ANG POMPANO: Have you ever seen the movie Nonna's? It might be because I worked in family-owned restaurants since I was young, but that film really hit home. My kids practically grew up in my father-in-law’s restaurant. We had the playpen tucked in the corner, and the nursery school snacks we packed from the kitchen made them instant celebrities with their teachers.
The premise of Nonna's is a simple one. Vince Vaughn plays a guy whose beloved grandmother and mother have passed away. To feel closer to them, he decides to recreate his nonna's legendary tomato sauce. With zero restaurant experience, he opens a place anyway and starts interviewing Italian grandmothers, all in the hopes of finding one who can make tomato sauce just like hers.
Maybe it was fate that I'd fall for this movie. In my upcoming book, Diet of Death, my character Quincy Lazzaro is mentored by an Italian nonna, Mary Ticarelli. It felt like a sign.
I won't give away the ending, but if you're the kind of person who sees food and thinks of family and love, this movie will leave you with a smile on your face. And really, doesn't that describe most of us?
There are countless ways to make tomato sauce, each with its own personality. (If you're from New York you may call it gravy, but around here gravy goes on turkey!)
At this time of year, when crabs are in season in Connecticut, the sauce that makes me happiest is Crab Sauce. It takes me right back to my childhood, to days spent with my dad, a simple string, a piece of chicken, and a net.
In that spirit, here is my family's recipe for Crab Sauce. Enjoy!
Nonna’s Crab Sauce
Ingredients
6 hard shell crabs (you can buy them frozen but you can’t beat the taste if you catch them or buy them fresh from the fish market.)
1 clove of garlic (or more is you like garlic)
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 bottle of clam juice
2 cans of crushed Italian plum tomatoes
water
pepper to taste (I don’t use salt because crabs can be salty)
3 or four leaves of fresh basil (whole or in pieces)
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
Steps
In a saucepan, brown the garlic in the olive oil. When the garlic is browned remove it to a small plate.
Sauté the crabs in the oil, brown them well for about 10 minutes on medium high heat
Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, and clam juice.
Return garlic to the sauce
Cover and simmer on a low to medium flame for 2 hours stirring occasionally to make sure it’s not sticking on the bottom. If it is, lower the heat.
Serve over thin linguine macaroni, or lobster ravioli.
If you try the recipe let me know how you like it. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks, Ang
Ang Pompano is a mystery author, editor, publisher and blogger. He writes the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency, and the Reluctant Food Columnist series, both published by Level Best Books. In addition to his writing, Ang is a co-founder of Crime Spell Books and serves as co-editor of the Best New England Crime Stories anthology. He blogs about food on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Annette, an artist, and their two rescue dogs.
When It’s Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano
Al DeLucia walked away from the police—and his past. But when his long-lost father leaves him a detective agency in Savannah, Al finds himself trapped between family secrets and a murder on the agency’s dock. Partnered with Maxine Brophy, a fierce detective who doesn’t trust him, Al is pulled into a deadly search through Savannah and the Okefenokee Swamp—where the truth about the case, and his father, may cost him everything.
Blood Ties and Deadly Lies by Ang Pompano
Al DeLucia returns to Sachem Creek expecting a kayak race and a chance to confront his childhood bully, Abe Cromwell. Instead, he finds a dead lawyer, a web of deceit, and Abe claiming they’re brothers by DNA. Reluctantly joined by Maxine Brophy, his formidable partner and girlfriend, Al dives into a murder investigation that exposes land swindles, hidden maps, and buried family secrets. In a town where the past won’t stay buried, Al must face truths that could upend everything.
