In Western Pennsylvania

t/ O*-L 1AM IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

ITIS CHRISTMAS EVE INTHE EARLY DECADES OF THE 20TH CENTURY. ITALIANIMMIGRANTS THROUGHOUT

SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA ARE GATHERING THEIR FAMILIESFOR V1GILIA,THE CHRISTMAS EVE MEAL.

PART 1: CHRISTMAS EVE CASSANDRA VIVIAN

Inthe rough and tumble coal patch ofOliver, deep inthe "Klondike"region ofFayette County, Giovanni and Caterina Mele and their 11 children sit down to a seven-course fish dinner cele- brating the heritage of Campania (around Naples in southern Italy), ,'c Inthe booming steel town of Monessen, tucked in a bend of the Monongahela River in Westmoreland County, Nazza- reno and Carolina Parigi and their daughter Elizabeth are joined by cousins Geno and Sand- rina Pelini and their children Arnold, Bobby, and Vivian from New Castle for a Tuscan-style Christmas Eve. (Traditions in the Parigi household are known firsthand, for the Parigis are the author's grandparents, and Elizabeth is her mother!) >[« Along the swarming flatland on the eastern shore of the Allegheny River before it joins the Monongahela indowntown Pittsburgh, Guiseppe and Giovanna Balestreire Camarda and their five children celebrate not only their hometown of Santa Elia, but the family occupation as fishermen along the western Sicilian coast. They willcook and eat an orgy ofSicilian fish dishes. Sj- The Christmas Eve meals the Mele,Par- igi,and Camarda families are enjoying offer telling clues to each family's heritage and dispel the myth that allItalian food is the same. While the holiday celebrates their religion, the food choices and preparations celebrate their native regions inItaly. Combined, the two points herald a very simple but overlooked truth: Italian American food does not stem from a single foodway. 5j-

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM GIGLIOTTI The provinces ofItaly were not unit- allofItaly's provinces, immigrated to ed as a single nation until 1861. The REGIONALISM America. In one instance in1901, the independent regions that Giuseppe Mayor ofMoliterno insouthern Italy Garabaldi brought together had a history and culture described the situation in his town when he wel- uniquely independent of each other. Each also had a comed the Prime Minister by saying: "Igreet you inthe distinct geography. All of these elements had a tre- name of 8,000 fellow citizens, 3,000 of whom are inAm- mendous impact on the food supply. In the Mez- erica, and the other 5,000 preparing to follow them." zogiorno, the semi-arid, mountainous region south of Most of the immigrants to America had already Rome, olives, olive oil, lemons, fish and goats were arrived before the concept of a united Italy had time the major products of the land. Garnished by ore- to develop. Immigrants brought their distinct re- gano, meats were grilled in Arab and Greek fashion gional differences and food traditions to America. or baked as the Norman invaders liked to do. That uniqueness not only separated them from other Further north, olive oil was combined with or nationalities, itisolated them from other Italians, too. replaced by butter and the cooking methods reflected In fact, few regarded themselves as Italian. They were a different mix of invaders and traders. Tuscany had Abruzzese, Piemontese, Siciliani, Toscani.... As they an Etruscan influence. The lush farmland of both worked and lived in the coal patches and steel towns Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna produced beef, veal, of southwestern Pennsylvania, most could only nod and pork that were garnished with local herbs such to other "Italians" because they could not speak with as sage, rosemary, and thyme. one another. The dialects were actually separate Ro- In the far north, the variety of food was similar mance languages — as many as 6,000 of them, by to central Italy, but the influences were distinct. In some estimates. A Romagnoli calls a fish stew brod- Piedmont, Veneto, Lorn- etto. To a Tuscan, brodetto bard, Trentino-Alto Adige, 7 i means a soup with bread, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, eggs, and lemon. In Tusca- traditional recipes were in- ny, soprassata means head- fluenced by the Austro- cheese, but inCalabria itis Hungarian Empire to which a salami. they once belonged. InLom- The Christmas Eve feast bard, heavily influenced keeps the ancient tradi- by France, pasta was rarely tions intact. As their home- seen on the menu. Friuli- land marched toward uni- Venezia Giulia had a Sla- fication, Italian Americans vie influence. In the Alto marched in the opposite Adige, the influence was predominantly Austrian, so direction, maintaining their regional identities. If a the foods reflect strudels, pork, and rich desserts like person does not understand these basic concepts about kastanientorte, a puree of chestnuts mixed with but- Italian Americans, he or she will never understand ter, flour, sugar, and eggs. what constitutes Italian-American food and trad- Beginning in about 1870, and continuing until itions in the United States. Itis not pasta. It is not the mid-1920s, some 4 million people, from nearly pizza. It can never be that simple.

