The Truth about Italians..... — Page 3

Undi of course you've always been Italian..just didn't know it...your love of Barilla and cooking should've been the clue.


Papa...you certainly do know an Italian household. There was a place to play bacce down the street from me..behind the tavern...the men got to kill 2 birds with one stone....drinking and bacce all in one place.


And Rath doesn't need to know how to cook..that's what she has me for.

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CM2, that's the only combo that makes me gag. I have no prob with baked ziti, manicotti, stuffed shells, etc. Just don't put a plate of spaghetti with sauce in front of me.

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Girly I'm shocked !!!! Spaghetti and meatballs is my all time favorite !!!! Although Rigatoni in Vodka sauce has become the most requested dish I make now. My sister-in-law won't come to my house unless I make it.

Heart..you're lucky you didn't have to go through the whole seating chart for a wedding......you can't sit Aunt Mary next to cousin Anthony because they're still NOT talking because he didn't go to her husband's, sister's,brother-in-law's wake.

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My Grandmother even brought her silly superstitions with her from Italy. After a funeral...if you go to the cemetery you MUST go to the re-pass (lunch after the funeral) with the family or they believe you bring the dead home with you. One time after a great Uncle's funeral I had to get back to work so I stopped home 1st to pick up something....I walked in and said "Grandma,guess who I brought home to visit you"..she made me go out on the porch and turn around 3 times before I could enter again...I asked her if I should click my heels together too...she never got my jokes.

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Well Girly maybe one day you'll try mine...after I get my 40,000 kitchen.

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Puttanesca was thought to be the food of prostitutes. There's a certain sort of symbolism with the pitted olives and their profession.

Also, it could be prepared quickly--between johns.

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We had a wonderful Italian family who lived two doors down from us in Virginia. We had a house full of girls and they had a house full of boys. For that reason (if nothing else) we all spent a lot of time at each others houses and we've considered each other to be true family for the last 40 years.

Each Christmas we go to their house for Christmas dinner. There are so many people there (from their 6 sons and our 4 daughters and all of their spouses and now about a thousand of their kids) that every piece of furniture that can hold a flat board serves duty as a table in order to seat everyone. Trays and trays of hot and cold appetizers are set out when you arrive. The beer, wine, and cocktails flow. Then, after everyone is more or less seated, out comes the pasta. The 'macaroni' is always Grandma Pic's (their name is Piccariello) homemade ravioli and Italian sausage. There's a roast turkey AND Chateau Briand with Bearnaise sauce. (Papa Pic learned to make this a few years ago so now it's a Christmas regular.) Then the salad with shrimp. Each course has a different wine to go with it. There are a variety of cakes for desert and then all those appetizer trays are filled with Christmas cookies. It takes a year to work off all that food!

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Actually I think they started having dinner on Christmas evening because we had dinner on Christmas eve. They would come over to our house (just the parents and the kids who were still at home) for ham and sweet potatoes and popping Christmas crackers. That always seemed like a big meal to us and you swore you weren't going to be able to eat a thing the next day at their house... HA! AS IF!

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Ok HeartinNYC..it is a deal! You can be a honorary Jew and I am now an honorary Italian. To celebrate, I will not shave my legs today. What will you do to celebrate?

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Mazel Tov Heart! And do find some kids to inflict guilt on!

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Updated On: 8/17/05 at 12:53 PM