The Fante Family

About The Fante Family

The Fante family immigrated to the United States in the late 1800’s, and founded Fante’s in the Italian Market, the heart of Philadelphia in 1906. The entire extended family worked in the business and adapted it with the times. Originally a cabinet maker’s shop, the store began selling other items when the Fante sons took over the business in the 1920’s. However, when war broke out in in the 1930’s they were unable to continue importing European goods and began selling cookware, marking the beginnings of the modern kitchen wares shop that exists today. The Giovannucci family emigrated from Italy in the mid-1960’s and settled in Philadelphia, where they became friends with Dominic Fante. Dominic was a community leader devoted to the plight of others in the neighborhood, with a soft spot for immigrants. Three of the Giovannucci siblings found part-time jobs after school at Fante’s. When Dominic and his brother decided to retire, Mariella was a teacher, Nicolino was a bank officer, and Daniele was a hotel manager. Together, the siblings took over Fante’s in 1981, and maintained the company’s reputable focus on providing kitchen tools from the mundane (eg: vegetable peelers) to the very unusual (eg: duck press). Fante’s offers breadth and depth within each category of items, and are a resource of information for customers on all the products they sell. A new generation of Giovannucci’s is now involved in the business, continuing the family tradition of providing quality products, excellent service, and knowledge to all. Link to more detailed historical information on our website: http://fantes.com/history.html

Contributed by Liana, of the Fante family of Philadelphia.

I love gnocchi. Okay, full disclosure: I am obsessed with gnocchi. If gnocchi is on the menu, I will be ordering it. I love any excuse to make it for my friends and family. (Who am I kidding? I make them for me and force myself to share.) My obsession is so infamous that the gnocchi board in our Fante’s line is named after me.

Thinking about making gnocchi with Nonna always makes me smile. Gravy would be bubbling on the stove because Nonna believed that gnocchi deserved fresh gravy. All of us cousins would pile around her kitchen table after church Sunday morning to roll out the dough into long, thin ropes. She would always cut the pieces (lest we be trusted with sharp objects), and then we would all roll our share on the gnocchi boards (she kept four of them in the house so we wouldn’t have to take turns and fight – hence not letting us use sharp objects!). We all had our own quirky method, each with its own distinctive look. As we ate the gnocchi that afternoon the conversation would be peppered with interruptions of, “I got Sandro’s” or “this one must be Elisa’s” and the like.

Cousin Liana’s Gnocchi Board from the Fante’s Collection of Italian Cookware Made by Harold Import Co.

Here is Nonna’s secret and some tips and recipes that she passed on to make your own gnocchi attempts a success!

THE SECRET: Everyone thinks I am crazy, but my Nonna (born and raised on a farm in northern Italy) used instant mashed potatoes to make her gnocchi. Shocking, I know. Guess what? She experimented for years, and ultimately settled on instant because they helped her to control the recipe. The amount of starch and water in each potato varies, so a gnocchi recipe is constantly changing based on that. As you may know from making pasta, the humidity changes make a difference in the amount of flour required as well. With all of these variables, achieving the perfect gnocchi is a tough task! Also, by using instant potatoes, you can make an incredibly dry potato mixture (using butter and milk), further reducing the amount of flour you need to use. The result? Gnocchi with intense potato flavor and a light, airy texture that melts in your mouth.

THE PRO TIP: Nonna never made gnocchi in the summer or when it was raining. I learned the hard way that it was because humidity wreaks havoc on gnocchi. I made them on a hot and humid July day for a party I was throwing, assuming I could simply adjust the flour as needed for a successful batch. It was truly a disaster. I had to run out and buy an extra 5 pounds of flour (which we used all of) to get the proper texture, and ended up with incredibly dense gnocchi. Nonna, I now understand why we had to wait until summer was over to have gnocchi, and I’m sorry for bothering you so much about it!

To all you purists out there, more power to you! I’ve included both her recipes below. Have fun with them! There are so many wonderful gnocchi variations, that once you have the basics down you can get creative.

