Dominic Palazzolo is talking, lovingly, about his wife's cooking.

        “She had such style in the kitchen,” he says. “People loved to watch her. Our grandchildren would come in and sit on stools to watch her.”

        His brown eyes wander, as if he is watching the small, dark-haired woman making her famous tetrazzini or veal scaloppine. She is gone, though. His wife of 44 years, Rose Marie, died in 1988.

Rose Marie

        But now, he has more than just the fading memories. At age 82, Mr. Palazzolo has published a cookbook, a collection of his wife's recipes, to share with others.

        “This is the way Rose Marie will live on in people's minds for a a long time,” he says.

        When he first met her in 1943, Mr. Palazzolo was the 18-year-old son of a successful businessman and Sicilian immigrant. He left Cincinnati that summer to visit family and friends in St. Helena, Calif.

        “I noticed how she would take care of the table and her mother,” he says. “She was everything I wanted in a wife.”

        They listened to the radio together, and sometimes he caught her smiling at him. But they never kissed or dated. The night before he returned to Cincinnati, he asked her to take a walk, and then blurted out his intentions.

        “I told her I loved her and I wanted to marry her,” he says.

        She was only 16, but the next year, the couple married and started a family in Cincinnati, rearing three sons and a daughter. Mr. Palazzolo worked in the wholesale food and real estate businesses. His wife was a dedicated mother.

Dominic Palazzolo

        But years later, after their daughter and youngest child, Carmella, married in 1972, Mr. Palazzolo noticed a change. He came home one night to find his wife quietly weeping.

        “She felt like there was nothing left for her to do,” he says.

        More than anything, he knew she loved to cook. So Mr. Palazzolo convinced her to take cooking classes at downtown Cincinnati department stores. For 18 years, the couple made an annual trip to the cooking school at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. When Mr. Palazzolo went on business trips, he always would bring his wife a cookbook.

        “Soon, she was going to bed with cookbooks instead of me,” he says, smiling weakly.

        Every night, promptly at 6 p.m., Mrs. Palazzolo had the table set and dinner ready for her husband.

        “I knew she loved to watch me eat,” he says.
       

A fateful day in May
       

       Before sunrise that day in May, Mr. Palazzolo kissed his wife twice on the forehead as she slept. Some time before, she had kidded him about forgetting to kiss her before leaving for work. So that beautiful spring day, he kissed her twice.

        But unlike most days, Mr. Palazzolo never talked to his wife. He assumed she was visiting a friend that afternoon, but knew something was wrong when he arrived home. He didn't smell her food cooking, the table wasn't set and there was no note.

        He turned on a television newscast to recognize her mangled car. Rose Marie Palazzolo died that afternoon in a traffic accident, only a few blocks from her husband's Hyde Park office. She was bringing him homemade dinner rolls.

        “It destroyed me,” he says. “I was supposed to go first. For six months I was in daze.”

        He wanted to honor her, but wasn't sure how. Then, almost as if someone whispered it to him, he knew what to do.

        “Her recipes,” he says. “She loved to share her recipes.”

        His niece in Detroit, Mary Jo Tye, and oldest son, Anthony, sifted through boxes of clipped and yellowed recipes to find her favorites, and then tested them. It took them four years, but the cookbook, Recipes in Remembrance of Rose Marie, was published last month. Mr. Palazzolo has given away more than 300 of the spiral-bound books, and he may print more. But he won't sell them. He says his wife wouldn't approve.

        He keeps the same daily routine: rise at 5 a.m. to attend early Mass, exercise and eat breakfast. He begins work at his company, D&D Marketing, at 7:30 a.m. He grieves for his wife — he still loves her. But the cookbook — her cookbook — is helping ease his heartache.

        Months ago, Mr. Palazzolo told himself that if his wife were pleased with the book, the copies would be printed and delivered by July 6 — her birthday.

        “And you know when the books came? July 6 at 4 p.m.,” he says. “Then I said: She's pleased.”

        He laughs softly, almost as if his Rose Marie were still in the kitchen.
       

Recipe

        Rose Marie Palazzolo titled this handwritten recipe, which is adapted from the new cookbook, as her husband's favorite.

Chicken and Spaghetti

       Salt and pepper, to taste
       1 chicken, cut into pieces, or 4 chicken breasts
       1 tablespoon olive oil
       1 medium onion, chopped
       4 tablespoons butter, divided use
       2 tablespoons flour
       2 cups chicken broth
        1/2 cup cold water
        1/2 cup dry white wine
        1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
        1/2 cup chopped parsley
       1 pound spaghetti, uncooked
       Grated Parmesan or other cheese

        Salt and pepper chicken and saute in olive oil over medium heat until browned and nearly cooked through. Add chopped onion to pan with chicken and saute until soft, 5 to 8 minutes longer. With slotted spoon, remove chicken and onions from pan to platter.

        Pour grease from pan and add 2 tablespoons butter and flour over medium heat. Stir well to create a roux or paste and simmer 3 to 5 minutes. Don't allow flour to brown. Add chicken broth and water and stir until sauce begins to thicken.

        Return cooked chicken and onions to pan, along with wine. Stir and simmer over low heat about 45 minutes, uncovered. Add sliced mushrooms during last 15 minutes of cooking.

        Cook spaghetti in boiling, salted water until al dente; drain and add to bowl. Add 2 tablespoons butter and stir to coat. Pour buttered spaghetti on serving platter, and pour sauce and chicken over top. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated cheese. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

       Contact Chuck Martin by phone: 768-8507; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: cmartin@enquirer.com.

Over-the-Rhine through a lens
WBQC cable deal only a ceasefire
Jim Fox starts over, over the airwaves
He calls the shots for Madonna
Price Hill man at home in his own '50s diner
UC fashion grad has designs on New York
DEMALINE: Season's shining stars deserve standing ovation
Family films at top of festival list
MCGURK: Summer blockbusters went from boom to bust
Boys, reunited after rehab, wow Firstar Center
Hot opening acts endanger King's crown
Ask the critic
Hurrah for Lodi syrah, zinfandel
Remembering Rose Marie
KENDRICK: Stem cell research points out dangers, promise of science
Get to it