NY - Louis Barbati, 61, shot to death, Brooklyn, 30 June 2016 *Arrest*

A GANGLAND WAR nearly erupted over pizza — but luckily, cooler heads prevailed during a sitdown at a Panera Bread cafe, a mob turncoat told Brooklyn jurors Wednesday.

Ex-Colombo capo Anthony Russo delivered delicious testimony about a former mob pal whose blood boiled like a simmering red sauce when he heard a Bonanno associate had stolen a family recipe.

Colombo associate Francis Guerra flipped his lid when he learned Eugene Lombardo stole the secret sauce recipe from his in-laws’ famed Brooklyn eatery, L&B Spumoni Gardens, to use at an upstart pizzeria, Russo said.

Lombardo, whose sons worked at L&B, had opened “The Square” in Staten Island and started serving slices that looked and tasted suspiciously like those at L&B.

“Frankie (Guerra) told me they caught Geno down in the basement looking at the supplies, the flour,” Russo said. “He was angry, he wanted to hurt Gene.”

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L&B was once at the center of a Mafia extortion plot over a stolen sauce recipe, the Post reported.

In 2009, Colombo crime family associate Francis Guerra was accused of extorting the owner of a Staten Island pizzeria for allegedly stealing L&B’s pizza-sauce recipe. Guerra, related through marriage to another L&B owner, was acquitted at a 2012 trial.

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He was wearing flashy jewelry: No one took it. Same with the cash in his pockets: still there. Then there was the matter of the feud some years ago: A rival pizza maker had stolen the secret recipe for his sauce.

Whatever the reason, Louis Barbati was dead, shot five times, the authorities said, in the balmy summer twilight on Thursday night. The killer had been waiting for Mr. Barbati, the owner of a well-known pizzeria, L&B Spumoni Gardens, at his house in Dyker Heights, in southern Brooklyn. The shooter was dressed in a hoodie that hid his facial features; it was unclear whether he said anything before he pulled the trigger. While the police believe it may have been a robbery gone wrong, why were Mr. Barbati’s valuables left behind?

“It’s very confusing about what happened,” said a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. And indeed, there was a twist. The official quickly added, “There’s been this ongoing dispute between him and some other guy who owned this rival joint in Staten Island.”

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The man accused by federal prosecutors of murdering the co-owner of Spumoni Gardens could face the death penalty if convicted for the June shooting.

Andres Fernandez, who appeared briefly Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court to get a new lawyer, is charged with killing Louis Barbati while attempting to commit a robbery — a federal crime that is punishable by the death penalty.

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