156 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | WINTER 1999 It was not "Italianism" that linked Italians, CATHOLICISM but Catholicism. The church unified people & FISH long before Guiseppe Garibaldi united the provinces to form the Italian state. The Cath- olic Church decreed the eve before a holiday as a mangiare di ntagro, a time of "eating lean," and in the most Catholic of countries, surrounded on three sides by water, fish is the food of ritual for Christmas Eve. The ingredients that dance with the fish are regional: fish with pasta, and insoups and stews; fish boiled, fried, baked, and grilled; fish combined with onions or leeks, or with olives, pine nuts, and raisins. We simmer fishinrich red tomatoes or inpure white milk. Andeach ingredient carries the history of an entire region.Ithas a story to tell. Catholicism also gave us a system of mystical numbers for Christmas. Three is the number of the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is also the number of wisemen in the nativity story. So, either were honored when a family served three fishes on Christmas Eve.— In the Italian region of Abruzzi, the sacred number for Christmas Eve is seven for the seven virtues or the seven sacraments. Seven can also mean the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the seven champions of Christendom. There are also the seven winds of Italy, the seven hills of Rome, the seven days of creation, and even the seven wonders of the world or the seven veils of Salome. Some Abruzzi families prepare nine dishes on Christmas Eve: the nine months that Mary carried Jesus, or the Trinity times three. In the Marches, the number is nine for an all-vegetable Christmas Day meal including cabbage, turnips, asparagus, anise, and stuffed artichokes. An Apulian family may prepare 13 dishes symbolizing Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples. In Calabria, the number is nine or 13 or even 24 or 25, the latter for the days of the Christmas season. Ifyou ask a Tuscan American how many dishes he or —she prepares, they may look at you strangely. They do not fix a set number of dishes most northern Italian Americans do not. In fact, most have never heard of the tradition. The custom is stronger among southern Italian American families, though many do not know why or what the numbers represent. They continue the tradition because the family has always done it. Itis one of the mysteries of the Christmas season. The number of dishes, the type of dishes, and the meaning behind each preparation is lost ineach family's Medieval past.

AN ITALIAN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS 157 AV E 111 H0 NAPLES A QU 1 L A

The Mele family of Fayette Whether inNaples or inOli- County hails from Sala di THE FEAST ANTIPASTI ver, Florence or Aliquippa, Serino, Province of Avellino, Palermo or Pittsburgh, the in the hills of the Campania countryside high above typical Italian-inspired holiday meal begins with an Naples. Christmas Eve dominates their holiday cele- antipasto, an appetizer. bration. Rita Mele maintains seven was always the Rose Marie Boniello, a Floridian who is editor of number of dishes prepared in their family. But if you the charming cookbook Preserving our Italian Heri- count the dishes on the Meles' holiday table, they tage, published by the Sons of Italy Florida Founda- ! number far more. tion (with many Western Pennsylvania transplants), The Meles serve their Christmas Eve meal as a serves the traditional deep-fried Sicilian zeppole on buffet, and leave the remainder of the feast out after Christmas Eve but breaks up her gigantic meal into everyone has eaten. This is tradition, too. In Parma, two meals. Anchovy-filled zeppole begin a noontime Emilia-Romagna, leftovers are for the souls of the meal that includes a cod fish soup called zuppa dead; in Calabria, food remains on the table awaiting di baccala (escarole, cauliflower, pignoli a visit from the Madonna. The Meles keep their table [pine nuts], figs, and raisins). On through Christmas Day and replenish itas new guests the buffet in the evening, the arrived. During Christmas week inParma, Rita Mele zeppole appear again, only remembers, "the dining room table always had a large this time as a dessert A bowl of fresh fruit and a bottle of wine on it so that covered with honey visitors could be offered something immediately when and filled with they came to visit." It stilldoes. raisins and David Ruggerio, a Neapolitan American chef and pignoli. restaurant owner who grew up inNew York City, is author of the celebrated Little Italy Cookbook; he agrees with the Meles' hospitality: "Every Italian family makes twice what they can eat because it's the day everybody goes visiting. Usually, the older people stay home to receive guests while the younger generations go visiting. If you're on the visiting team, you end up going to 10 different houses and eating 10 different meals. You better be prepared to eat! If you're on the home team, you have to have an all-day feast ready from mid-morning untilnight because you never know who's going to show up—at what time." Valia Dalfonso Ray ofMonessen her parents Ef- aiano and Nazzerena Mappozi D'Alfonso came —from Prata Dannfione, Province ofAquila,in Abruzzi remembers, "Allmy Slavish girlfriends fromFriedland's Dress Shop [inMonessen] loved to come to myhouse for Christmas Eve. They could not believe the amount of food on the table, and how good itall tasted."