Nonna’s Perfect Gnocchi
Serves 4

1 Cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1 ½ Cups Instant Potato Flakes
2 eggs
¾ Cup All-Purpose flour + more for sprinkling

In a small saucepan, melt the butter in the milk over low heat. Once the butter is melted, add the potato flakes while stirring. The result should be a very dry potato mixture that has a crumbly texture. Set aside to cool.

Once the potato mixture is cool enough to touch, combine the eggs, flour and potatoes. Knead until the dough is a homogenous color and texture. If the dough is too sticky, add a small amount of flour and knead together. Be careful not to add to much flour!

Making Gnocchi

Once the dough is formed, divide it into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into long ropes about 3/4 inches thick. Cut them into ¾ inch “dumplings,” dusting with flour as your go. Prepare your gnocchi board by sprinkling a little flour on it. Roll one at a time using your gnocchi board, adding more flour as needed to prevent sticking. To roll, simply press the side of your thumb into your “dumpling” creating a divet and use even pressure to push down. The result will be a half moon curl with ridges on the outside and a small pocket in the center.

Boil at least a 3 quart pot of water and salt to taste. Add 1/3 of the gnocchi to the boiling water, give a quick stir, and cover with the lid. When the water comes back to a boil (1-2 minutes) your gnocchi will be cooked perfectly. Skim them off the top of the water with a spider and then add your favorite sauce immediately. Repeat twice with the rest of the gnocchi. Enjoy!

Nonna’s Potato Gnocchi
Serves 6-7

5 Idaho Potatoes
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons Butter (or Oil)
Pinch of Salt
All-Purpose Flour

Boil potatoes in water, then skin them and rice them into a pile while still hot. Make a similar, or slightly smaller, sized pile of sifted flour. Mix the riced potatoes and flour with the eggs and butter. Mix only until a paste is formed, but not too long, or the mixture will become too soft.

Cousin Liana’s Gnocchi Board from the Fante’s Signature Line of Italian Cookware from Harold Import Co.

Roll the dough into strips 1/2” to 3/4” in diameter, and cut them into 1” lengths. Roll Gnocchi on your gnocchi board, to create indentations that will permit better and quicker cooking.

Put Gnocchi into salted boiling water one at a time, to prevent their sticking together. Cook 5 to 10 minutes, according to desired taste. Serve with tomato or meat sauce.

Fante Family

Sunday Dinners: The Special Occasions. Contributed by The Fante family.

Since I was a little girl, Sundays were reserved for family. Both my parents’ businesses – Fante’s (a kitchen wares shop) and Esposito’s (a butcher shop) in the Italian Market of Philadelphia both closed by 2PM in order to have mid-afternoon Sunday dinner. Along with my sister and 3 cousins, we would spend the whole day at our Nonni’s (grandparents’) home: going to church, helping cook dinner and playing together. My Nonna would wake up at the crack of dawn to chop all the vegetables for the gravy and start it simmering with the tomatoes which she would put through a food mill to create a uniform sauce. She would then make the meatballs and sausage, fry them, and add them to the sauce, which would be simmering on low heat by the time my sister and I woke up and made it downstairs for our traditional chocolate chip pancake breakfast (we were totally spoiled).

Filled to the brim with pancakes, we would help her to make the pasta dough and leave it to rest, covered, while we went to church. When we returned, we would continue to cook the sauce, allowing it to simmer while we rolled out the dough on the manual pasta maker. All of the cousins took turns working the crank and catching the pasta – it was always at least a 2-cousin job.

