"As someone long prepared for the occasion,
In full command of every plan you wrecked --
Do not choose a coward's explanation
That hides behind the cause and the effect.
Italian Americans are usually portrayed in a derogatory fashion. I have experienced (right here in BC, as well as elsewhere, specifically in other states) non-Italian American’s hatred towards me and my people. They especially make reference to shows like the stupid Jersey Shore, and the mob wives, and the ItAm real housewives, etc. Do they really think that we all act this way? Aside from these idiotic shows and the media, people still make fun of ItAms based on our lifestyle, our family values, our appearance, and of course, our requisite for good food. Why is this so? Can some non-ItAms offer any insight (not that you have any ill will towards ItAms yourself)?
We live in an extremely highly media-influenced age. People's perceptions of ethnic groups that they have no direct exposure to is often shaped by what the popular and mainstream media defines them as.
It may seem rough for you as an Italian American, but holy cow would you not ever want to walk in the shoes of many other ethnic people in America for a mile or two. Believe me.
That said: I do not think that many people harbor outright hatred for Italian Americans anymore. Things have come a long way since New Orleans in 1891 or Boston in 1916. Just go ahead and look at the governor of New York state (who may very likely be the President one day) as proof.
People may stereotype your people, but hate is an entirely different deal. Take this from a former resident of the South- where, by the way, a sizable number of Italian Americans live completely integrated and remarkably American lives.
I hope no one is offended by this question, because I would like an honest answer: do Italian- Americans still make Sunday gravy, or is it regarded as old-school and unhealthy these days?
Also- if so- what is your preferred recipe for it?
My family still makes Sunday gravy, and I'm pretty sure a lot of ItAms still do. And trust me, health is not something we take into account when we cook. We care only about taste, and in my experience, the healthier the food, the crappier the taste.
And I'm sorry, but my grandma's recipe is coming with me to the grave! Besides, every recipe for Sunday gravy is just the basic marinara sauce or meat sauce slightly tweaked so that every family's is different.
I confess I never heard the term 'Sunday gravy' but from Will's answer I guess it must be tomato sauce or meat sauce for pasta. Here is my elaborate recipe: Chop a medium size yellow onion very fine (my wife prefers red onions, but what does she know? She is Irish/German-Jewish -- no offense to any of these tribes.....)
If you use a Teflon sauce pan pour 4/5 table spoons of olive oil and heat it to the point where it starts smoking. then throw in the onion.
If you use cast iron (I recommend it), heat the sauce pan until hot hot hot, pour in the olive oil and the moment it starts smoking add the onion. NEVER PRE HEAT A TEFLON PAN: it releases chemicals that will induce symptoms similar to the flu.
As soon as you add the onion, stir it a few times to coat it well. Reduce the flame a bit but keep the onion sizzling. You want it to brown, not become translucent.
Here two schools of thought diverge: wine yes or no? I used to deglaze the onion with white wine but lately I switched: no wine at this point.
Once the onion is well roasted, add a large can of chopped tomatoes, or peeled tomatoes, or strained tomatoes. Use a decent brand that costs around $3. This is the key ingredient and you don't want to go with some cheap stuff. I like Muir Glen (organic.) If you find authentic imported San Marzano peeled tomatoes, go for it. BTW: you have to chop the peeled tomatoes.
Add the tomatoes and let it come to a bubbling simmer. Add salt (use coarse sea salt, not generic industrial sodium chloride), lots of pepper and a generous amount of dried oregano. Oregano is sweet and it will take the edge off the tomato acidity. Many people add sugar for this purpose. Don't. Please don't. No sugar. It's offensive.
I also add two or three FRESH chopped tomatoes and a few sun dried tomatoes, but it's optional.
At this point you can add lots of white wine. You can go cheap, but choose a dry white like Pinot grigio or Sauvignon blanc. No chardonnay. Remember the golden rule ABC (Anything But Chardonnay.)
Let the sauce simmer at low flame, stirring once in a while. Don't let it burn or stick to the bottom. At least 60-90 minutes. 2 hours is better.
Then, at this point, when the alcohol has evaporated you can add chopped garlic or (I am sure I will get hate mail for this) granulated garlic aka garlic powder (not garlic salt.)