Meles' Neapolitan OliveSalad (see textp. 16J, caponata di pesce for ingredients) >

158 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY |WINTER 1999

Next comes the pasta. It can be prepared zucchini, and tomatoes. In Apulia, aglio e olio with garlic and oil or mixed— PASTA orecchiette ("little ears" of pasta) is the into a red sauce. But it must have fish traditional pasta. usually anchovy, sardines, clams, or squid (calatnari), In Monessen, meanwhile, the Parigi table has but sometimes snails, perhaps lobster, and maybe an pasta, too, but not pasta asciutta (pasta in which the occasional sea urchin. The Mele family have two water is drained after cooking). Following their Tus- types of pasta for their traditional Christmas Eve: can heritage, they make zuppa diceci. This is a chick- vermicelli inred sauce with calamari, and angel hair pea soup with chick peas, rosemary, garlic, celery, pasta in aglio e olio with the expected anchovies. carrots, tomatoes, and parsley cooked and pureed The dressing ofaglio e olio is regionally inspired. before adding homemade pasta. There are no onions Created by poor families inthe crowded alleys of Rome, in this dish because Tuscan tradition in their village the Christmas Eve version there is simply called spagh- of Quarata never combines onions and garlic. Nazza- etti alle alici,spaghetti withanchovies. Jana Siciliano, reno and Carolina Parigi's grandchildren call itChrist- a columnist for the New York Daily News, calls her mas soup, for as delicious as itis and as much as the family's Sicilian Christmas Eve pasta olio and com- family enjoys it,itis only served on Christmas Eve. bines the typical aglio e olio with walnuts, anchovies, Maybe you know someone who makes a lasagna and black olives. Rizzi DeFabo of Crabtree, Westmore- for Christmas Eve. In the Piedmont, the Christmas land County, stillhonors his great-grandparents Giu- Eve pasta dish is a special lasagne delta Vigilia. The — lasagna, seppe and Rosina Massari DeFloria— immigrants noodles are much wider than the traditional from Cerce Maggiore inMolise by as they signify the swaddling clothes serving the family's traditional aglio e MELES' NEAPOLITAN of the baby Jesus. Lasagne della AGLIO E OLIO WITH ANCHOVIES { _ olio for Christmas: spaghetti withgar- Vigiia recaH that Vigiliais —the word lie,oil,bread crumbs, walnuts, and rai- 1 pound angel hair pasta for the Christmas Eve meal is fla- sins. Leonard and LillianCarl (Carl- 1 medium onion vored with typical Vigilia fare: but- ona or Carlone) Plaitano enhance their 3-4 teaspoons diced garlic ter, anchovies, garlic, Parmesan, and 1-2 T olive oil Veneto, aglio e olio withstuffed calamari. They 2 cans anchovies black pepper. In the another came to the glass-making center of % cup olive oil Christmas Eve pasta is lasagne da in Westmoreland County 2 cups hot water fornel, deliciously premoistened with Jeannette Romano cheese from Salerno in the Campania. melted butter and covered withcrush- In Palermo, one ofthe main cities ed walnuts, poppy seeds, raisins, grat- of Sicily, the Christmas Eve dish is Peel and dice onion. Saute onion and ed apple, bits of fig,and a sprinkl- pasta con lesarde, pasta with sardines. garlic in a littleolive oiluntil onions are ing of sugar. Sounds delicious and _..,., . „ . „ . translucent. Add anchovies, including their „,, . - \u25a0\u25a0 This dish, writes Anna Del Conte in oj| Saut for 3 _4 mjnuteS| mashmg the very Balkan! Gastronomy ofItaly, is "like a history anchovies into a paste. Add remaining How about polenta? The family : - of Sicily writ small: part_ Greek [sar- olive oil and 2 CUPS of not water Bring of Norma_ Marcolini Ryan of Browns- ., „ r • • to a boil and simmer for five minutes. ... _, . dines and fennel],part Saracen [raisins Cook pasta as per package directions ville, Fayette County, continues the and pine nuts], part Norman [baked to the al dente stage. Drain. Mix pasta Christmas traditions of her mother in the oven]." Sardines inLiguria are with one CUP. of anchov y sauce t0 \ and father Attilioand Giovanna Per- ,. . moisten. Serve in individual bowls with a , baked ina dish called tortino disarde |ad |e of anchovy sauce over eac h sello Marcolini ofDignano al Tatha- leaves, portion. Sprinkle Romano cheese. Udine, withlayers of beet then cooked with mento in the Province of — Fri- in olive oil and combined with eggs — uli.The Friulani are polentoni pol- and Parmesan alternating with sardines. In Puglia, enta eaters and the Marcolini Christmas Eve pasta cozze (mussels) are cultivated, so eating mussels at course is exactly that: polenta topped by baccala Christmas is not a surprise, especially withpotatoes, cooked with leeks in tomato sauce.