Normal Sunday dinners meant fresh meatballs, sausage and gravy served with homemade pasta of some kind. For special occasions like birthdays and holidays, we would do trays of lasagna. Nonna would supervise all of the extra tasks for making the lasagna, the most important being the fresh grated cheese. We love cheese! And did I mention our Sunday dinners included an epic amount of food? Every week about 12 family members would join us around a table meant for 6, filled with enough food to comfortably feed 30. These large trays of lasagna require a lot of cheese. The older cousins were responsible to grate about a pound of parmesan and shred about 2 pounds of mozzarella. We all proudly sported some scarred knuckles from the rasp we used [that we swear] she had brought with her from Italy. It was torture. She eventually replaced it with a large rotary grater which made the job so much easier! It handled the volume, and it was simple to swap the drums for each cheese. We could also all take turns since it didn’t require as much elbow grease or Band-Aids. We are so excited to have a new cousin (#6) – Nico! We can’t wait for the day we can enlist his help to use the grater named after him to make some Sunday dinner lasagna. Here is the recipe for a smaller-portion of our lasagna. We typically make it with just sauce and cheese. You can certainly substitute bought lasagna for the pasta portions and add meat to customize it to your family’s tastes. You can also find many of our family recipes (as well as embarrassing family photos) included with the Fante’s line of products. Buon appetito!

Aunt Gina of the Fante Family

Aunt Gina’s Lasagna

Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 lb. homemade lasagna strips
1 lb. ground meat (beef, pork or mixture)
4 cups salsa marinara (recipe, scroll down)
16 oz. mozzarella, shredded
16 oz. grated cheese (parmigiano and pecorino)

1. Brown ground meat in a fry pan then drain off the fat. Place salsa marinara in a sauce pan, stir in browned meat and heat gently over a medium flame until it’s hot. Stir occasionally to keep it from sticking.

2. Meanwhile, roll pasta dough (scroll down for recipe) to desired thickness and cut into 2 ½” wide strips (Try Cousin Daniele’s Expandable Dough Cutter. Available at Fante’s)

Fante’s Cousin Daniele’s Expandable Dough Cutter

3. Spoon hot meat sauce into the bottom of a 11” x 15” baking dish.

4. Place a single layer of lasagna strips into the baking dish, lengthwise. Layer with grated cheese (try Fante’s Papa Francesco’s Rotary Cheese Grater or Fante’s Cousin Nico’s Suction Base Cheese Grater, available at Fante’s) and mozzarella then top with meat sauce. Repeat these steps for the second layer but place lasagna strips widthwise. Alternating the direction of the pasta strips will keep your lasagna from falling apart when it’s cut.

Fante’s Cousin Nico’s Suction Base Cheese Grater

5. Repeat step 5 to make as many layers as you like. Finish by spooning more sauce on top and sprinkle with grated cheese. 6. Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes or until sauce and cheese are bubbling. Remove lasagna from the oven and let rest for 30 minutes before serving.

Grandma Nadia of the Fante Family

Grandma Nadia’s Pasta Dough

Makes 2 pounds of dough
2 eggs, at room temperature
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 to 8 ounces tepid water, as needed

1. Place flour on a wooden board, make a well and break the eggs into it.

2. If you prefer, you can mix it in a bowl with a fork or in an electric mixer with a dough hook.

Pasta Dough Step 1

Nadias Pasta Dough Step 2

3. Slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs. There should be just enough moisture so the ingredients stick together to form a smooth, elastic ball but not enough to stick to the table or bowl.

Pasta Dough Step 3

Pasta Dough Step 4

4. You may need to add a bit of water if the dough is too dry and crumbly, or a bit more flour if too wet and sticky.

5. Cover the dough with a clean towel and let it set for about 30 minutes.

6. Use a sharp knife to cut off a chunk from the ball (photo 4).

7. Flatten the chunk of dough with the heal of your hand then roll it out to the desired thickness with a floured rolling pin.

8. Proceed with Step 2 of Aunt Gina’s lasagna recipe instructions, above.

Attilio of the Fante Family

Attilio’s and Mariella’s Salsa Marinara – Marinara Sauce

Makes 1 quart (4 to 6 servings)
36-oz. can crushed tomatoes
5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped (Try Fante’s Uncle Cristian’s Garlic Slicer and Grater, available at Fante’s)