If you add garlic before wine, it will give out a metallic bitter after taste.
At the very end, if you have it you can add fresh chopped basil.
Let it cool off completely. You can even put it in the refrigerator. Once it's cold, reheat and serve with grated parmesan cheese, Fresh grated, not the green can stuff you get in supermarkets.
I make my sauce the day before and let it rest overnight. The next day it tastes much better.
As to cooking pasta, who doesn't know how to cook pasta? Well, I have a copyrighted patented secret method that will knock your socks off.
My family usually makes "sunday sauce" as well, and yes minor tweaks can change the flavor dramatically. I can always tell whether my mom or my grandmother made the sauce on flavor alone. If you think the recipes for making sauce are long and arduous just imagine that some families still buy bushels of tomatoes at the end of summer to can their own jars. Since my grandparents have aged quite a bit, our family has given up this tradition and converted to canned tomatoes. They even would make their own wine in my grandpa's basement which would intoxicate someone just on the fumes in the house. That tradition too has come to a stop because of their advanced age.
You mentioned that Italians share different dialects and more often they don't understand each other. Thou having different dialects do they still share a sense of "one tribe" or they tend to dislike one another?
This is an extremely complex question but overall I would say that Italians have a fairly weak national identity.
This is not just my personal opinion but an observation shared by most Italians. We openly criticize ourselves for lacking a sense of nation, except -- we cynically joke -- when the national soccer team plays (then "la Nazionale" as the team is called, becomes the drum that makes all hearts beat at the same tempo.)
The positive side (personal opinion) of this attitude is that Italians don't have a nationalist ideology, the kind of thing you go to war and kill for.
In most countries in Europe people have a very strong attachment to their language and often language is at the root of deep conflicts among nations. Italians generally don't love their language. Most are indifferent and even the highly educated use it more as a tool to distinguish themselves than as a moment of unity.
Regionalism and localism are very strong in Italy and if we go granular we would see profound dislikes. Example: Siena detests Florence and Florence looks down in disdain to Siena. Livorno and Pisa hate, literally, hate each other. I am not using exaggerations here: these animosities explode during soccer matches, with regular clashes, riots, and often injuries. Sporadically people are even killed. It's like street gangs.
To return to the language: all Italians speak the language with a distinctive local accent ("dialect" for us means a different language with its own words and grammar.) I can tell a person from Rome, Venice, Bologna, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Turin, Genoa, or Tuscany after two words. Northerners usually dislike Southern accents, and Southerners return the favor. Nobody likes Romans. I have a Northern accent that can be classified generally as "from Milan" and people can make me out in three seconds.
The overall outcome of this situation is a lack of unity and, yes, divisions, that can be more or less deep but that certainly are present and have a heavy effect on the development of society.
I did an Italian exchange program in high school with a school in Milan. While there, some of the kids were saying that they’re “real” Italians and that everyone south of the Po River is not. It seems as if the Po River is kind of like Italy’s Mason-Dixon Line. When my exchange student was in America, one of the waiters at an Italian restaurant I frequent asked him where he was from and when he said Milan, the waiter (being from Calabria) just moaned and walked away. Another Italian teacher of mine in high school (who is from a little south of Rome) told us all that the one running the program (who is from Milan) was nuts, and that south of the Po is “real” Italy. So, apparently, the north dislikes the south, and vice versa.
I'm curious, why is it that Italy with all its vast natural resources and its proximity to the ocean, was never able to become a super power? Possibly related, why is organized crime thought to have originated there? In all our books they were dirt poor in Italy and i would guess that the only wealthy people were those with Mafia connections. Any specific reason Italy as a country never made it?
Italy was the center of the longest lasting Western Empire that lasted about 500 years, the Roman Empire, which followed the natural path of all overgrown systems, be them nations or corporations: once it got too big, it failed (approx 500 C.E.). Starting in the 13th century (1200 C.E.) Italy was on a major rebound, witnessed by the achievements in arts, culture and economy of the city-states of Florence, Siena, Venice, Genoa and so forth. This second period of prosperity and intellectual/economic leadership, known as “Renaissance” lasted until October 12, 1492 (symbolic date.)
