Goodfellas

Pour ~0:30

Pour it at the Copa — the long unbroken walk through the kitchen to the best seat in the house, the night the whole room already knows your name.

PrepRye, sweet vermouth and a dash of bitters, stirred long and strained cold; cherry in.

Start ~1:05·Serve ~1:05

Tommy's unplanned stop at his mother's house — she won't let the boys leave without a plate, fried peppers and sausage and chicken passed around, while a dead man waits in the trunk outside. Serve it the moment she waves them to the table.

PrepFry the sausage and peppers together in one pan, about twenty-five minutes total — have it going before the scene starts so it's ready the second the boys sit down.

Start ~1:00·Serve ~1:14

Doing a stretch inside, the crew keeps a real kitchen going — Paulie shaves the garlic with a razor so thin it liquefies in the pan. Warm the gravy as it hits.

PrepTwo to three hours low and slow, so make the gravy well before the movie — it should be done and waiting by this cue, not starting. Give it fifteen minutes to warm through, and let it fill the whole room.

Start ~1:20·Serve ~1:21

The gravy course is cleared and Johnny Dio starts pan-searing steaks with no broiler in sight — 'How do you like yours?' 'Medium rare.' 'An aristocrat.' Bring the second course out right on that line.

PrepA pan sear is only a few minutes a side, so have the steaks at room temperature and the pan smoking hot before the pasta course even finishes.

Start ~1:55·Serve ~1:56

Henry's narrating his last-day menu even as the helicopter keeps circling overhead — peppers roasted over the flame to go alongside the ziti and cutlets. Char them right as he lists the plan out loud.

PrepChar the peppers ahead of time and let them steam in a covered bowl so the skins slip off easily — a ten-minute job you can do between the other courses.

Start ~1:50·Serve ~2:07

Henry's last frantic day — helicopters overhead, and still he insists the cutlets go on first, cut just right, before anything else.

PrepVeal pounded thin and breaded ahead; the frying takes fifteen minutes, and these hit the pan before the rest.

Start ~1:55·Serve ~2:08

Between drug runs and glancing at the sky, he's home braising the meats and won't leave until the gravy is stirred. Serve as the walls close in.

PrepThe braise runs three to four hours, so this one starts long before you press play — the cue leaves you about ten minutes, which is ziti-boiling time, not braising time. Have the meats tender and the gravy stirred down by the time the helicopters show up; drop the ziti when the cutlets go in, and plate together.