Fuggedaboutit

By Mark Goldberg
Dining Critic 

There are numerous things you cannot get at Macaluso’s. A reservation, a special request, a substitution, a written menu, a recipe. All that is available is exceptional “Staten Island Italian” food and immaculate service. That’s the-where-and-the-way chef/owner Michael D’Andrea learned the business – passed down through three generations of D’Andrea’s and Macaluso’s – and if you ask him to make an exception to his rule, he’ll tell you to “Fuggedaboutit.”

The only things more important to D’Andrea than his finished dishes are their ingredients: DeCecco pasta, Locatelli Pecorino Romano, 100% pure first press olive oil, San Marzano tomatoes, all imported. Meats and fish are fresh daily. If you arrive late, there’s a good chance 20% of the day’s menu will be gone. Including the 100 pounds of sausage he makes weekly. The secret recipes are all over 70 years old, handed from generation to generation.

D’Andrea won’t even reveal how he makes his lighter-than-air Meatballs ($8). As big as boulders and as airy as a gentle breeze, these delicately-seasoned treats are enhanced by a bit of fresh tomato/basil sauce and an exquisite pairing of ricotta and pecorino cheeses. Staten Island Style Sausage and Peppers ($10), a sandwich you eat with a knife and fork, centers around a butterflied, grilled sausage, topped with sweet and hot roasted peppers, extra-virgin olive oil and a Locatelli cheese topping. Shrimp Scampi ($13) was simple – two monstrous U7 shrimp on two large slices of crispy Italian toast – but the “traditional” scampi sauce was loaded with such flavor that when the toast was gone we found ourselves spooning out the last of the sauce. D’Andrea follows his father’s pizza recipes. As the story goes, thirty years ago, Papa D’Andrea put some clam sauce on a slice of bread and realized it would make a great pizza. The resultant Clam Pizza ($11) is thin crusted, but tender not brittle, redolent with garlic and bits of clam, and surprisingly greaseless.

D’Andrea’s pasta dishes are unpredictable in their combinations, but each works. He joined Riccia ($10), the imported ridged, long noodle, with spinach and cannellini beans in a natural sauce whose slight saltiness was mellowed by the bitterness of the spinach and the nutty flavor of the beans. Even better was the Rigatoni And Sausage ($22) with escarole and cannellini beans, fresh garlic and black pepper. Both dishes are prepared with the 100% pure olive oil that he also uses to prepare his meats and fish, since it doesn’t break down in high heats and retains its low-fat properties. As it does in his Baked Rigatoni and Chicken ($21). This is a spin on lasagna, only D’Andrea uses rigatoni instead of lasagna noodles. The chicken cutlets are prepared daily, fried, lightly breaded and parmesaned and topped with the noodles and sauce before baking. An entree we couldn’t categorize was the creative Veal Milanese ($21), which starts with a tender cutlet, pan fried, then buried beneath a Macaluso Salad and splashed with Mama Macaluso’s dressing (another secret recipe). Atop the salad was a thin slice of top quality prosciutto, imported from Northern Italy, so it’s texture is drier while its taste is richer. Was it a grilled veal salad or a veal entree with a salad topping? Who cared? It was fresh, creative and tasty.

As was Mama’s Ricotta Cheesecake. We got the recipe for that one – fresh ricotta, eggs and sugar (good luck making it at home). And then there were the Cannoli; imported shells stuffed with ricotta and chocolate chips. Are they good? D’Andrea sells about 15,000 per week.

Macaluso’s is tucked away along Alton and you might want to call ahead for directions so you don’t miss it. A block farther south and you would probably pay much more for the quality that goes into each Macaluso recipe, but D’Andrea has kept his prices surprisingly low. “This has nothing to do with making money,” he says. “It’s more of keeping a tradition my family has lived. Good food made with love brings people closer together.”

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Macaluso’s

ADDRESS: 1747 Alton Road, South Beach

PHONE: (305) 604-1811

HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday 6pm to 11:30pm, Sunday 6pm to 10:30pm

FOOD: Staten Island Italian (predominantly Southern Italian)

SERVICE: Memorizing the menu is an achievement, explaining it is an art

PRICES: Appetizers $7 to $15; Entrees $15 to $26

WINES: Impressive collection of international labels

ATMOSPHERE: Open, warm and inviting

RESERVATIONS: Only for groups of seven or more

SMOKING: Outdoors

CREDIT CARDS: Visa, MasterCard