Almost Italian

Occasionally, we encounter a dish that seems to be purely local. In this post, we’ll examine one that is simply and cheaply made from widely available ingredients. It would appear to be the perfect mother recipe for dozens of casalinga variations. And yet, the dish is virtually unknown outside the Calabrese community of Westerly, Rhode Island.

A small coastal town along the Connecticut border, Westerly is home to one of the largest Calabrese communities outside Italy. Beginning in the late 19th century, as the barons of American commerce erected mansions in their summer playground of Newport, Rhode Island became a magnet for southern Italian stoneworkers.

Copyright © 2009, Skip Lombardi

Between 1911 and 1934, the Le Fabre steamship line brought Calabrians and Sicilians straight to Providence, where port improvements were made to ease the congestion of Ellis Island’s immigration halls. Westerly’s pink granite quarries, as well as horticulture and poultry production throughout the tiny state of Rhode Island, supported an expanding community of Calabrians.

Even though many Westerly residents are now fourth generation Americans, their Calabrian identification remains strong. A US-born nonna more comfortable speaking her dialect than broken English is not unusual. And while there is a large community of recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America, the bilingual signage in the excellent Westerly hospital is not in English and Spanish, but in English and Italian!

Unique to Westerly is Spezzi, chicken gizzards in a tomato ragù laced with pickled hot peppers. To the best of our knowledge, it survives in a couple of local bars and one restaurant, where it is served—not as a sauce over ziti or rigatoni—but on its own, in small bowls accompanied only by white bread.

Copyright © 2009, Skip Lombardi

Over the past couple of years, we’ve deconstructed both the history of spezzi and the dish itself.

We began with the etymology: Spezie are simply “spices,” maybe a reference to the cherry peppers? But then we also knew that spezzatino, a “stew,” is from the verb spezzare, to divide into pieces.

We’re not authorities on the nuanced variations of Calabrian speech, but we knew another Westerly word that gave us a clue. Over more than a century, three generations of Westerly’s Italian-Americans have truncated sopressata to the point that it is pronounced and spelled as ‘soupy!’ So, while dropping final syllables is not as predictable in Calabrese as in Neapolitan dialect (e.g., mozzarel, proshoot, brashol), the Calabrese have certainly abandoned their own share of syllables along the Northeast Corridor

So, we decided that spezzatino could have yielded spezzi…

But what about the origin of the dish? Who made it first? And when? A rudimentary knowledge of avian anatomy tells us that no one would have made spezzi with chicken parts prior to the age of commercial poultry production. One gizzard and one heart per chicken… Do the math: at least ten chickens are needed to provide approximately a pound of hearts and gizzards.

Conducting further interviews in Westerly bars, we learned about Chickadee Farms. And as so often happens in a bar, we began to see things from an expanded perspective.

In the mid-1940′s, Joe Russo founded Chickadee Farms in the town of Hopkinton, just east of Westerly. Within a decade, Chickadee Farms was supplying chickens and eggs to virtually every IGA (Independent Grocer’s Alliance) store in Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut. The farm ultimately processed 60,000 birds per year. And in 1954, long before we’d heard of Frank Purdue, Mr. Russo was instrumental in his State Legislature’s declaration of the eponymous Rhode Island Red as the official state bird.

Chickadee Farms employed a lot of Westerly residents. We have a theory: one of the employee benefits might have been getting to take home the regaglie—the livers, hearts, and gizzards—from the processed chickens. Spurned by many Americans, regaglie have their fans, and there were plenty of Italians who knew delectable ways to prepare them.

Copyright © 2009, Skip Lombardi

Of course, as we’ve said before, recipes aren’t static; they evolve and eventually earn their places in a cuisine. We’re inclined to think that before the Westerly Calabrese encountered a surfeit of gizzards and hearts, they had used the distictive trio of tomatoes, cherry peppers, and the peppers’ own pickling vinegar in other applications. Both a tenderizer and a neutralizer of especially pungent meats and fish, vinegar had a long history in southern Europe as an ingredient in game stews.

One Greek restaurateur (and first-class blues guitarist) in Westerly suggested that spezzi might have begun with venison. Knowing how many Subarus and light pickup trucks with Connecticut and Rhode Island plates bear significant dents after colliding with bucks caught in headlights, this seemed plausible. And as any southern New England gardener bemoaning beheaded tulips will tell you: deer are everywhere.

From their first days in Westerly, Calabrese could have had venison, legal or not. But la caccia in America was not necessarily an option for Italian immigrants, many of whom lacked both access to hunting grounds as well as funds to purchase guns. Nonetheless, New England hunters have a tradition of generosity. Perhaps those who did hunt were happy to share deer numbles (also known as lights, offal, or variety meats) with their omnivorous Italian neighbors, just as happy as the Chickadee Farms management had been to provide take-away gizzards.

If our hunch is correct, then we should note: venison would have been seasonal. So, later, when Italians had a supply of less-marketable, mass-produced chicken organs, spezzi could have been savored year ’round. The gamey qualities of poultry gizzards are a fair match for the taste and texture of venison.

As a plus, gizzards don’t require as much time or fuel to cook as the innards of a larger animal. Today, even if they are not free, gizzards remain very inexpensive to purchase and prepare. Spezzi is the Westerly way to assure every bit of a Rhode Island Red—or any chicken—is enjoyed.

Cucina dei Poveri, meet the official state bird!

Ingredients:

1 Lb. Chicken hearts and gizzards
Olive oil
4 Cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 Medium yellow onion, diced
1 28 oz. Can crushed tomatoes in heavy purée
4 – 6 Pickled hot peppers, finely chopped
1/2 to 3/4 Cup of the pepper marinating liquid
2 Tbs. Fresh oregano, chopped
2 Tbs. Fresh basil, chopped
6 Tbs. Flat-leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Place the gizzards and 1 Tbs. salt in a 2 — 3 quart saucepan. Add enough water to cover them and bring the pan to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain. When the hearts and gizzards are cool enough to handle, remove any connective tissue and chop the meat into half-inch pieces. Reserve.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, then add enough oil to cover the bottom. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute or two, until it begins to smell delicious. Lower the heat to medium and add the onions.

Sauté the onions until they begin to wilt, approximately 3 — 5 minutes. Season the reserved hearts and gizzards with salt and pepper and stir them into the onions and garlic.

Add the tomatoes, the chopped peppers, and their marinating liquid. Add the oregano, basil, and 2 Tbs. of the parsley. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if necessary.

Adjust the heat so the pot barely simmers. Partially cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

To serve:

In Westerly, Rhode Island, the local bars serve spezzi in a small bowl, with white bread on the side. We prefer to serve ours, garnished with additional parsley, over polenta. We also enjoy a robust spezzi over short or tubular pasta and find it reminiscent of the Roman classic, pasta con le regaglie.

Serves four.

Related Posts:

Cherry Pepper Shooters
Chicken Cacciatora

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