You are not eating Italian food in America!

I have been told twice in just the last month that Italian American food is not real Italian food.  !  So I decided to find out why and asked my best sources in Italy.   Monica Cesarato in Venice and Ylenia Sambati in Lecce, my Italian sources, are proficient  cooks who offer cooking classes in Venice and  Lecce. 

Where did Italian Americans learn to cook?


Photo courtesy  of Yltour.  Mamma Anna is their top cook.

If you were fortunate enough to have a nonna, you enjoyed days in her fragrant kitchen sampling everything she was spending hours cooking.   From the time you entered the kitchen, food was most likely offered with a simple mangia.

Some of us learned from mothers or aunts, watching and helping with the preparation.   I can remember all the women in the kitchen with aprons preparing meals.    I thought the lasagna, sausage and peppers and eggplant Parmesan was as common in all Italian households, as meatballs!  So I was surprised to hear..................


Nothing like the eggplant Parmesan we had.

That many Italian American foods are NOT found in Italy?
.  
Spaghetti and meatballs:   According to Monica:  “Not an Italian recipe at all.  The origins of this recipe are very, very American.  It seems that this was the result of the creativity of  Italian women who have emigrated to the States in the early 1900’s and who came from very poor backgrounds.    It seems that the American tomatoes, which were needed to prepare the classic sauce, were quite watery.  The women were obliged to add tomato concentrate, exaggerating with herbs to flavor the sauce.  Meatballs were added since meat was abundant in America while in Italy at this time it was a luxury.”


Just need the large helping of grated cheese!

Do you remember the can of tomato paste added to the large  pot of sauce that simmered for hours?    
The bitter taste was cooked ‘out of the sauce’ over the 2 days it simmered on the stove.

I watched Yle prepare lunch one day at her home.  Fresh tomatoes were sauteed as the basis of a wonderfully ‘sauce’ seasoned with fresh herbs.   The sauce garnished the pasta, it did not drown it.    And who has tasted fresh pasta and noticed the incredible difference?

Eva Sandoval wrote a detailed story for Fodor's Travel, listing a number of foods that you wont find in Italy:

Garlic bread:    most times bread is not part of your meal and if it is, never with butter

Italian Dressing:  salad is eaten after the main course and often only with a sprinkling of olive oil.  Of course Italian olive oil offers the perfect complement to many foods.   I sat down for pizza with the owner of a small hotel in Lake Garda and watched her pour oil over our hot from the oven pizza!

Pepperoni Pizza:  Pizza can be sold by the square slice to 'take away' or at the table as an individual round pizza for each person.  You will not see a 'large pie' shared by more than one person.  A wide assortment of toppings are used but in more than 20 years of returning to Italy each year, I have never found pepperoni.  Individual pizza is eaten with a knife and fork. 



Sorbillo Pizza in Naples:  DND took me for  the best pizza in Naples
Each person has their own pizza and it is massive, hot and crisp

Lobster Fra Diavolo and Shrimp Scampi:  Wonderful seafood, pasta dishes that are American.
Seafood is an ingredient for areas in Italy near the sea. 

Vanessa DellaPasqua,the founder and chief editor of Italy in SF www.italyinsf.com , wrote a wonderful list of 100+ Things to Know If You're Going to Italy.    Some of her items I found most surprising included:  you will not find 'orders to go',  no doggie bags for leftovers, meals do NOT start with a salad, chicken is not eaten with pasta, Alfredo sauce is NOT Italian.

Isabel, a friend in Rome, agreed there is 'no pasta with cheese sauce in Rome, there are no meatball sandwiches here and baked pasta is a dish you eat at home, not really at restaurants".   

Lasagna:  I questioned several travel friends from Italy to research this Italian American staple.  Tina, a member of Discover Naples Destinations, described two classic types of lasagna.  " Lasagna alla bolognese, which is lasagna baked with a meat sauce and bechamel * sauce, parmesan cheese and sometimes, a little mozzarella.  Then there is the lasagna Napoletana, which is much more complex, with tomato sauce, lots of mozzarella, little tiny meatballs, ricotta, and pieces of link sausage. The Neapolitan is usually  eaten during the Carnival period ".

 

According to Monica "what really upsets Italians is the way American-Italians change our food

(Americans in general) think that using oil means pouring bottles of it on (food)!  The same for butter and sauces!   Italians believe:  poco è meglio, less is better ."  

