Third place — Holiday recipe contest: A holiday favorite straight from the New Yorker Hotel

As the story goes my grandfather (Joseph Ricciardi) was prone to running away when he was a young teenager. He ran away to New York City probably hopping on the trolley, which was located on Chase Avenue by what is now Webster Bank in Waterbury.

At some point, he worked at the New Yorker Hotel, which opened Jan. 2, 1930. He would have been 16-years-old when it opened. I was told years ago the recipe came from there.

I have looked up the New Yorker Hotel’s Thanksgiving menu and other restaurant menus and only found a recipe for chestnut dressing. His recipe has mixed nuts and pignoli, not chestnuts.

There was a disease that killed most chestnut trees in the 1940s, which could be the reason for the swap if there was a swap at all.

My mother, his daughter, told me that he also worked a restaurant in the Elton Hotel with a German-born chef who taught him to make soups and make decorations out of vegetables.  She remembers him decorating salads with these vegetable creations. The recipe could also have come from there.

The recipe’s origins are a mystery but I like the New Yorker version so I’m sticking with that.

When my grandfather was older, he spent winters in Florida and many times was not home for Thanksgiving. We would always call him and ask him to talk us through the recipe — even though we knew it — to keep him involved and make him part of the celebration.

These days the holiday has become mine — and my mother and I carry on the tradition by making Grandpa Joe’s stuffing each year.

Cynthia Rinaldi, Watertown

 

Grandpa Joe’s Stuffing

Olive oil

4 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

Celery salt. Salt and pepper to taste

Cook until soft

4 lbs. ground beef

2 lbs. sausage

1 cup pignoli

1 bag mixed nuts chopped

Brown meats in small amount of oil and drain.

Add onion mixture and nuts and heat through.

Poultry seasoning to taste

Eggs (1-2) to moisten

Arturo’s bread (1/2- 3/4 loaf).

Wet bread and squeeze out water, mix into meat mixture. Add poultry seasoning and eggs.

Bake 350 degrees until heated through.