160 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY |WINTER 1999 PARIGI'S TUSCAN CHICKPEA SOUP WITH EGG NOODLES

48 oz. canned chickpeas I1/? cups broth (or water) '/» cup fresh or '/> t dry rosemary 2 large cloves garlic 2 T fresh parsley Vi cup celery ribs and leaves 2 small carrots salt and pepper, to taste V4 cup corn oil '/4 cup whole or crushed fresh or canned tomatoes 2/2 cups wide pasta (optional) Parmesan cheese or lemon wedge

Place a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Add chickpeas (including liquid), reserv- ing 1 cup, and VA cups broth or water. Bringto a boil. Add rosemary, cover, lower heat, and allow to simmer slowly for 30 minutes. While simmering chop garlic, parsley, celery, and carrot in a meat grinder or food processor (the grinder is better because it releases the juices). There are no onions in this soup. Place a medium-size iron skillet over medium-high heat. Heat to hot. Add oil. Add garlic mixture, salt, and pepper to oil. Saute 20 minutes. The longer you cook this mixture the better the soup will taste. Simmer until vegetables are dark and begin to stick to the skillet (about 20 minutes). Add tomatoes, mash them into small pieces. Simmer slowly an additional 10 minutes. Add vegetable mixture to simmering chickpeas. Continue to simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Remove from stove and puree in blender at high speed. Re- turn to pot and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes. Stir often. About 15 minutes before serving add the remaining whole chickpeas. Some people prefer to eat ceci soup without pasta. If so, serve and garnish with Par- mesan cheese or wedge of lemon. To combine with pasta, add 1 cup wide pasta per quart of soup, cook 15 minutes or to taste, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese or wedge of lemon, not both. Yields2 to25^ quarts. This is a thick soup and gets thicker as it sits. To thin, add additional broth. It can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for a couple months. Do not add pasta to broth to be stored. Eel is unappetizing to EEL many people, but it is a Christmas Eve must in most Italian American homes. That's because eel (Anguilla if female and capi- tone ifmale) symbolizes happiness inthe year to come. Because itloses its skin, the eel is considered to renew itself, to "leave the world ofthe profane, and, in its vulnerability, enter the world of the sacred," as Piero Selvaggio explained in a 1997 article in World and I. There are as many ways to prepare eel as there are people who eat it. Some families roast eel, others combine it in a stew, others fry it, and some, like the ancient Romans, marinate it. Inthe LittleItaly Cookbook, the Rug- gerio Neapolitans serve their eel in a stew of anchovy, garlic, mushrooms, and peas with a tablespoon of tomato sauce and good soup stock. The De- Fabo family from Molise fry their eel as part of a large fritto misto, mixed fry, of baccala, smelts, and cauliflower. Nowadays, they add calamari and shrimp (and for the younger gener- ation, not so hot for fish, they also serve cheese ravioli, fettuccine Alfre- do, and spaghetti with butter). Although itis a Neapolitan tradition, no eel is served on the Mele table for Christmas Eve. Why? Perhaps the Meles could not afford eel. The Oliver coal patch was not Millionaire Row in the early 20th century. Or perhaps they could not findeel. Shopping for the Ital- ian palate was no easy matter inturn-of- the-century southwestern Pennsylvan- ia. But the reason is more personal: - F R IU L I VE NE ZIA CALABRIA PRATA DANNFIONE