 "It's like you (Americans) do not want to taste the real flavor of things.  So many times we (Italians) eat things as they are,  no sauce, oil or no seasoning, just as it is.   Just  an example:  if you fry real fresh fish, really good, fresh, fish, there is no need for salt or lemon.    Steak:  we simply grill it on a dry grill (no oil based) then a couple of drops of olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, that's all".  

Italians have a philosophy on food that may not have immigrated with our ancestors.    Italians enjoy eating and it is the feature part of the day.  Meals are taken with family or friends.  I am not sure Italians understand eating alone and certainly don't accept eating in their cars.   At my first lunch in an Italian home in Lecce, I noticed Yle put a table cloth on the table.  She told me "she could not think of lunch, sitting at the table without a table cloth".      

As the CEO Yltour in Puglia, Yle has developed a number of travel itineraries to learn about Mediterranean cooking, the use of olive oil and the enjoyment of wines to improve health.     On her recent NYC visit she found the food 'heavy', rich and sometimes  flavorless.  "Cuisine, especially for a Pugliese, should always be fresh, in season and not heavy".  "We find that the simpler the more delicious.  .. Freschezza and sapore."            

 

As you sit down to Sunday dinner this week identify all the foods on the table that are really Italian!

You can learn Italian, stay with an Italian family and a cooking class with Monica Cesarato.  An energetic tour guide with an endless knowledge of Venice:  info@@monicacesarato.com

 

Yle has an endless list of events you can experience in Puglia.  What I found best was her ability to create an event based on your interests:  cooking, wine tasting, photography or a visit with a nonna.

contact Yle at info@yltourcongressi.com

 

Tina is a partner in Discover Naples Destinations.  Even if you have been to Naples, you have NOT seen the places Tina can show you.  Based on your interests DND will create a special event for you and can offer countless an independent traveler may not find.

 

Olga Stinga with SantaAnna Institute in Sorrento, can offer lessons and cultural experience in and around Sorrento.  A single class or an extended visit will enrich your experience in Italy. 

administration@sorrentolingue.com

Isabel Salesny is an estate agent in Rome.  She can help you find your 'next home in Itlay'
salesny@casaitaly.it

 

   

*béchamel, or balsamella as it is called in Italian.  It is used in many Italian baked dishes and gratinées, and is a necessity in meat lasgane. - See more at: http://giulianohazan.com/blog/italian-bechamel-sauce/#sthash.epjvp4sv.dpuf 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life in Italy vs America Part 2

Cooking fresh foods purchased daily is a way of life for Italians.     This 'life style' is what I enjoy when 'living' in Italy for my 6 or 8 weeks each year.   When I am fortunate to have an apartment for part of each trip, I visit the local markets and try to understand what the Italians cook for their families.

So Leslie's post (see Life in Italy vs American part I) started a conversation on how Americans eat.

Fresh foods have a color that is vibrant

Why we might not be willing (or able) to buy food daily and cook in a healthy way.   When you work 9 or 10 hrs a day and commute another 1 or 2 hours, it is very tempting to buy something pre-cooked or prepared, bagged salad, microwave veggies, etc.      What about the pizza you order when you 'have nothing in the house?  Or the drive through because eating in the car while driving may be the only way you can get a meal.

Well, Leslie had a strong opinion on this and it started to make me think:

Sometimes the fresh veggies come to you!

Even the super mercato has FRESH

Lesley Daoust:   "Work-life balance, live to work, or work to live?     Life is precious and all too brief to live it chasing success and money, happiness can be found in the simple things around us. Follow your dreams and work becomes your 'hobby', cooking becomes a way to express yourself. Cooking a great meal brings people together, new friendships are formed at the table, inviting people over for a quick snack is a great way to make new friends, conversation never fail when talking about food, Everyone appreciates the time and effort it takes to make a cake, or biscuits, or even a quick pasta dish . Never underestimate the power of a woman in the kitchen..."


I am thinking of Lesley's words and meaning as i eat Italian orzo in canned soup....hmmm not there yet.

As a future expat, will Italians even accept an outsider?

I dont think Italian's think Italian Americans are REAL Italians.

What do you think?

One foot in Italy One foot in America: I am an Italian American

 

As an Italian American do you feel that you have one foot in America and one in Italia?

The Italian American dilemma...

Street Parking!

