Almost Italian

We began our presentation of this new edition of Almost Italian online in September 2007. Since then, most of our posts have discussed dishes that Italian-Americans served to a primarily non-Italian clientele in neighborhood restaurants.

Photo courtesy of Sugieeee

That clientele was primarily non-Italian because the actual residents of the Little Italy neighborhoods saw no reason to pay for food they would themselves cook at home. But as neighborhood restaurants flourished, an equally vibrant but somewhat different cuisine was simultaneously developing in the tenement apartments of the new immigrants.

Sundays were particularly important to Italian-Americans. No matter what Papa did for a living during during the week, it was, in most cases, hard, physical labor. So Sunday was literally a day of rest.

Regardless of whether or not they went to church, Italian families nearly always gathered at home in reverential celebration of the abundance they had found in America. As NYU professor Hasia Diner emphasizes it was ironic that Italian “immigrants had to leave home to eat the food of home.”^1.

That a newly-arrived Italian could earn ten dollars a week as a brick-layer or dockworker was empowerment, opportunity beyond anything that had been available to him back in Sicily or Apulia. He could earn a living wage and not only house his family, but feed them well. And in the early 20^th century, that meant he could afford to feed them meat.

Oral and written histories are replete with recollections of the immigrants’ amazement at the availability and affordability of meat. That a family in America could afford once a week what might have been indulged in once or twice a year back in Italy (during a religious feast or wedding), was cause for jubilation.

Long after the hunger that propelled Italians to the New World had been appeased and first-generation Italian-Americans had moved off on their own, they continued to gather at “Mom’s house” for a Sunday afternoon meal any non-Italian would call a “feast.” This classic repast would include several types of meat braised in tomato sauce. For a first course, Mama would appropriate some of the sauce to serve over pasta. The meats would follow, accompanied by salad and bread.

Exhorting her family to Mangia, mangia, “Eat, eat!” it was always a woman, usually La Nonna, the matriarch, who came to symbolize the warmth and expansive generosity of Italian-American culture. Grandmothers, daughters, and daughters-in-law presided over kitchens and dining rooms in America. For many of these women, it was their transformation of ingredients here in the New World that gave them economic and social power. Italian women who had learned to cook—in Italy or America, from their stints as domestics in more affluent homes or from members of their own families—gained status as they created meals of abbondanza e nostalgia, evoking a homeland that had denied them the food they so proudly served here.

Following World War II, returning veterans, including many maturing first-generation Italian-Americans, joined the migration to the suburbs. Taking with them what had now become “old family recipes,” the new suburbanites assured that “Mom’s Sunday Gravy” became as much of a staple in North Jersey and on Long Island as it had been around the cramped apartment kitchen tables on Mulberry Street.

Just as food sustained strong family ties between generations of Italian-Americans, it has also maintained urban Little Italys. Like the stereotypical Nonna, with her pot of basil on the fire-escape, many a pasta or salume supplier has proved just as reluctant to leave the familiar, the core neighborhoods where immigrants first used food as the primary tool with which to form their identity as Italian-Americans.

^1. Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration by Hasia R. Diner; Harvard University Press, 2003.

Sunday Gravy

Ingredients:

3 – 4 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
6 Garlic cloves peeled
1 Lb. Piece of boneless beef such as eye of the round, or shoulder steak
1 Lb. Piece of boneless Pork shoulder
3 Tbs. Tomato paste
1/2 Cup dry red wine
3 28 oz. cans Italian plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
1 Lb. Hot or sweet Italian sausages (or a combination)
1 Recipe for Italian Meatballs
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbs. Fresh oregano, finely chopped
4 Tbs. Fresh basil, finely chopped
4 Tbs. Flat-leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped

Preparation:

Heat a large, heavy-bottomed casserole or Dutch oven over medium heat, then add the garlic. (Don’t allow the garlic to brown.) Add the meat, turning frequently to brown on both sides. As the meat is browned, remove it and reserve. If necessary, brown the meat in batches.

Combine the tomato paste and wine and add to the pot. Raise the heat to high. Stirring constantly, boil for a minute or two to evaporate the alcohol. Add the tomatoes and their juices, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a fork as they go in. As the sauce begins to bubble, lower the heat so the tomatoes simmer gently. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary. Stir in the oregano, basil, and parsley.

Return the beef and pork to the pot. Partially cover the pot and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for two hours, or until the meat begins to fall apart. Add the sausages and meatballs, and simmer gently for another hour.

Remove the meat from the sauce, and place in a large bowl, or on a platter. Cover loosely with aluminum foil.

To Serve:

Serve the sauce over pasta—typically penne, ziti, or rigatoni. Allow 1/4 Lb. dry pasta per person. Serve the meat as a separate course with salad and bread.

Serves 10 – 12

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