The Sopranos Italian Recipes to Make at Home Now (2024)

As a self-imposed quarantine project, I binge-watched all 86 episodes of HBO's The Sopranos. My mission: focus on the scene-stealing food featured at the New Jersey mob family's Italian table. While there are a few books dedicated to the show's cuisine, like The Sopranos Cookbook Compiled by Artie Bucco, here is La Cucina Italiana's version of some classic dishes cooked up during its six seasons. These tasty recipes are guaranteed to satisfy every one of your macaroni with gravy cravings and more.

Big Sunday dinners are a weekly ritual at the Sopranos home, much like it is for many Italian-American families. "This family stuff, these Sunday dinners, they're important," Tony once said to his sister Janice. Guests included extended family and close friends.

The Sopranos Italian Recipes to Make at Home Now (1)

(HBO, still)

Meals were mostly prepared by Carmela, Tony's wife. Bread and a green salad were staples, along with a rotating menu of pasta featuring macaroni with marinara or Bolognese sauce,lasagna,manicotti, oreggplant. Meat dishes like roast chicken orveal pizzaiolaand a vegetable as simple as green beans or something fancier like stuffed artichokes completed the main meal. Desserts, not exclusive to Sundays, were oftencannolis, tiramisu, and sfogliatella (lobster tail pastry filled with sweetened whipped cream and ricotta) and occasionally pastries from Little Italy's iconic Ferrara Bakery.

But the most influential sweet treat in the show was thericotta pie with pineapples; a flavorful Neapolitan dessert often served at Easter. Baked by Carmela then delivered as a threat to a neighbor's sister so she would write daughter Meadow a recommendation to Georgetown— Tony's heavy hand in her back pocket didn't hurt—turned out to be an effective bribery strategy.

As the matriarch, Carmela was the link connecting food, family, and love, and everyone was crazy about her cooking. Even her parish priest randomly appeared on her doorstep one evening during a severe thunderstorm. The reason: "I have a confession to make," said Father Phil, "I have a jones for your baked ziti."

Regardless of Father Phil's true intentions—you'll have to tune in to find out—he wasn't the only one raving about Carm's ziti with sweet sausages. It was a family favorite and for a good reason. There are a variety ofbaked pastaoptions to satisfy everyone's taste, among them is Palermo-style with fried eggplant and boiled eggs.

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While the show was heavy on the red sauce,spaghetti with clamsandplates with musselswere also in the mix. When the Jersey boys went to Naples to import a new crew member, unfamiliar preparations of some dishes were served at a dinner meeting with their Italian counterparts. Paulie Walnuts, one of Tony's chief henchmen, picked at hismussels with black pastathen asked for macaroni with gravy. The Italians sitting next to him were horrified, "and you thought the Germans were classless," said one.

This notion that Italian-Americans are still considered "pizza makers and Mamma Leonie's" was a topic of discussion at an Italian pride ladies luncheon that Carmela and a few of the mob wives attended. One piece of advice offered to debunk the stereotype: "If they say spaghetti and meatballs, you tell them orecchiette with broccoli rabe."

But the recipes shared by Italian immigrants of previous generations are a part of their heritage the Sopranos celebrated.They servedZuppa Maritata(wedding soup), made by combining meat and vegetables, every Thanksgiving. Originating in Naples, this meatball and "shcarole" (escarole) soup was served after the antipasti course but before the baked manicotti and "the bird."

Meat factored heavily into the Sopranos diet. Italian cold cuts like prosciutto and "gabagool" (capicola) were well-stocked items in the fridge. Grilling steaks and sausages on the barbeque from Satriale's Pork Store, one of Tony's legitimate business fronts and a frequent hangout, was a favorite activity.

The crew often gathered at Satriale's, sipping espresso and Pellegrino at the outdoor tables or for a team meal and sometimes, for off-hours criminal business. A dish they all loved wasbraciole, Sicilian style meat rolls made with beef and filled with cheese. Because of its irresistible flavor, Tony suggested to a depressed crew member, "If you want to commit suicide, tie your shoes, and have a bite of braciole."

Italian food and The Sopranos are slices of perfection. If you are hungry for more, The Many Saints of Newark, the series prequel film, will be released in 2021.

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The Sopranos Italian Recipes to Make at Home Now (2024)

FAQs

What was the famous food in Sopranos? ›

Meals were mostly prepared by Carmela, Tony's wife. Bread and a green salad were staples, along with a rotating menu of pasta featuring macaroni with marinara or Bolognese sauce, lasagna, manicotti, or eggplant.

What pasta dish is often seen on The Sopranos? ›

Baked Ziti: As Made Famous by The Sopranos. A specialty of the Campania region, and particularly well-loved in buzzing Naples, ziti are long dried pasta tubes that are traditionally broken into shorter pieces just before they're cooked.

What is a manigot food in The Sopranos? ›

Manigot. For manicotti, which are large ridged pasta tubes that are stuffed, usually with ricotta. The finished dish is also called manicotti. Mutzadell or just mutz.

What does Tony eat in The Sopranos? ›

However, there is no specific dish that can be attributed to him as his favorite food. Throughout the series, Tony is shown enjoying various Italian-American dishes such as spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, baked ziti, and veal parmesan, among others. He also enjoys fast food, especially hamburgers and onion rings.

What does Vito cook in Sopranos? ›

In The Sopranos, the protagonist of one of the more compelling/tragic side stories, Vito, cooks his New Hampshire hottie-biker-cum-diner-owner date a dish of what he calls “Pasta Badan.” In the half-second that we see it, it looks like life-sustaining, heavenly gruel.

What meat do The Sopranos eat? ›

The Sopranos 20th Anniversary

According to The Daily Meal, capicola is a "type of salumi" that's basically a "cross between prosciutto and sausage."

What does oogatz mean in Italian? ›

OOGATZ (OO Gotz) - Nothing.

Why do they say Marone in Sopranos? ›

Marone! This is another exclamation that you will hear frequently in The Sopranos and in context, it means "damn it!" Just as with the above examples of slang from the show, this too is actually a corrupted version of a standard Italian word.

What does Tony Soprano call meat? ›

And if you're making your way through the series for the first (or hundredth) time, you might notice that a certain word comes up an awful lot: gabagool. Tony Soprano utters the word many many times, as do his Italian American co-stars.

What were they eating in the final scene of The Sopranos? ›

Tony Soprano was last seen eating onion rings and listening to “Don't Stop Believin'” while sitting in a red restaurant booth. TV sets across the world abruptly cut to black, and fans of “The Sopranos” have since debated the mafia boss's fate.

Why do they eat so much on The Sopranos? ›

We don't just see Tony overeating in the show so that he has something to do in the scene; it's strategically woven throughout the show to demonstrate his constant need for satisfaction.

What is Gabagool food? ›

Capicola (also called Coppa, Cotto, or Gabagool) is made from the prized cut of the neck and shoulder. It is cured for ten days, after which it is then coated in black pepper, fennel seed, coriander, and anise, and slow-roasted to produce a tender shoulder ham.

What is the Italian feast in The Sopranos? ›

The feast depicted in the episode and named as the Feast of St. Elzéar is based on the annual Feast of St. Gerard, organized every October around the church of St. Lucy's in the Seventh Avenue of Newark, a historical neighborhood of Italian-Americans, which used to be known as the First Ward.

What is the Italian meat from Sopranos? ›

The Sopranos 20th Anniversary

According to The Daily Meal, capicola is a "type of salumi" that's basically a "cross between prosciutto and sausage."

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