The Godfather-Goodfellas Pasta Sauce Smackdown

www.portablechefnyc.com ^ | November 8, 2009 | The Portable Chef

[lowbridge]

-snip

By recreating the pasta sauce that Clemenza taught Michael to make in the Godfather, and pitting it against the sauce that Paulie and Vinnie made while in the slammer in Goodfellas, I could once and for all determine which pasta sauce was better and, by extension, which was the superior film.

The first step was to capture the recipes. A ton of information is given out onscreen and in the dialogue, but it takes some digging to get at it. We see two cans each of tomatoes and tomato paste on the counter in Godfather;we hear Vinnie talk about putting two cans of tomatoes and three onions in the sauce. Vinnie says he puts veal, beef, and pork in the meatballs, and we also see him putting some bone-in meat into the sauce; Clemenza shoves in a plate of sausages and meatballs that would be easy to recreate. I went over the video like it was the Zapruder film; no detail escaped my eye.

The sauces are actually very similar in many respects: canned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, meatballs, and sausage are all involved prominently. There are six main differences:

1.Paulie slices the garlic paper-thin with a razor “so that it would liquefy in the pan with very little oil”; we don’t see Clemenza’s garlic, but are left to assumed that he chops it like the rest of us.

2.Vinnie puts browned meat (some of it bone-in) into the sauce, then separately talks of meatballs (meatballs AND meat? Hmm. I’m intrigued; for my take I’m using a pig’s foot and some beef stew meat, and will remove the pig’s foot when all’s said and done). Clemenza just puts in sausage and meatballs.

[Tainan]

Those are calamari, squids, on a stick. Grilled and sold as walkin' around snack food.
Gotta be careful eating them, they still have the beak in 'em. Kinda chewy and sometimes a little tough, think rubbery leather, but they have some tasty bits.
This place is the Land of Sidewalk Snack Foods.

[Tainan]

Ahh...sorry...to answer your question - No bacon. It would add a nice touch though.
Those are slice marks and grill marks you see.

[wtc911]

Goodfellas is every bit as good as the Godfather. Both are great flicks and impossible for me not to watch.

___________________________________

Agree as to films but neither comes close to real life. I grew up in a nabe full of "heavy fathers" (including THE godfather, Carlo Gambino). Believe me, these guys were a bunch of clowns (for the most part) with a few true psychopaths loose in the mix.

[Clemenza]

Thanks. I basically do my mothers sauce (which is very similar to other Ragu from Campagna, except better) except that I subtract the meat and add Montulpulciano and fennel.

I just never had the patience to use a razor to slice garlic.

[MissDairyGoodnessVT]

when you’re in jail you find patience to do a lot of things

[mickey finn]

Squid on a stick, sounds good except for the beak and I assume the guts.

[RandallFlagg]

The 12 ounce cans

[RandallFlagg]

Yes, and yes.

Add about a cup of sugar, too. I just discovered that this year.

[RandallFlagg]

You know what I do?
I make a LOT of fettuccine Alfredo (Shrimp and chicken) and go through those little tubs of Parmesan cheese like crazy.
What I do is after the sauce is done, fill those tubs and freeze them. Each tub will serve 2 bowls. Just nuke ‘em for 5 minutes and pour it on the pasta.

NUMMERS!!!