Mama Leones

Posted by Peggy Fretz 
Re: Mama Leones
January 01, 2012 09:05PM
I ate at mama leones in the late 60's. Had the 7 course dinner. WOW!!! What is the name of the flakey cookie with the powdered sugar on it. Last thing we ate. I'd love to try making them.
Re: Mama Leones
January 02, 2012 03:07PM
Mother Leone'sMeat sauce [for spaghetti]

1/2 pound salt port, diced
1/4 cup olive oil'1/4 cup butter
3/4 pound onions, peeled and diced
1 pound lean beef cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 pound lean pork shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 chicken livers, chopped fine
4 chicken gizzards cut into small pieces
2 bay leaves
5 garlic cloves mashed
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 bounds ripe fresh tomatoes or 6 cans [1 pound each] peeled plu tomatoes, chopped fine
1/3 pound carrots, scraped and minced
1/4 pound celery minced
salt
7 ounces tomato paste

Combine salt pork, oilive oil and butter in a large saucepan; heat. Add onions and saute to medium brown. Add beef, pork, chicken livers and gizzards and bay leaves; stir. Cook slowly, uncovered for 30 minutes. Chop garlic and rosemary together and add to the sauce with allspice and pepper. Stir well and continue to cook over low heat for 20 minute, and inhale the aroma. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, carrots, celery, and 1/2 tablespoon salt. Simmer slowly for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Do not hurry the cooking for a good sauce.

Remove sauce from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Then strain the sauce. Put whatever remains in the strainer through a food mill and return it to the sauce. Add the tomato paste, stir well, and bring to a boil. Check for salt, adding more if necessary. Any sauce that is not for immediate use can be frozen for a future ocasion. Makes 3 1/2 quarts.
Re: Mama Leones
January 26, 2012 01:21AM
When growing up my family lived in northern New Jersey for ten years. My birthday is on December 28th, when everybody is out of town or busy with the holidays, so I rarely had a birthday party. As an alternative, my mom would take a friend and me into New York for the day. We usually started at the American Museum of Natural History. Then lunch at the Horne and Hardart Automat. A movie at the Cinnerama theatre and then dinner at Mama Leone's. I still remember the great anti-pasta platter that preceded the serious food. My favorite was spaghetti. So Nonie, thanks for the recipe, I'll give it a try. I turned sixty this year so this was all back about fifty years ago.
Max
Re: Mama Leones
February 01, 2012 08:28AM
I was there in the late 70's - tough times for the City - the pre-Giuliani, post-fiscal crisis and graffiti obscured subway days. But Mama Leone's was stellar. I remember hitting it on a gorgeous Fall Sunday afternoon and being treated to a multi-course feast of excellence. It took quite a few blocks of Manhattan to walk it off; I remember heading over to the East River, then downtown and back again to midtown before turning in.
Re: Mama Leones
April 02, 2012 01:49PM
Mama Leone's was a fabulous experience! I was there in 1981 for my birthday and recall the building stood out because of the lighting but it seemed to be in a not so great site. Then, once inside, the decor made you feel it was a step back in time...plus there were 1 or 2 strolling musicians serenading the diners. I do have 1 of the paper menus and a friend had it framed as a gift for me. All in all it is a great memory! Too bad it's gone.
Re: Mama Leones
April 02, 2012 08:58PM
Mama Leone's was the best. My dad Joe Montalbano Sr ran it for many years while working for Restuant Assco. RA still owns the rights to it but never reopened it.
If there are others by that name they are not the originals.
Re: Mama Leones
April 23, 2012 10:00AM
How I also looked forward to the huge basket of those cookies, served PRIOR to arrival of dessert, as an extra treat! They are similar to Pizzelles (thinner batter cooked on a cookie iron), but Mama Leone's served the other one. . .called FARFALETTE (fried bow tie cookies), made with a firmer cookie dough, shaped, fried, and sprinkled w/conf sugar. Is a cookie that is common in many Euro cultures, each country having its own name for them.
Re: Mama Leones
April 23, 2012 02:39PM
Just looked at a menu from 60 yrs ago. Can u believe a full course for 7.50, unless u ordered filet mignon. That cost 9.50.

The antipasti was a meal in itself!
Re: Mama Leones
April 27, 2012 09:14PM
I remember eating at Mama Leone's when I was a teenager on a school trip in the 80's. I thought it was so neat to be seated in the wine cellar, if I remember correctly.
Re: Mama Leones
May 21, 2012 02:41PM
I went to Mama Leones may tines in the 80s and 90s with my girlfriend and who now is my wife and we always had a great time and enjoyed the food at Mama Leoes. The people and the service was great and it was always the place to go before and after a broadway show. We saw many famous people there and it was such a outstanding place and a great piece of history.
Re: Mama Leones
June 02, 2012 08:09PM
I have a menu from Mama Leones which is in graet shape. It does not say what year it was printed, however the address is on it and there is no zip code. I wonder how much it may be worth?
Tim
Re: Mama Leones
June 23, 2012 08:17PM
could anyone send me a copy of the menu that Mama Leones once used?
We use many of her recipes from her book, and still are amazed at the volume of food they served. What a shame the restaurant didn't persist.
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