L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024 www.italoamericano.org 34 L'Italo-Americano W h e r e v e r y o u a r e , Sunday lunch m e a n s , t r a d i t i o n a l l y , t w o t h i n g s : good food and family. In the o l d d a y s , w h e n a c t i v i t i e s were still largely organized a r o u n d S u n d a y m o r n i n g mass, the family cook would attend the earliest function and then go back home to get to work in the kitchen. For everyone else, it was mass in the late morning and then, f i n a l l y , i l p r a n z o d e l l a domenica. Telling exactly what Ital- ians eat - and used to eat - d u r i n g a t y p i c a l S u n d a y l u n c h i s f a r f r o m s i m p l e because here - perhaps more than on other occasions - it all comes down to a family's habits and customs. While w e c a n m a k e a n e d u c a t e d guess about what Sicilians might eat on Easter and Tus- cans during Christmas, there are no strict culinary tradi- tions for Sundays. Although there may be typical dishes based on regions and towns, it is not uncommon for new food experiments and novel- ties to be served as well. I admit that long gone are -alas!- the days when I could enjoy the bountiful offerings of my grandmothers' Sunday table, but I still have fond m e m o r i e s o f t h e m : m y maternal grandmother would prepare ravioli with butter, sage, and parmesan sauce, followed by roast veal in a red wine sauce with mashed p o t a t o e s o r , o c c a s i o n a l l y , rabbit au chivet, with roast carrots and some other veg. Dessert was always a large tray of paste from the local bakery: cream puffs, short- bread cookies, and chocolate cream funghetti (little eclairs s h a p e d l i k e m u s h r o o m s ) were all a must. If I were at my paternal g r a n d m o t h e r ' s h o u s e , w e would begin our meal with either tagliatelle or ravioli al ragù. After that, we would enjoy her pièce de résistance, w h i c h w a s r o a s t c h i c k e n served with pan-fried rose- mary fries. Those fries were thinly sliced, fragrant, and crunchy, and they remain one of my fondest food mem- o r i e s f r o m m y c h i l d h o o d "When the time for dessert came, she'd take out a tray of fresh cookies and a big b o w l o f h e r c h o c o l a t e , a m a r e t t i , a n d l e m o n z e s t cream: needless to say, it was delicious. As a matter of fact, all of her grandchildren - we are four - loved it, but none of us ever thought of asking her for the recipe. Silly us! But when you are y o u n g a n d c a r e f r e e , y o u don't think about cooking, nor about the idea that the people you love the most are not going to live forever... But my family's Sunday lunches, just like it was - and still is for some, of course! - for many people, were also an occasion to catch up and h a v e a m e a l t o g e t h e r , a t least once a week: with us kids in different schools, and mom and dad with separate lunch breaks, it was difficult t o e a t t o g e t h e r o n o t h e r days. TV would be on, for once not on the news, but on s o m e l i g h t - h e a r t e d , l a t e - morning show dedicated to Italy's culinary traditions, with the hosts traveling up a n d d o w n t h e c o u n t r y t o find the prettiest villages, with the most delicious dish- es. Those lunches - which I still fondly cherish - are long gone, but the shows are still going strong on Italian TV. I am sure that many of you, even if you don't come from the North-West of the coun- try like I do, likely have simi- lar memories S u n d a y l u n c h e s o f t e n start well before midday, m a k i n g y o u r d a y u n i q u e from the early hours of the morning, as it used to hap- pen to a Sicilian friend of mine, who would regularly awaken surrounded by the delicious scent of carne al sugo simmering on the stove back in the Kitchen, and the voice of his father happily singing away the morning while cooking. On the table, along with the large plate of flavorsome, tender meats cooked for hours in toma- toes and red wine, there'd also be maccheroni, dressed in the very sauce where the meat had cooked. So, these are my memo- ries and my dishes but what a b o u t t h e r e s t o f I t a l y ? While, as I said, it's not easy to decide on an "average" Sunday meal by location, we can at least attempt to get an idea. C o o l a n d e l e g a n t M i l a n o f t e n i n d u l g e s i n risotto but, just like in my h o m e , a l s o i n a g n o l o t t i , ravioli, rabbit stew, and bol- l i t o m i s t o , a m i x o f m e a t simmered in vegetable broth and served with a variety of sauces, very common also in Piemonte. Apple tart and the ubiquitous paste would also b e s e r v e d . I n F l o r e n c e , fresh homemade bread and c o l d c u t s a r e f o l l o w e d b y p a s t a a l f o r n o ( o v e n - c o o k e d p a s t a ) o r p a s t a at ragù, then roast chicken or pork with peas and pota- toes. Tiramisù and cookies are a good choice to end the meal here, in the beautiful birthplace of Dante. Moving further South, the Eternal City, Rome, tempts us with a Sunday table filled with carbonara, pollo alla cacciatora, or saltimbocca alla Romana, followed by g o o d g e l a t o , p a s t e , o r tiramisù. In Naples, the last stop in our brief excursus of traditional Sunday meals, it a l l s t a r t s w i t h a n i c e plate linguine di mare, fol- l o w e d b y r o a s t l a m b , o r m e a t b a l l s , a n d t h e n - y o u guessed it!- paste or a gener- ous slice of sweet babà. Needless to say, coffee is the way we all end our Sun- day lunch, never mind which part of Italy we are from! While traditional Sunday lunches may no longer be the staple of family life they used to be in our childhood, it is still possible to find, e s p e c i a l l y i n m o r e r u r a l areas, family dedicating time and love to their prepara- tion. And if you, like me, no longer have the luck to enjoy them regularly, let's make it a habit to try and cook a nice Sunday meal at least once a month: it could be a good occasion not only to enjoy great food but also to take a lovely walk down memory lane and meet the people we love the most. Memories and tradition of Italian Sunday lunches GIULIA FRANCESCHINI People enjoying a nice lunch together, just as it used to happen every Sunday in Italy (Photo: View Apart/Shutterstock) LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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