We Remember Mama

Filmgoers will remember her in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 movie as the archetypal Italian mother cooking in the middle of the night for the “GoodFellas,” never suspecting that they are really bad fellows with a body in the trunk of their car. Letterman viewers probably recall her as the spunky guest who prepared Robert DeNiro’s favorite pizza--undaunted by Dave’s teasing and dishing out some of her own.

But I remember Catherine Scorsese for her cookbook, “Italianamerican” (with Georgia Downard, Random House, 1996). “The Scorsese Family Cookbook,” as it is subtitled, is where I discovered one of my all-time favorite pasta sauces--and that includes meat sauces I’ve tasted in some of the best Italian restaurants in Los Angeles and New York.

The book is filled with tasty Italian delights and behind-the-scene film facts. It lists 16 movies that Catherine Scorsese appeared in, and when they were her son Martin’s films, she was usually cooking.

Her passing Jan. 6 is a loss to both the food world and the film world.