I just took delivery of an Ooni wood-fired pizza oven and am going to set it up and test it tomorrow. Can't wait!
Posted on 04/23/2023 6:27:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sunday gravy may be the most indelible image of Italian-American culture. Sunday gravy – also called Sunday sauce — is a meat and tomato sauce served over pasta and a staple of home cooking in American cities with a large Italian immigrant population. A vat of sauce overflowing with sausage, meatballs, ribs, or whatever else your family told you was essential to making it, it's not a subtle dish. Instead, it's a weekly celebration, an embrace of bounty, and a tribute to the joy of food in one pot. Sunday gravy is also a classic family dish, not only because it's usually eaten as a big family meal but because distinct recipes are passed down through generations.
Like any immigrant cuisine, Italian-American cooking is a mix of original recipes adapted to the tastes and ingredients of their new home. Dishes like chicken parmesan and marsala are both based on ingredients or preexisting dishes in Italy but became American with the addition of chicken, which was cheaper and more plentiful in the United States than it was in the old country. Sunday gravy, on the other hand, is actually one of the most straightforward culinary transfers from Italy to the U.S. Perhaps owing to its inherent variability, very little changed from the dish Sunday gravy is based on when it crossed the Atlantic. It came from the city of Naples and the region of Campania, and it is as beloved there as Sunday gravy is over here.
Sunday gravy is the Italian-American version of Neapolitan ragù
Italian ragùs are a whole world unto themselves, as they include basically any meat-based pasta sauce, but two classics have come to define the genre. One is the familiar Bolognese, the famous Northern Italian sauce of chopped meat, which traditionally includes few or no tomatoes. The other is less well known in the U.S. by its original name, Neapolitan ragù, but it is the tomato-sauce ragù that became Sunday gravy. Beyond tomatoes, the defining difference between the regions' ragùs is how the meat is treated. In the Neapolitan version, the meat is cooked whole in the sauce, as opposed to the minced or ground meat in Bolognese. Neapolitan ragù also usually includes multiple different cuts of meat, from beef short ribs to pork chops, that will vary by region and chef.
While both Bolognese and Neapolitan sauces made their way to America, the Southern version came to define Italian-American dinners for the simple reason that most immigrants came from Southern Italy. Its long simmering time lent itself to weekend cooking, and by the mid-20th century, it had adopted its Americanized nomenclature of "gravy," becoming the tradition that many Italian families love to this day. In the process, there were only a few small changes, spaghetti became the favored pasta, the meat was served in the sauce instead of on the side, and meatballs were more common. Beyond that, Sunday gravy is a Neapolitan ragù in every way but name.
I have many good friends on Federal Hill in Providence—fiercely pro-American, and yes the tomato based sauce is gravy. Suck it up and lick the drippings off your tie, it’s the best food and the most loyal friends you’ll ever find. And if you don’t agree, good luck to your family finding your body.
Just sayin’.
This sheds light on something my father always used to do: call tomato sauce “gravy.” He was the first generation born in the US, so he probably heard the term growing up. When my Mom would make spaghetti Dad would say: “We’re having macs and gravy.” (For me, I say: pasta with sauce. Ragu tends to be more elaborate. We make a pork ragu that will make you eat yourself into a stupor!)
Fireside and St Augusine corner. Had an old quarry across the road we fished in. Swam with black kids down the road at the pool.
Proud to be a Grove Rat. It’s mostly Hispanic now.
I’m salivating like crazy. Where can one find a restaurant that serves these old traditional dishes, just like from the old country, without being bastardized beyond recognition.
Played at the creek too.
That sounds awesome. My grans neighbors in the Grove were Italian. Great people.
Ping!
Pepper and egg sandwiches-BREAKFAST!
In Southern California, it's pretty tough to find such a restaurant. There are no longer a lot of Italians living here and many "Italian" restaurants are owned by Middle Easterners and East Asians. But there are still a few good ones such as Fratellino's in Brea, Vince's in Ontario and the Eastside Market in Los Angeles, across the freeway from Chinatown.
One of my favorites, Andre's, in the Fairfax district across the street from Farmer's Market, had to close due to the renovation of the mall in which it was located, but the website is still up and I'm hoping they'll be back. I like their gravy-style red sauce poured over eggplant parmigiana or baked chicken and served with spaghetti.
Yep I was last there in 2014 visiting. Businesses on Buckner Blvd were unrecognizable.
I just took delivery of an Ooni wood-fired pizza oven and am going to set it up and test it tomorrow. Can't wait!
“I know my grandfather told my father something like, you’re in America, you speaka da English.”
That was the same case with my German Oma und Opa. They arrived from Danzig in 1927 with their three young kids at Ellis Island. Since WW I was only nine years in the rear-view mirror, they got beat up a lot in the Bronx. But Rule #1 was You are an American now, speak English. Opa was successful in the elevator business and all three kids were very successful.
No true Italian says “gravy.” Italians say “salsa,” “sugo” “ragu” and a few other more regional terms. I am half Italian and love Italian culture but find Italian American culture cringy and dying due to assimilation and intermarriage anyway.
Nice.
I got all the materials to build one sans mortar. Just need to figure where I want to put it because it will stand forever/as long as I am here.
Oh what I wouldn’t give for a pizza from Caserta’s or a loaf of Italian bread from Scialo’s or any bakery on “The Hill”
I’d got a Koda 16. Love it.
I know that in our family and at least three other Italian American families, it was de rigueur for my FATHER to make Sunday gravy.
It was the ONLY day that Papa was in control of the kitchen.
Contrary to some who think differently, Italian Americans’ homes were Matriarchically run.
We had Gagoots (zucchini) and egg sandwiches.
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