Cooking on the Lam

Synopsis

Like The Mafia Cookbook, this is a cookbook with a story. It's about how Joe Dogs, whose testimony sent more high-ranking mafiosi to the slammer than that of any other federal witness, set out on a trip through small-town America, a million miles from Vegas, Miami Beach, Rao's Restaurant, Little Italy, and Tony Soprano country, trying to keep one step ahead of the Gambino crime family members who were determined to whack him and causing confusion, heartache (but never heartburn), and dismay to the federal marshals who were in charge of relocating him in the heartland and who didn't think Joe should be cooking up Italian food for all sorts of strangers or identifying himself with his beloved Yorkie or visiting New York City or enjoying himself with attractive women.

Joe Dogs, being who he is, did all these things and more and writes about them with wit, savage humor, and an unerring eye for detail and the good story, even when the joke is on him. Along the way, he teaches the reader how to cook such mob favorites as Veal Francese, Tuscan Bean Crostini, Broccoli Rabe, Chicken a la Andrea, Fettuccine Alfredo, Filet Mignon Oscar, Insalata con Genoa, Clams Oregano, Filet of Red Snapper Italian Style, Linguine with White Clam Sauce, Mushrooms Stuffed with Crabmeat, Pasta Primavera with Shrimp, plus a meat loaf to die for, and many non-Italian dishes and desserts, all of them based on food you can buy at any supermarket anywhere in the United States.

You don't know how to cook? Fuhgedaboutit! These recipes are foolproof.

What's more, they're quick -- you can cook up these meals in a hurry with one eye on the driveway just in case a black late-model SUV with tinted windows happens to turn up and you have to eat and run. If you want to eat like Tony Soprano at home, without fuss or shopping in specialty stores or taking a course in Italian cooking, Joe Dogs is your man. This is the book to have on hand, in which Joe Dogs Iannuzzi, former Gambino crime family mobster and author of The Mafia Cookbook, tells the vivid story of his life on the run and of the can't fail recipes for great Italian dishes whose ingredients can be bought in a small-town supermarket when you're a thousand miles from an Italian grocery store in Little Italy and couldn't go there anyway since there's a contract out for you. These are meals you can't refuse.

Library Journal

Iannuzzi (The Mafia Cookbook) cooks up another story about life on the lam, along with a hodgepodge of 53 Italian American and Mexican recipes provided by family and friends. The result is certainly not to die for, especially with no index. His account of time spent in the Federal Witness Protection Program, while occasionally engaging, is not compelling enough to sustain interest; the recipes, whether using Cheez Whiz in a casserole or cottage cheese in an enchilada, are uninspiring fare. Readers will be better off sticking to the recipes and family food stories found in Allen Rucker and Michele Scicolone's The Sopranos Family Cookbook. Iannuzzi's latest is recommended only for public libraries where his other books are popular.-Christine Holmes, San Jose State Univ. Lib., CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.