablecoth and dumped into the sauce machine.

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Three sisters and a sister-in-law all work together on making “la sarsa”. This backyard tomato sauce making season is usually around the end of August until the end of September. That’s Sicilian for Sauce. In high Italian, it’s called “salsa di pomodoro”.

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About The Sicilian Penthouse

I am a first generation Italian-American, who grew up in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn on Stanhope and Knickerbocker Avenue during the 50's and 60's. Growing up, we spoke English ("American") and our Sicilian Dialect from the town of Santa Ninfa. On our block we had many Sicilians who came from the same town as well as others who came from Castelvetrano, Santa Magherita, Cattabelotta, Mazzara, Castellamare del Golfo, etc... The "Americans" were mostly Irish Americans, and very little Spanish. We loved being American! and learning about being American. We loved going to school, PS86K on Irving Avenue, and making more American friends. It was a GREAT Era! We played on our block all day long and when we were done playing and hanging out on the stoop with our friends, we would go upstairs and have dinner with our parents. First we had a pasta dish, then we had a meat dish with a vegetable like asparagus or string beans or maybe cardones. We also would have some kind of a salad. Salads like tomato salad, or potato and green bean salad, or sometimes a regular lettuce and tomato salad. There were lots of vegetables in all our foods, like pasta piselli, pasta e fave, pasta "cu" broccolo, pasta e broccolo bianco. Stuffed peppers, stuffed artichokes, stuffed mushrooms, broccoli rabe, on and on.... I'm here to bring back these wonderful memories and the foods we ate. Hope you enjoy, "e mangia mangia!!!!" P.S. Olive Oil and Red Wine Vinegar IS Italian Dressing! Margaret Romolo Zukor

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