I was raised in the Italian restaurant business, My parents had many Sicilian/calabrese dishes. My most favorite was baked rigatoni with sausage and mushroom, this was a dish that consisted of rigatoni or mostaciolli maranera sauce with slices of Sicilian (fennel) sausage, mushroom in a casserole dish, with provolone or mozzarella cheese on top covered and baked until bubbling and the cheese melted on top, then sprinkled with Parmesan and chopped parsley..
This was a big seller.. We had many dishes but this one was my favorite. Sometimes we would also slice red and green bell peppers and bake that in as well (of asked for) Yummy! We had a very large restaurant, I closed it in 1984 to explore other things in life, many times i kick my own butt for selling it too, it was successful right up to the last day. (dumb kid)
digger
I can see why it was a big seller. The sausage is a nice touch. Was the clientele mostly "Italian" or non- ?
Vinny
Italians are very proud people, not many of our customers were Italian as all the local Italians thought they had better at home. :) I'm sure some probably did but it was us that was in business, not them. we did have some that were regulars though. Never judge an Italian restaurant by the fact that there are Italian customers. They have way too much pride.. Funny thing is that our 'togo' orders were many times ironically Italians - So they did like it but was too proud to be seen there.. LOL