About 180 people filled their plates with old-world comfort food during Penngrove Social Firemen’s annual Italian dinner benefit.
About 180 people filled their plates with old-world comfort food during Penngrove Social Firemen’s annual Italian dinner benefit Feb. 17 at the Penngrove Community Clubhouse in Penngrove.
The $35-a-person event raised approximately $3,500, according to Kim Hanson, treasurer of the nonprofit’s board of directors. The proceeds will go toward maintenance and improvements to Penngrove Park and the clubhouse, including remodeling of the clubhouse’s front and back yards and removing a downed tree in the park that fell during a recent storm.
Penngrove Social Firemen has owned and maintained the Main Street park since 1955 and the clubhouse since the early 1960s.
The dinner, prepared and served by volunteers from the nonprofit, included chicken cooked using a beloved recipe passed down from Little Hill, a long-closed Petaluma Italian restaurant popular in the 1950s and ‘60s, as well as pork scallopini, ravioli, green beans, salad and French bread.
Hanson says the chicken recipe, which uses tomato paste, allspice, cloves, cooking wine and more, is available in the Penngrove Social Firemen’s February newsletter on the group’s website.
“It holds a lot of nostalgia for so many people,” Hanson said. “The old-timers know what Little Hill’s chicken is.”
A raffle included five baskets of wine, food and other items donated by the nonprofit’s board members and local businesses.
Guests also enjoyed enjoyed live accordion tunes performed by Steve Balich.
In addition to the annual Italian dinner, Hanson said Penngrove Social Firemen also hosts a crab feed each January, a corned beef and cabbage dinner in March, the town’s Fourth of July parade and the lighted holiday parade in December.
For more information about the organization, go to penngrovesocialfiremen.org.
Dining and Cooking