L'Italo-Americano

SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano O ne of America's m o s t b e l o v e d authors on the p l e a s u r e s o f food, wine, and community is Angelo Pelle- grini, an Italian immigrant whose wisdom and impact as a c o o k , g a r d e n e r , a u t h o r , winemaker, and mentor are legendary. Born into a humble share- cropper's family in rural Tus- c a n y 1 2 0 y e a r s a g o t h i s s p r i n g , P e l l e g r i n i r o s e t o excel in several fields. He was a b e l o v e d U n i v e r s i t y o f W a s h i n g t o n p r o f e s s o r , a thoughtful author who wrote h o n e s t l y a b o u t t h e i m m i - grant experience, and a pas- sionate promoter of the plea- s u r e s o f f o o d , w i n e , a n d company. His home garden was so lush that Sunset mag- azine once sent a photogra- pher to capture it in every season of the year. Pellegrini was born in the small town of Casabianca in the rural Tuscan country- side, not far from Florence. His father Piacentino was a sharecropper who, like so m a n y o t h e r s , h e a d e d t o America for a better life. Pia- centino arrived in the US in 1912 and the following year, sent for his wife Annunziata a n d t h e i r f i v e c h i l d r e n , including Angelo. The Pellegrini family set s a i l f r o m G e n o a o n t h e Taormina, packed in like sar- dines with scores of other Italians, most from southern Italy. After the rough Atlantic crossing, they made their way by train to McCleary, a com- pany town in western Wash- ington where Piacentino had found work in the sawmill. T e n - y e a r - o l d A n g e l o arrived without knowing a s i n g l e w o r d o f E n g l i s h . Despite his age and size, he started school as a first-grad- e r . A n y o t h e r c h i l d w o u l d h a v e b e e n d i s t r a u g h t , b u t Pellegrini took to his school- ing with gusto and advanced quickly. Within five years, he had completed eight years of elementary school. An excel- lent athlete, he also enjoyed p u t t i n g h i s n e w E n g l i s h skills to use, participating in debate and drama clubs, and becoming a reporter for the s c h o o l n e w s p a p e r . O n c e a g a i n h e w a s o n t h e f a s t track, graduating from high school in three years. Next stop: University of Washing- ton where he majored in his- tory. Later in his life, Pellegrini wrote about how "only in America" could an immi- grant from peasant stock attain an education and suc- ceed on his own merits. In h i s b o o k c a l l e d I m m i - grant's Return, Pellegrini wrote: "It is a fact that if my parents had had their way I should never have gone to college. They did not doubt t h a t I h a d t h e a b i l i t y t o absorb the higher learning. But they had to be persuad- ed that I, their son, a Pelle- grini and a peasant, had the privilege and the right to enter that other world, the world of the citizens and to overpass the distance which had traditionally separated us from the wealthy and the cultured." Pellegrini enrolled in law school to satisfy his parents – n e i t h e r o f w h o m h a d a t t a i n e d m o r e t h a n t w o years of schooling – but he soon realized the law was not for him. His passion for language and literature won out. He switched careers to b e c o m e a p r o f e s s o r o f speech and then of English, first at Whitman College and t h e n a t t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f Washington. He later earned a Ph.D. at the UW and that is where he met his wife Vir- ginia; they married in 1934. Despite his extraordinary academic rise, Pellegrini was b e s t - k n o w n f o r e x t o l l i n g w h a t h e c o n s i d e r e d t h e e s s e n t i a l i n g r e d i e n t s o f life: food, wine, and good c o m p a n y . T h i s w a s n ' t rocket science; it was simply how his Italian ancestors had lived for generations, following a way of life that was practical, healthy, and in harmony with nature. Pel- legrini espoused "la cucina povera" (peasant cooking) w h i c h f o c u s e d o n s i m p l e recipes using fresh ingredi- ents with minimal manipu- lation. Friends and colleagues a s k e d h i m m a n y t i m e s t o create a cookbook. When he finally undertook the task, he carried it out in a careful a n d t h o u g h t f u l m a n n e r . First, he visited bookstores to see what cookbooks were already in print. That helped him decide not to create a t r a d i t i o n a l c o o k b o o k o f recipes, but rather to incor- porate stories and anecdotes drawn from the varied chap- ters of his life. In this way, h e c o u l d i l l u s t r a t e t h e importance of food and its connection to community. T h e U n p r e j u d i c e d Palate, published first in 1948, is hailed as a classic today. Over the years, Pelle- grini published nine books, i n c l u d i n g A m e r i c a n s b y Choice, Immigrant's Return, Wine and the Good Life, The Food-Lover's Garden, and American Dream: an Immi- grant's Quest. Although their titles indi- cate they are about food and culture, in reality they delve much deeper into questions that were close to his heart: what does it mean to be Ital- ian? How do we maintain c o n n e c t i o n s w i t h o t h e r s ? What is a life well-lived? As someone who grew up poor, Pellegrini was practical in his approach to food and c o o k i n g . H e e n c o u r a g e d A m e r i c a n s t o s e l e c t l o c a l i n g r e d i e n t s , p i c k e d a n d eaten at the peak of ripeness. There was no magic to it. He truly believed that anyone could learn to cook, grow vegetables, bake delicious bread, make wine, and live in harmony with nature. One time a reader asked him for the secret to winemaking. H i s r e s p o n s e : t h e r e i s n o recipe. Simply crush a ton of grapes into an appropriate c o n t a i n e r a n d w a i t f o r n a t u r e t o d o t h e r e s t . A response that is pure Pelle- grini! P e l l e g r i n i r e t i r e d f r o m teaching in 1973 but main- tained an office at the UW where he continued to write until shortly before his death on November 1, 1991, at the age of 88. Today, his books continue to offer valuable lessons for how to achieve a life well-lived. Angelo Pellegrini, shown here in 1965, focused on three key ingredients for a life well-lived: good food, wine and company (Photo courtesy of MOHAI) Angelo Pellegrini explores ingredients for the good life RITA CIPALLA

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