With the opening of the cross Atlantic trade and the political-economic system called colonization, the countries in the most favorable position to take advantage of the newly found resources were Portugal, Spain and France, and later Holland and England. Italy, btw, does not have any natural resources in the form of raw materials such as minerals. Even in terms of agriculture, the territory is not suitable for 'expansive cultivation'. So long as the Western World's center of economic activity was the Mediterranean Italy was able to thrive, but once the barycenter switched to the Atlantic, other countries became richer fast and therefore more powerful.
As I said, Spain Portugal and France were the first ones to take advantage of their geographical position vis a vis the Americas. They were also able to exploit the discovery / invention of gun powder and the technique of sailing against wind, between the 1400's and the 1600's -- two technological innovations that, with the invention of the modern printing press, changed complete the face of the earth (see Jared Diamond "Guns, Germs and Steel.") This period saw the beginning of formation of the modern colonial empires, first in South America, then Africa and parts of Asia and finally North America, Eastern Asia and Australia.
In order to sustain the colonization of such enormous lands, the colonizing countries had to unify under a central government. All European countries had always had weak central Kings and Queens, surrounded by very powerful aristocrats who were literally like local kings and queens, in constant fights and wars with each other. The process of formation of the modern centralized nation-state was accelerated by the need to pool capitals to invest in the colonies, and by the need to have a strong unified political power who could mobilize the capitals needed to go to war on a massive scale -- and, not a little detail, large masses of men for those wars. Italy became like the once-thriving little towns with lots of interesting and high quality mom's and pop's stores and businesses that were passed over by the interstate built on the outskirts of town and the shopping malls opened up a few miles down the road.
After taking this class I can't help but to wonder how much to Italian Americans know about their history and what are their sentiments towards their beginnings in the United States. Many of the things I learned reminded me a lot of Mexican Americans and I wonder how Italian Americans feel about Mexicans workers, if they work with them how is their relationship. Is there solidarity or has time erased their past. I also wonder how to the Italians view Italian Americans, and how do Italians view America.
Italian Americans are usually portrayed in a derogatory fashion. I have experienced (right here in BC, as well as elsewhere, specifically in other states) non-Italian American’s hatred towards me and my people. They especially make reference to shows like the stupid Jersey Shore, and the mob wives, and the ItAm real housewives, etc. Do they really think that we all act this way? Aside from these idiotic shows and the media, people still make fun of ItAms based on our lifestyle, our family values, our appearance, and of course, our requisite for good food. Why is this so? Can some non-ItAms offer any insight (not that you have any ill will towards ItAms yourself)?
ReplyDeleteWill,
DeleteWe live in an extremely highly media-influenced age. People's perceptions of ethnic groups that they have no direct exposure to is often shaped by what the popular and mainstream media defines them as.
It may seem rough for you as an Italian American, but holy cow would you not ever want to walk in the shoes of many other ethnic people in America for a mile or two. Believe me.
That said: I do not think that many people harbor outright hatred for Italian Americans anymore. Things have come a long way since New Orleans in 1891 or Boston in 1916. Just go ahead and look at the governor of New York state (who may very likely be the President one day) as proof.
People may stereotype your people, but hate is an entirely different deal. Take this from a former resident of the South- where, by the way, a sizable number of Italian Americans live completely integrated and remarkably American lives.
Your point about good food is important...
I hope no one is offended by this question, because I would like an honest answer: do Italian- Americans still make Sunday gravy, or is it regarded as old-school and unhealthy these days?
ReplyDeleteAlso- if so- what is your preferred recipe for it?
My family still makes Sunday gravy, and I'm pretty sure a lot of ItAms still do. And trust me, health is not something we take into account when we cook. We care only about taste, and in my experience, the healthier the food, the crappier the taste.
DeleteAnd I'm sorry, but my grandma's recipe is coming with me to the grave! Besides, every recipe for Sunday gravy is just the basic marinara sauce or meat sauce slightly tweaked so that every family's is different.
I confess I never heard the term 'Sunday gravy' but from Will's answer I guess it must be tomato sauce or meat sauce for pasta.
DeleteHere is my elaborate recipe:
Chop a medium size yellow onion very fine (my wife prefers red onions, but what does she know? She is Irish/German-Jewish -- no offense to any of these tribes.....)
If you use a Teflon sauce pan pour 4/5 table spoons of olive oil and heat it to the point where it starts smoking. then throw in the onion.
