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• 1 2018-04-30T21:01:31-07:00 The Journey Of Pasta Towards America 8 plain 2018-05-06T19:08:07-07:00

  There is definitely no other place on earth that has welcomed and embraced more styles of cuisines than the United States. Immigration is the primary reason why so many different cuisines had found their way here, carried by the millions of people who have pursued a better life by embracing the American dream. Among the multitude of different styles that have had a significant impact on defining American cuisine, Italian food may have been the most influential one. It is truly fascinating to elaborate on the journey of the Italian Cuisine towards America and how, over time, it has gained its enormous consent and deep appreciation by the majority of the American people.
  

   
   

  Many of you may not know this but, it took some American influence on Italy, in order for Italian cooks to perfect their techniques. Most important, thou, was the importation of the American crops such as tomatoes, corn, zucchini and peppers; they were first seen in Italy during the late 18th Century. Initially, they were seen as “new world” oddities and they were only grown in small botanical gardens. Once their popularity was finally spread across the peninsula, the variety and sophistication of the Italian Cuisine vertiginously increased.

  By the end of the 19th Century, many revolutionary events have influenced the Italian cuisine. Sicily and Naples, famous for their citrus production, came up with new ways to cultivate and process tomatoes (the discovery of “Pomarola”). Also, the huge demand for pasta influenced the opening of many new factories where the process of wheat took place, coming directly from Sicily. They even received help and support from the government, which positively influenced the expansion of the olive industry, making Italian olive oil one of the most requested products in the world. It is important to keep in mind what was happening in Italy during that time: between 1870 and 1920, millions of “freshly declared” Italians, who didn’t support the unification of the kingdom, decided to leave their no longer recognizable country behind to pursue the American dream.

  The majority of them, passing through Ellis Island, placed their foundations on the East Coast; New York, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, mostly. Like many others immigrant populations previously have done, Italians created their own communities. In these communities, something magical happened: the mixture of regional cooking differences made possible for their culinary influences to blend all together. Suddenly, recipes from Tuscany were embraced and adapted by Neapolitans; Romans were cooking side by side with Sicilians; Northern dishes were reproduced and slightly modified by the neighbor from the South and this, this is how the revolution of the Italian American cuisine started. Initially, these new delicious creations were treasured inside the walls of the Italian communities, away from the American people. After the American soldiers fought in Italy during WWII, they returned home with quite an appetite for Italian food. This huge demand has led many Italian Americans to open up restaurants and delis to help feed the new hunger for Italian food.
  

  While most of the Italian dishes many Americans love today are not necessarily to be considered “authentic”, they still maintain the same roots as the traditional ones. This was the reason for major importations of a great variety of cheeses and also olives and oils. As the food and recipes continued to change, something never changed. The staples of every good Italian dish still remain garlic, oil and herbs. Whatever a particular dish, after been subjected to various transformations, may have become, the constant presence of these ingredients makes it Italian at heart. One of the most relevant changes has been the use of meat on a regular basis, instead of limiting it only to special occasions.

  Nowadays, due to the unceasing mixture of recipes and the exchanging of ideas, it has become pretty challenging in America being able to distinguish which specific region of origin a particular dish might come from. But one thing is certain, “authentic” or not, Italian cuisine occupies a special place in the hearts of the majority of the American people.  
  
  -Alberto Chiocchetti

   
  
  
   
• 1 2018-05-06T17:39:22-07:00 Italian Dishes That Do Not Exist In Italy 4 plain 2018-05-06T19:22:54-07:00

  Due to the long history of exchange of ideas and recipes and the mixture of regional cooking influences that happened in America ever since Italian immigrants first started to pursue the American dream in the land of opportunities, many new dishes have been created along the way. This is the ultimate list of Italian American dishes that you would never find in a restaurant of the motherland.
  
  First of all, we would like to reveal a secret that every single Italian tourist visiting the United States have always been wondered about: “Who the hell is this Alfredo?!?” Yes, you heard us! This is the story of how, one of the most famous and appreciated Italian American dishes was born. In 1914 in Rome, there was a particular difficult-to-satisfy appetite, the one of Ines di Lelio, wife of Alfredo di Lelio, owner of a small restaurant in Via Della Scrofa.
  
  After giving birth to their second child, she experienced a brief period of postpartum depression accompanied by physical weakness, dizziness and nausea, making her incapable of coming out the bed. Her husband decided to feed her with dishes of plain fresh pasta “in bianco”, adding some butter while scratching on top of it some Parmigiano cheese. Ines felt in love with this dish, so she encouraged her husband to add it to his menu at the restaurant.
  
