At last, Mama Carlino's recipes

For as long as anyone could remember, Angela DiMedio Carlino wanted to put down the recipes that built Carlino's Market into a suburban institution.

The holiday soup, the wedding peaches, the meatballs.

"She always said, 'I'm-a-write a cook-a-book and I call it Wanna Taste?' " said Jill Santoro, who has worked at Carlino's for 15 years, lovingly mimicking "Mama" Carlino's thick accent.

Mama Carlino died Nov. 4, 2007, on her 70th birthday - two days after her family opened a second store.

Her grandchildren came through, writing the cookbook. "It was the very least we could do to remember her," said Angela Carlino Milani, 24, amid poster-size photos of her grandmother in the rambling, stocked-floor-to-ceiling store on County Line Road in Ardmore.

Last week - on Nov. 4, by design - 500 people packed into the store to sample recipes and to celebrate the publication of Wanna Taste?

The self-published work, written with Lisa Loeb and right now available only at Carlino's, is as much cookbook as it is the story of Angela and Nicola Carlino, a couple from Abruzzo who eloped by moonlight, worked the olive grove on the family farm, and emigrated with their two sons in 1968.

Having settled in then-blue-collar Ardmore, Mama Carlino began selling cookies to supplement Nick Carlino's income as a maintenance supervisor. After she added pasta and sauces, in 1983, they took over a former barbershop down the street from their home and opened a retail shop.

The business grew when the Carlinos began selling at farmer's markets and wholesaling to Atlantic City casinos and high-end restaurants. The market has expanded into adjacent properties and now employs about 150 people, said grandson Nick Carlino, 22, who is in charge of marketing.

Son Pat runs the business with his wife, Laura, a bubbly and energetic woman who started working for Mama at age 18. From the book's family tree, we learn that Laura was first married to Pat's older brother, Carmen, who died suddenly in 1990. Angela and Nick are Carmen and Laura's kids, while Philip, 16, and Nadia, 12, were born to Pat and Laura.

Retail food businesses typically are a family affair, and nowhere is this clearer than with Italian specialty shops, notably Di Bruno's and Claudio's.

At Carlino's, the oldest grandchildren never seriously considered another line of work but received formal training. Nick and Angela both graduated from St. Joseph's University's food marketing program, and even though her grandmother trained her in the kitchen, Angela also studied culinary arts at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Nick and Angela think their younger siblings will follow into the business.

It was a family decision in the mid-2000s to expand Carlino's. West Chester was chosen because it was far enough from the Ardmore store to preserve the base, "but close enough that we have name recognition," Nick said.

The work on the cookbook, encompassing about 50 recipes, took two years, said Angela Milani, now Carlino's chef. The main challenge, as often happens when creating a family cookbook, was quantifying the ingredients in certain dishes. "In her broken Italian, she called for 'a cup of this, and a half-cup of that,' " Nick said, pointing out that in Mama's kitchen, a cup was not 8 ounces. Recipes also had to be scaled down for smaller batches.

"It was trial and error. 'It has to feel this way' was how she put it," said Angela, her grandmother's namesake. The aromas of the test cooking filled the family's Haverford home, where three days a week the Carlinos gather for dinner. "It might be 8 o'clock, but we make it," Laura said.

Patriarch Nick Carlino, 80, lives with the family.

Even after Mama Carlino's passing, she provided inspiration to her granddaughter. At the young woman's wedding last year, she and her new husband, Joe, noticed a plate of what appeared to be biscotti, as only her grandmother could make.

That is exactly what they were. Pastry chef Jessica Perez had stashed a part of what would be her final batch of biscotti - baked in 2007 to serve at the grand opening of the West Chester store - in a deep freezer.

That biscotti recipe is included in the book, though it's recommended that you don't freeze them for nearly three years.

Makes 3 dozen

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5 whole eggs plus 5 yolks (whites set aside)

4 cups sugar

5 cups flour

1 1/2 cups whole almonds, slightly toasted

Zest of 1/2 an orange

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar on high with an electric mixer until they are a pale color and smooth. Keep beating until the yolks form ribbons when drizzled from the whisk.

2. Lower speed to medium and slowly add the flour, almonds, orange zest, and vanilla until combined.

3. Turn mixture out onto table and form 2 long logs that are about 1 inch high and about 11/2 inches wide.

4. Lay logs on a greased baking sheet and set aside 30 minutes.

5. Blend egg whites gently with fork and brush loaves with them. Bake for 15 minutes or until risen and firm.

6. Remove from oven and slice 1/2-inch-wide diagonal slices using a serrated knife.

7. Return to oven and toast until lightly golden.

by Nick Carlino and Angela Carlino Milani with Lisa Loeb

Per serving (1 slice): 181 calories, 3 grams protein, 36 grams carbohydrates, 22 grams sugar, 3 grams fat, 26 milligrams cholesterol, 9 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

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Makes 6 to 8 servings

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1 small onion, peeled and chopped finely

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

3 cups canned Italian tomato puree (preferably San Marzano tomatoes)

8-10 fresh basil leaves, cut julienne

Handful chopped Italian flat- leaf parsley

3 (15-ounce) cans Italian cannellini beans, undrained, or cooked dried white beans with their cooking liquid

5 cups water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 ounces tubetti pasta (small round tubes)

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1. In a medium soup pot saute the onion with olive oil until soft and translucent. Add garlic and saute until lightly golden.

2. Add the tomatoes, basil, and parsley. Cook over moderately high heat until tomatoes release their natural juices.

3. Add the beans with their liquid and the 5 cups water. Cook over medium heat for at least 15 minutes or until beans begin to break down and soup thickens.

4. Add the pasta to the simmering soup and cook until al dente. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Per serving: 299 calories, 16 grams protein, 48 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams sugar, 6 grams fat, 8 milligrams cholesterol, 38 milligrams sodium, 15 grams dietary fiber.