If you use cast iron (I recommend it), heat the sauce pan until hot hot hot, pour in the olive oil and the moment it starts smoking add the onion.
NEVER PRE HEAT A TEFLON PAN: it releases chemicals that will induce symptoms similar to the flu.
As soon as you add the onion, stir it a few times to coat it well. Reduce the flame a bit but keep the onion sizzling. You want it to brown, not become translucent.
Here two schools of thought diverge: wine yes or no? I used to deglaze the onion with white wine but lately I switched: no wine at this point.
Once the onion is well roasted, add a large can of chopped tomatoes, or peeled tomatoes, or strained tomatoes. Use a decent brand that costs around $3. This is the key ingredient and you don't want to go with some cheap stuff. I like Muir Glen (organic.) If you find authentic imported San Marzano peeled tomatoes, go for it. BTW: you have to chop the peeled tomatoes.
Add the tomatoes and let it come to a bubbling simmer. Add salt (use coarse sea salt, not generic industrial sodium chloride), lots of pepper and a generous amount of dried oregano. Oregano is sweet and it will take the edge off the tomato acidity. Many people add sugar for this purpose. Don't. Please don't. No sugar. It's offensive.
I also add two or three FRESH chopped tomatoes and a few sun dried tomatoes, but it's optional.
At this point you can add lots of white wine. You can go cheap, but choose a dry white like Pinot grigio or Sauvignon blanc. No chardonnay. Remember the golden rule ABC (Anything But Chardonnay.)
Let the sauce simmer at low flame, stirring once in a while. Don't let it burn or stick to the bottom. At least 60-90 minutes. 2 hours is better.
Then, at this point, when the alcohol has evaporated you can add chopped garlic or (I am sure I will get hate mail for this) granulated garlic aka garlic powder (not garlic salt.)
If you add garlic before wine, it will give out a metallic bitter after taste.
At the very end, if you have it you can add fresh chopped basil.
Let it cool off completely. You can even put it in the refrigerator. Once it's cold, reheat and serve with grated parmesan cheese, Fresh grated, not the green can stuff you get in supermarkets.
I make my sauce the day before and let it rest overnight. The next day it tastes much better.
As to cooking pasta, who doesn't know how to cook pasta? Well, I have a copyrighted patented secret method that will knock your socks off.
Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QinlLV8QKBU
Will, Professor,
DeleteThanks very much for your answers. Definitely going to try those recipes as soon as possible.
I'm not even close to Italian, but I'm like suuuper excited to try this recipe. I need to move to a country where they have 3 hours to make a sauce.
DeleteYou can always squeeze in cooking in between texting, facebooking and playing games on your smartphone.
DeleteMy family usually makes "sunday sauce" as well, and yes minor tweaks can change the flavor dramatically. I can always tell whether my mom or my grandmother made the sauce on flavor alone. If you think the recipes for making sauce are long and arduous just imagine that some families still buy bushels of tomatoes at the end of summer to can their own jars. Since my grandparents have aged quite a bit, our family has given up this tradition and converted to canned tomatoes. They even would make their own wine in my grandpa's basement which would intoxicate someone just on the fumes in the house. That tradition too has come to a stop because of their advanced age.
DeleteYou mentioned that Italians share different dialects and more often they don't understand each other. Thou having different dialects do they still share a sense of "one tribe" or they tend to dislike one another?
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely complex question but overall I would say that Italians have a fairly weak national identity.
DeleteThis is not just my personal opinion but an observation shared by most Italians. We openly criticize ourselves for lacking a sense of nation, except -- we cynically joke -- when the national soccer team plays (then "la Nazionale" as the team is called, becomes the drum that makes all hearts beat at the same tempo.)
The positive side (personal opinion) of this attitude is that Italians don't have a nationalist ideology, the kind of thing you go to war and kill for.
In most countries in Europe people have a very strong attachment to their language and often language is at the root of deep conflicts among nations. Italians generally don't love their language. Most are indifferent and even the highly educated use it more as a tool to distinguish themselves than as a moment of unity.