  Coincidentally, at that time, two American icons of the silent movies, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, were celebrating their honeymoon in Rome and they decided to have dinner at Alfredo’s restaurant. They were so impressed by this simple-yet-delicious dish and by Alfredo’s hospitality that, after they went back home, they sent them a gift: a gold fork and a gold spoon, both engraved with the words: “To Alfredo, the King of Noodles”.
  Thanks to the two actors’ word-of-mouth around Hollywood, a group of few elites, decided to visit Alfredo’s restaurant during their occasional trips to Rome, creating a “Wall of Fame” with pictures of Alfredo and his illustrious guests. His restaurant became a tourist attraction always kept under control by international paparazzis, because many of them believed that famous actors would frequently eat there.
  
  But the average man’s consumption of this dish never really take off in Italy because, to Italians it never seemed anything more that simple buttered spaghetti with the usual herbs and the always-present Parmigiano cheese. Although its story is very good, nowadays, if you visit Italy, you will realize that nobody has actually ever heard about this dish, neither in restaurants or among Italians.
  
  If you find yourself in a restaurant in Italy, and you don’t want to raise any waiter’s eyebrows, you better ask for a “Cacio e Pepe” or a “Carbonara”. As for the additional presence of various elements like chicken, shrimps and different ratios of milk or cream, this is definitely a “no-no” for them so, don’t ever bother! In Italy, the only time you’ll see the chicken element in your pasta is when you’ll taste livers and kidneys in a lighter version of the ragù sauce made with white meat.  
  
  The second “non-Italian” dish that we would like to talk about is “Spaghetti with Meatballs”. You didn’t know that, did you?! The quintessential Italian meal that the majority of the American people grew up on is, in fact, not Italian at all. Quite the opposite actually, for Italians this represents an atrocious crime against their cuisine!
  
  They do have an equivalent of the meatballs called “polpette”, but they are much smaller in size than the ones you’ll find in America and, they would never be served together with spaghetti; they are normally served alone, made with either meat or fish, but they do not present any type of heavy sauce, and they are typically accompanied by potatoes, beans  and/or various vegetables. The pasta, obviously, it is Italian, but it is served in smaller portions as en entrée and not as the main course.
  
  This dish first appeared in America during the early Twenties. Here, Italian immigrants discover that, in the New World, meat would no longer be a luxury item used only for special occasions, because here it was cheap and available in large quantities, so it became part of their everyday meals. Another reason why this dish became so popular among Italian Americans, was the fact that they weren’t left with much choice for other types of Italian food to count on in the various American grocery stores. It has been very difficult for them at that time, to deal with the scarcity of tomatoes. This really influenced the passage to heavier and thicker sauces for their pastas, upgrading spaghetti as the main course.
  
  Another super famous representative of the Italian American cuisine that you will not find in a restaurant in Italy is the “Pepperoni Pizza”. So, if you happen to be visiting Italy, and you still want to order a spicy salami pizza, don’t use the word “pepperoni”, because in Italian, it actually means “red bell pepper”; you have to say “salame piccante”, which is the correct Italian translation for spicy salami.
  
  Pizza, certainly, keeps occupying a special place in the heart of Italian people, and this special connection is made possible only by the fact that, after all this time, it still has maintained its eternal simplicity, remaining much lighter on the toppings and on both the quantity and specificity of the cheese, respect to any other different version offered almost everywhere in the world. Remember, it is not a real Italian pizza, unless it has mozzarella cheese on it!
  
  Pizza first reached the shores of America, obviously, by the hands of Italian immigrants who, after creating their own communities, especially on the East Coast, start demanding fair representation of their national cuisine. It was the most common and indigent meal that blue-collar Italian immigrants would consume at work, because those who were living in the various Little Italy’s at that time, were experiencing almost extreme poverty. However, the establishment of the first pizzerias was not enough to bring pizza on the dinner tables of every American household.
  
  It took quite some time and a lot of endorsement by illustrious Italian American figures like Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante and baseball icon Joe DiMaggio, in order for pizza to be appreciated on a national level. Also, many Americans had just returned from fighting in Europe during WWII where, most likely, the only positive thing that they got out of this otherwise brutal experience, was the chance to “refine their palates” with delicious European dishes.
  
  Pretty soon after that, pizza began to being subjected to countless modifications by many different cultures present in the United States, which have completely “Americanized” it, in order to make it appealing to everyone’s tastes. The all-beef pepperoni pizza, for example, it’s more of a Hungarian tradition, Italians had no part in that. But that’s just the “tip of the iceberg”; several other versions are very popular around the United States: Greek pizza, Hawaiian pizza, Chicago-style pizza, Detroit-style pizza, New York-style pizza, New Haven-style pizza, California-style pizza, St. Louis-style pizza, and the list goes on and on!

  
  
  -Alberto Chiochetti