When I tell people in Italy I am Italian American,  they seem  'surprised' and not sure what that means.    I wonder if Italians really think Italian Americans are true  Italian?   Certainly not the same as a native Italian.

What about Italians who immigrated to the USA.   Did they consider themselves Italian Americans?Perhaps this is how an immigrant feels when they arrive at their new destination.  But when I arrive in Italy every year, I feel as if I have come Home to Italy.


Cafe in Piazza San Marco, Venice

I often wonder what traditions are the same in Italy that  families observed in America.   So I started to ask Italian Americans what traditions do they remember.

Did it matter where you lived in the USA?
     Were traditions practiced in the northeast differ from those in the Midwest or West coast? 

Where is your family from?
What impact did the region your family immigrated from have on  family traditions.   Did Venetians observe the same holidays as Sicilians?

Cloister in Capri

Since many first generations Italians are no longer with us I  have a sense of urgency to find the answers to these questions and many more.

So I am asking all my fellow Italian Americans to take a few minutes and tell me what  you remember about living as an Italian American?

   Topics can included of course food, holidays, did you speak Italian at home.   More interesting topics have been mentioned in the few interviews I have done:   making wine in the basement, the entire family meeting for Sunday dinner, at weddings the bride carried a bag for 'donations',  having a family garden,  viewings for funerals held at home, multi generational households.

 The list goes on and on.    And a few surprises popped up on my first few interviews:   relatives who had been 'away at college' really meant they had been incarcerated!

A memory I still have is of a  favorite aunt who had beautiful furniture covered with custom fitted plastic covers and how in the summer your legs stuck to the couch!        Italian may have  been spoken at home only among the adults almost as a secret language or when they wanted to swear in front of children.

View over Sorrento marina

Food was an ongoing theme.   And lots of food.   Holidays especially featured both Italian foods and an 'American roast or turkey'.   There is an ongoing battle over if you called it sauce or gravy.      Parts of NYC insist it was 'gravy'. But across the river in NJ it was always sauce. And I can remember my mother starting the sauce on Saturday and cooking it all day for Sunday's dinner. 

Loyalty to the family and your family responsibilities came first.     Respect for your grandparents who were the head of the family.    Secrecy. .......

Field Trip

Tell me where your family immigrated from so we can compare practices.   I want to explore
superstitions, folk stories, religious practices, patron saints  and even games you played.  I remember visiting Pepe in Sorrento on his 'naming day'.  I thought this was his birthday but it was explained that you have a patron saint that you were named for and celebrated that day.     During the short visit at his office  a number of friends came in to congratulate him on this day.....I thought I was part of a soprano episode.

Will anyone be able to tell me more about  the courageous Italians who helped allied soldiers who found themselves behind enemy lines.      Or the USA  Italian internment camps during WWII.

There is so much to learn and your comments will send me in search of answers.   I return to Italia in October and will search for some of the answers.



If you would like the complete survey when it is published, send me an email:  http:www.hometoitaly.com   under comments
 

I meet Italians everywhere I go, in the USA

Finding a new Gelato store in Cape May lead me to finding Italian expats!

Monica works with her brother in Cione's

I have been driving to NJ from Atlanta every 6 weeks exploring some of the towns along the way I never bothered with, when the only motive was "are we there yet".

But in the past year I found that I am finding "Italians" everywhere I go!   I met a volunteer at one of the state run welcome centers who told me her parents immigrated here in the early 1900's and I met Jo in Stauton off of interstate 81 while traveling the mountain route.  She is a first generation Italian!
So when I stopped in Cape May, NJ to walk around this charming Victorian sea side village I was surprised to find a gelato store  next to the self serve frozen yogurt store.  With very little debate I picked gelato.......  The bigger surprise was the young owner of the shop moved to NJ from Italy!

We chatted while I selected my two flavours (this is how it is served in Italy)  and Monica was kind enough to allow me to speak Italian with no skill.... 

After a google search I find that she and her brother are from Milan.  He was an attorney.
But I wish to know how they selected Cape May and what promted them to create a gelato store?

The Gelato was wonderful and if I decide to make the 90 minute drive back to Cape May Monica said we could work on my Italian........    just amazing who you meet on the road.
http://www.cionegelato.com/gallery.php

Cione Gelato        315 Ocean Street, Unit 10, Cape May, New Jersey 08204 

In the Washington Commons shopping complex next to the ACME 
phone:             267.496.7788