The Daily News:

Tony Danza’s the boss in the kitchen with new cookbook

BY RACHEL WHARTON

Friday, June 13th 2008, 4:00 AM

Jennifer Carrillo

Tony Danza (l.) and son Marc make a clam pizza for their new cookbook, ‘Don’t Fill Up on the Antipasto.’

The Danza Family Meatballs are featured in the new cookbook - see below for recipe.

Tony Danza - aka Antonio Salvatore Iadanza - is the Brooklyn-born star of shows like “Who’s The Boss,” “The Tony Danza Show” and his own New York vaudeville song and dance review, which closes tomorrow at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. A life-long cook, especially of American-Italian food, Danza has also completed his first cookbook, “Don’t Fill Up on the Antipasto,” a sentimental and funny collaborative effort with his son, Marc.

We asked the star for his Father’s Day suggestions and stories, and also for his famous family meatball recipe (below) - Jackie Collins calls them “exquisite.”

Q. What are some of your favorite Father’s Day memories?

A. I have many memories of my father and my son and also my brother, but when I was thinking about it, I thought of this one time when my father took me to a junkyard and then to a restaurant, well, really a bar on Liberty Ave. in Brooklyn, on Father’s Day. I got to watch him and his pals, guys he worked with and other guys from the neighborhood, hanging out in the early afternoon, before they all had to be home for dinner. I was about 9. We went to the junkyard because my father was a sanitation man, for the city, and he wanted to cash in his “mongo”. Mongo was what the garbage men called the scrap metal they found in the trash. It was a way to get some extra money. He would bring it home and it would pile up in the basement, and then my father would cash it in.

This day he had a big load and he was happy when we got to the bar. The thing I remember, other than the love I felt for my old man, was, in the middle of a raucous time in the bar, the phone rang and simultaneously almost all the men yelled, “tell her I left!!”

Any suggestions for a great Father’s Day dinner?

I don’t have my father anymore, unfortunately, but if I did, we might go see a matinee of a show on Broadway. And then to Elaine’s for some dinner and great company. I would have loved to have introduced my father to Elaine.

Other than your own meatball recipe, where’s your favorite?

Patsy’s on 56th. Sinatra liked them too. [That’s Patsy’s Italian Restaurant, at 236 W. 56 St. between Broadway and Eighth Ave., (212) 247-3491.]

Any favorite memories of eating in Brooklyn while you were growing up?

My father used to take me to a fish place on Fulton St. under the El in Brooklyn, “Tony’s”. The owner would make blue claw crabs in red sauce. Oh wow.

You’re currently singing in a one-man song and dance revue here in New York. So if you were asked to sing while you make meatballs, what song would you choose?

The name of the new show is, “I Could Have Danced All Night.” I think it works with meatballs too.

Danza Family Meatballs
Serves at least 4

From “Don’t Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza’s Father-Son Cookbook” by Tony and Marc Danza (Scribner)

1 pound ground sirloin or lean ground beef, pork, turkey, veal, chicken, or any combination
2 eggs
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped

Put the ground meat in a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs and add them to the meat along with 6 cloves garlic, the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, Parmesan, and milk. Mix this all together with your hands. Wet your hands with water and continue to wet them as you pinch meat from the bowl and roll into 2-inch balls. Roll the balls in the flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add 3 cloves chopped garlic and sauté until golden brown. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the meatballs and sauté over medium-high heat, turning them, until they are brown all over. As soon as you can pick them up with a fork, they are ready. You don’t want them to be well done. (If the meatball slides off the fork when you pick it up, it needs to cook a little longer.)

Here are some of Jordan’s great shots from our last session…