DEFLORIA'S OGLIO E OLIO Arancini are Sicilian, and there are as 5 cups water Heat 'A cup of olive oiland add 3-4 cloves many ways of making them as there are 1 teaspoon salt of chopped garlic, mashing the garlic until hilltowns and harbors in Sicily. They were 2 cups rice it dissolves. Cook thin spaghetti to taste. brought to Italy by the Arabs who still pinch of saffron Just before serving, add: make their ancestor, khobeiba. Khobeiba Vt cup water has a fillingof meat, onions, pine nuts, 3 eggs Vz cup crushed walnuts and raisins, while its outer shell is made 3A cup Parmesan cheese /4 cup golden raisins of cracked wheat. As you can see, the % pound butter Vz cup bread crumbs Sicilians substitute peas for the pine dash of salt nuts and rice for the cracked wheat. dash of white pepper ****** 1 cup flour STUFFING eggs, Toss mixture thoroughly serving. If 2 beaten before pinch of salt too dry, add a little butter or extra oil. 2 T olive oil 2 cups bread crumbs 2 garlic cloves, chopped oil for frying 1 onion, chopped leither Caterina nor Giovanni liked eel! Vz pound lean ground beef •k -k -k -k -k 1 pound mushrooms, diced »o, eel was out! The age-old tradition Bring water to a boil. Add salt. Add rice, 1 cup crushed tomatoes stir well, cover, bring to a boil, lower heat stopped withthem. "Don't like it,"is one 1 teaspoon allspice and simmer for 15 minutes, or until al jf V4 cup the biggest reasons traditions change. white wine dente. Soft rice is not good for this recipe. cup cooked peas This leads us to another way that 1 While rice is boiling, combine saffron (V2 cup pine nuts and boiling water and allow to brew for Italian American customs changed l cup raisins) and A 20 minutes. Strain the saffron tea. Drain cup Parmesan cheese :hrough the years. Sometimes regional '/z rice very, very well. Add saffron tea and specialties holiday •*• rice become fare all year \u25a0*• \u25a0*• \u25a0*• •*\u25a0 mix well.- The saffron willtint the long. The special Arab-inspired oron- orangish Add eggs ' cheese ' butter ' salt ' — Place a medium-sized skillet over med- and pepper. Mix well and set aside to am orange-colored rice balls filled ,_ | , — ium neat Heat to hot Add ohve oN A C00 for at east an nour with savory are served in Sicily for low to- warm. Add chopped garlic and- Rice should be golden" orange and onion Brown'add ' salt' and firm' lf to° moist il wi be Santa Lucia's Day on December 13, meat pepper difficult |° Break up meat and continue to brown. handle. Place 2-3 tablespoons of( cold but have become holiday fare all year Add chopped mushrooms. Mix well. rice mixture in the palm of your hand. long on Sicilian American tables for Add tomatoes, allspice, and wine. Press firmly, to make a dent. Fill the Christmas,'Easter,'birthdays,''and other bovver heat and simmer for 25 minutes. dent with slightly less than a tablespoon Add peas or pine nuts. Mix well. Raise of the meat mixture. Cover the filling rites of passage. This makes arancini a heat and allow to dry. Remove from with an additional rice mixture. Press true Sicilian American holiday tradition. stove. Add grated cheese and mix well. firmly together so no filling is showing. Form into a ball to resemble small a Sometimes giving up tradition is oranges and refrigerate an hour to firm. painful. It takes great skill to solve the Roll the ball in flour. Then dip in problem of integrating the family into beaten egg to which salt has been added. Roll in bread crumbs. different customs. Marcella Fiore of Place a 4-6 quart pot over medium Maryton, Pa., who has Abruzzese and heat. Add enough oil to cover the aran- Heat. Drop arancini Calabrese parents, has created her own cini. into the hot oil. Do not allow to touch. Fry golden brown, unique Easter bread which combines remove, drain on a paper towel. Serve the ingredients of both family recipes. hot. Yields 2-3 dozen