Regionalism and localism are very strong in Italy and if we go granular we would see profound dislikes. Example: Siena detests Florence and Florence looks down in disdain to Siena. Livorno and Pisa hate, literally, hate each other. I am not using exaggerations here: these animosities explode during soccer matches, with regular clashes, riots, and often injuries. Sporadically people are even killed. It's like street gangs.
To return to the language: all Italians speak the language with a distinctive local accent ("dialect" for us means a different language with its own words and grammar.) I can tell a person from Rome, Venice, Bologna, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Turin, Genoa, or Tuscany after two words. Northerners usually dislike Southern accents, and Southerners return the favor. Nobody likes Romans. I have a Northern accent that can be classified generally as "from Milan" and people can make me out in three seconds.
The overall outcome of this situation is a lack of unity and, yes, divisions, that can be more or less deep but that certainly are present and have a heavy effect on the development of society.
I did an Italian exchange program in high school with a school in Milan. While there, some of the kids were saying that they’re “real” Italians and that everyone south of the Po River is not. It seems as if the Po River is kind of like Italy’s Mason-Dixon Line. When my exchange student was in America, one of the waiters at an Italian restaurant I frequent asked him where he was from and when he said Milan, the waiter (being from Calabria) just moaned and walked away. Another Italian teacher of mine in high school (who is from a little south of Rome) told us all that the one running the program (who is from Milan) was nuts, and that south of the Po is “real” Italy. So, apparently, the north dislikes the south, and vice versa.
DeleteI'm curious, why is it that Italy with all its vast natural resources and its proximity to the ocean, was never able to become a super power? Possibly related, why is organized crime thought to have originated there? In all our books they were dirt poor in Italy and i would guess that the only wealthy people were those with Mafia connections. Any specific reason Italy as a country never made it?
ReplyDeleteItaly was the center of the longest lasting Western Empire that lasted about 500 years, the Roman Empire, which followed the natural path of all overgrown systems, be them nations or corporations: once it got too big, it failed (approx 500 C.E.). Starting in the 13th century (1200 C.E.) Italy was on a major rebound, witnessed by the achievements in arts, culture and economy of the city-states of Florence, Siena, Venice, Genoa and so forth. This second period of prosperity and intellectual/economic leadership, known as “Renaissance” lasted until October 12, 1492 (symbolic date.)
DeleteWith the opening of the cross Atlantic trade and the political-economic system called colonization, the countries in the most favorable position to take advantage of the newly found resources were Portugal, Spain and France, and later Holland and England.
Italy, btw, does not have any natural resources in the form of raw materials such as minerals. Even in terms of agriculture, the territory is not suitable for 'expansive cultivation'.
So long as the Western World's center of economic activity was the Mediterranean Italy was able to thrive, but once the barycenter switched to the Atlantic, other countries became richer fast and therefore more powerful.
As I said, Spain Portugal and France were the first ones to take advantage of their geographical position vis a vis the Americas. They were also able to exploit the discovery / invention of gun powder and the technique of sailing against wind, between the 1400's and the 1600's -- two technological innovations that, with the invention of the modern printing press, changed complete the face of the earth (see Jared Diamond "Guns, Germs and Steel.")
This period saw the beginning of formation of the modern colonial empires, first in South America, then Africa and parts of Asia and finally North America, Eastern Asia and Australia.
In order to sustain the colonization of such enormous lands, the colonizing countries had to unify under a central government. All European countries had always had weak central Kings and Queens, surrounded by very powerful aristocrats who were literally like local kings and queens, in constant fights and wars with each other. The process of formation of the modern centralized nation-state was accelerated by the need to pool capitals to invest in the colonies, and by the need to have a strong unified political power who could mobilize the capitals needed to go to war on a massive scale -- and, not a little detail, large masses of men for those wars.
Italy became like the once-thriving little towns with lots of interesting and high quality mom's and pop's stores and businesses that were passed over by the interstate built on the outskirts of town and the shopping malls opened up a few miles down the road.
After taking this class I can't help but to wonder how much to Italian Americans know about their history and what are their sentiments towards their beginnings in the United States. Many of the things I learned reminded me a lot of Mexican Americans and I wonder how Italian Americans feel about Mexicans workers, if they work with them how is their relationship. Is there solidarity or has time erased their past. I also wonder how to the Italians view Italian Americans, and how do Italians view America.
ReplyDelete