The LoFrisco Family Cookbook is part cookbook, part memoir. The author, son of Sicilian immigrants in the early 1900s, shares not only his mother's time-tested simple and delicious recipes, but he brings them to life by embracing them with endearing family stories of growing up in an Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn.  LoFrisco intersperses...

Regina DeCicco, who has been seen on FOX TV’s “Laughs,” brings her stand-up act to the Treehouse Comedy Club in the Westport Inn on Saturday, Jan. 20. Spoiler alert — yes, she’s Italian. And yes, that aspect of her background inspires some of her comedy, like when she talks about how her mom wanted her to marry Tony Danza. She was only 5 at the tim...

Let’s dispel a big misconception some people around here might have: Not all of the world’s great flat-pickers are from Appalachia, the South or even from the United States. Just ask Beppe Gambetta, who hails from Genoa, Italy, one of the masters of the acoustic guitar who will be here as a living breathing example of that. “Here” in this case will...

On the edge of the dock among rows of colorful buildings in Burano, Italy, Ashley Pales felt at home. A Lincoln Southwest High School graduate and Yale University sophomore, Pales spent five weeks exploring the country and reconnecting to her family's Italian heritage during a study abroad program last summer.  When she got back to the U.S., she...

Before UConn hired a little-known Italian-born coach with a wry sense of humor and an insatiable work ethic, the school’s women’s basketball program had only produced one winning season in 11 years. Geno Auriemma has since guided the Huskies to 29 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, 18 Final Fours, 11 national championships and six undefeated...

Friends and family remembered Joseph Borriello, a war hero and longtime city school principal, who died at home earlier this month at the age of 94. Borriello graduated from Meriden High School in 1942 and then served in the U.S. Army during World World II. He was a member of the 3rd Infantry Division, which fought longer in Europe than any other A...

Vincent Pastore, best known as Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero from HBO’s “The Sopranos,” will be the special guest when comedians Tony Liberati and Goumba Johnny perform at The Treehouse Comedy Club at the Westport Inn on Saturday, Dec. 30. The show is a combination of stand-up and audience participation, where guests will have the chance to act...

The Rev. Matthew Bernelli was like a kid with a train set as he showed off his famous Nativity scene, now set up at St. Andrew Church in the North End after numerous Christmases on the East Side. “It came out good,” said the Catholic priest. “I love the little details.” There is no engine chugging along on tracks, desecrating the holy scene depicti...

It’s safe to say Lauren Celentano has got talent and she thinks she can dance. That’s why the Sacred Heart University sophomore has spent the last several weeks competing as the first American on “Amici,” Italy’s answer to “American Idol.” In fact, the Cheshire resident, a member of SHU’s Dance Company, is currently #1 in the voter popularity in th...

Because Interstate 91 tore through Wooster Square in the 1960s, Frank Carrano can no longer stroll by the house and market at 460 Chapel St. where he grew up with his parents and six older sisters. But Carrano has held his memories close and recently began sharing them in a Facebook group, “Wooster Square Neighborhood Heritage Exchange.” Meanwhile,...