Click here to subscribe today or Login.
PLAINS TOWNSHIP — If it’s Monday, Judy DeLeo is making pasta — the way her dad, Fred Carter, taught her when she was about 6 or 7 years old.
After she’s cut a small batch of fresh dough into, let’s say, ribbons of fettuccine, and boiled them, they’re ready for a topping — perhaps the tomato sauce based on a recipe from her mother-in-law, Anita DeLeo.
“It’s family style,” said Judy’s husband, Joe DeLeo, acknowledging all the traditions that have gone into the menu at GiGio’s Subs & More on River Road.
Indeed, if you stop by to sample some of the specialties Judy makes from scratch — like gnocchi, ravioli stuffed with meat and spinach, a mile-high peanut butter pie or lemoncello cake, you might feel as if you’re visiting your Nonna.
“I like things fresh,” Judy said. “The apples in my pie are peeled by hand, not from a can.”
And her meat balls — a perfect complement to the fresh pasta — are a blend of beef and pork to which she adds oregano, basil, onions, parsley and “tons of garlic.”
“The soups are to die for,” said Pat Musto, who is the DeLeos’ landlord in the Tuft-Tex Plaza. “We just had tomato Florentine.”
“Everybody loves the cheesesteaks,” Judy said. “And my Reubens.”
“A lawyer from New York came and sat right there,” Joe said, pointing to a table. “He said her Reuben was better than the Second Street Deli.”
While he’s not shy about praising his wife’s cooking, Joe DeLeo is modest about his own.
Though he might roll out some pasta dough, he said, “Don’t call me a sous chef.”
“You’re more of a dish washer,” Judy told him, not unkindly.
“I’m always polishing and vacuuming,” he agreed.
With Joe, 61, doing support-staff chores such as cleaning and paperwork, Judy, 64, has more time to concentrate on her signature dishes, such as the “Brisko,” a pan-fried chicken entree named after her favorite detective on “Law and Order.”
Then there’s the “GiGio,” which Judy described as “Hot capicola, sopressatta, hard salami, mozzarella, Swiss cheese, provolone and my homemade olive tapanade on a kaiser roll, baked for 4 to 5 minutes.
“Oh my God,” she added with a little sigh, indicating just how good it is.
That dish and the restaurant are named after Topo GiGio, a lovable mouse puppet Judy used to watch on “The Ed Sullivan Show” when she was a girl.
The DeLeos established GiGio’s in 2013 as a place for Judy to showcase her culinary talents — skills she learned from her family and developed while working with Chef Bruno Campisano at Gus Genetti’s in Wilkes-Barre for several years. She’s also worked as head cook at a local nursing home and, for a time, as a phlebotomist before following her heart into the restaurant kitchen.
Joe worked in the health-care field, too, in hospital admissions, before giving up that job to help Judy with her dream.
The couple puts in long hours but, Joe said, “She always has a smile when she’s here.”
