A priest in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Father Matthew Mauriello has become well-known in Church circles. In 2010, as president of the North American Congress on Mercy, he met with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Austria, and in 2019, he was featured in the Blue Army’s “Mary-thon of Prayer”:

In the spring of 2020, Father Mauriello led a pilgrimage to Portugal, Spain and Lourdes. And in the fall of that year, as the chaplain of the Knights of Columbus Orinoco Assembly No. 126, his service to the sick and dying during the pandemic at Stamford’s St. Camillus Center drew some notice in the community.

But for Father Mauriello, it’s also about food. For example, here’s a September 2015 episode on the Cooking Channel program, Holy and Hungry:

He attributes his passion for cooking and for his kitchen skills to his Italian grandmother. As he noted, his grandparents were born in Italy and moved to the United States in the 1930s. They were devout Catholics, attending Mass daily, and his grandmother, Serafina, had even considered becoming a nun in her youth.

“Bishop Raffaele delle Nocche, her bishop, who founded a religious order, wanted her to be the foundress and the first mother superior,” said Father Mauriello. “But her dad said, ‘No, she must get married, although she was always so religious.’” And she did, moving to the United States with her husband to northern New Jersey, later joined by other members of the large Italian family.

His grandmother (his mother’s mother) had her mother living with her.

“My family lived a block away,” he said, “and I would walk the block over after school. … She was always cooking, and I was helping her even when I was only 7 or 8 years old. Then I started to dabble and when she died, I got her kitchen equipment.”

Now as an adult, he makes all his grandmother’s recipes from scratch, including her Christmas and Easter treats such as a savory leg of lamb or sweet biscotti.

“When she passed away,” he said, “I wanted to keep the recipes going,” adding that his other grandparents and older aunts were good cooks as well.

He also traveled to Italy when he was in his twenties to gather family recipes, enough to eventually create a cookbook.

“I would visit my sister there and I learned family recipes,” he said. When he was a parish priest at St. Joseph Church in Danbury, Connecticut, Father Mauriello and Franca Bosio Bertoli, the rectory cook, became good cooking friends, and began to collaborate on writing the cookbook, From a Rectory Kitchen: Cooking and Serving in the Love of the Lord.

 “We started the book in 1992, and it took us 20 years to get it done,” he said. “No wonder. The book is 300 pages long.” 

He noted that the cookbook is a compilation of both heritage recipes from his grandmother, mother, sister and relatives as well of those of his coauthor.

Today, Father is not writing a cookbook, but he does cook for parishioners. “They invite me over, and we invite priests and parishioners to join us,” he said. “I am also the founder of the Forks and Corks Society, and we meet every two months.” The most popular recipe? The homemade manicotti (see below).

“I have been a priest for 35 years,” he said, “and I am happy to be a priest. Food is recreation and we all need to have fun. But the Lord is the most important.”

 

* *  *  *  *  *  *

Homemade Manicotti 

Serves 6

For the crepes:

• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk

Mix ingredients to a smooth batter with a whisk and let rest for 15 minutes

For the filling:

• 2 pounds whole milk Ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 4 sprigs flat leaf parsley, chopped fine
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.

Topping:

• Marinara or meat sauce
• Olive oil

To make the crepes:

Heat and lightly grease an 8-inchTeflon pan. Add 1/4 cup of the batter, swirl on the bottom and let cook about one minute, turn over and cook for15 seconds. Remove from the pan and let cool. Repeat. You should have about 16 or so.

Divide the filling equally among the crepes. Place it only on one side of the crepe and roll it, making sure that the filling goes to the edge.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put your favorite marinara or meat sauce in the bottom of an oven-proof rectangular container and 2 tablespoons of water and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. You may need several containers. Place the stuffed crepes, seam side down and cover with additional sauce. Do no crowd them, as they expand.

Place uncovered in the oven for 25 minutes; they should be bubbling around the edges. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 to 7 minutes before serving. Sprinkle additional grated cheese on top.