AN ITALIAN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS 163 SANTA E L IA W-=JBr A R E ZZO Uk QUARATA FT M E ZZO G I0 R N 0

One could say smelts are universal mother, Luigi and Emilia Meneg- on Christmas Eve. They are univer- oMJlLlb, dALLALA, hini Simeoni of Dignano al Tatlia- sally fried, too. There are two types: & CALAMARI mento in the Province of Udine, in the very tiny smelt, shorter and thin- the far north of Italy, poached bac- ner than a French fry,floured, fried, and popped into cala with garlic and currants in a bath of milk and the mouth, or the larger smelt that is slit, beheaded, served itwith bread or polenta. This is very similar to gutted, floured, and fried. the Veneto specialty. In Venice, legend maintains, But ifthere is one dish that epitomizes Christmas there are 30 different ways to cook baccala. Eve, itis baccala, cured cod. Baccala and stoccafisso, Christmas baccala inRome means fried in a deli- stockfish, are the same fish. Baccala is salted and dried. cate batter, while inBasilicata, the region that sits in Stoccafisso is unsalted and air-cured. Ironically, itis the arch of the boot, baccala con le patate al forno is not a fish from the Italian waters, but from colder a fish baked in olive oil with potatoes, oregano, gar- climates, harvested mainly by Norwegian fishermen. lic,and chilipeppers. In Abruzzi, Christmas baccala The Meles make a Neapolitan baccala stew filled is cooked with celery,—pine nuts, golden raisins, black with potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, and chunks of olives, and tomatoes a dish screaming of Arab in- baccala swimming in a tomato broth. David Rug- fluence. That is how Mary Antonucci Moncinimakes gerio, the author of Little Italy Cookbook, serves a her baccala for Christmas Eve. Mary's father and mo- fish stew of squid, cod, halibut, shrimp, and sea scal- ther, Giovanni Battista and Maria Onesta Antonucci, lops. No baccala at all. His baccala is prepared by his come from Fossa in Abruzzi and a small coal patch Aunt Mary in Brooklyn, who cooks it a number of near Brownsville inFayette County. They once made ways, including his favorite with potatoes and green their own raisins for this meal, but never used the olives. RizziDeFabo's Molise family have a baccala black olives or the hot peppers. stew, too, with celery, peppers, garlic, cauliflower, Around Arezzo, baccala is the centerpiece of the mushrooms, baccala, tomatoes, basil, and parsley. A traditional Christmas Eve, too! In the Parigi and family from the Marches may prepare a rich stew of Pelini homes, it is prepared three different ways: eight to ten different kinds of fish. They call this stew boiled and combined with olive oil and chickpeas, brodetto. In Liguria itis called ciuppin. dredged in flour and fried. The former is a baccala If your family's Italian heritage has gotten lost salad, while the latter can be simmered in tomato through the generations, but you make baccala for sauce with either onions, or garlic and sage. It can Christmas in the form of a fritter that includes cab- also be combined with a sweet and sour sauce as their bage, your family may have an Italian Riveria connec- friend Sophia Poletini made it. There are only two tion,for this is typical of Liguriacooks fromLa Spezia. fish on these tables, the baccala and fried smelts. Perhaps you boil your baccala or stoccafisso, com- Calamari is another Christmas Eve fish. The bine it withgarlic and parsley, and then pound it into Meles stuff calamari with a bread, onion, celery, and a paste until it looks like mashed potatoes. Or you walnuts, or they cut itinto rings, bread it,roll it in make it with onion, parsley, garlic, anchovies, cin- eggs, cornmeal, and Romano cheese, and then fry it. namon, and Parmesan, simmered in milk and slow Another Neapolitan way of cooking calamari is to cooked and served withpolenta. The first dish is bac- stew it with tomato, currants, pine nuts, and olives. cala mantecato and the second is baccala alia vicen- The Camarda and Balestreiri families make their tina or veneziana, both from the Veneto. Pittsburgh's calamari that way, but without the olives. And they Lucy Simeoni remembers that her Friulani father and don't fry the stuffed squid, they bake it.

| 164 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY WINTER 1S99

AND MORE FISH So how about snails? InLombard and Venice, snails must be VICENZA-STYLE STOCKFISH eaten RIZZI DE FABO'S MOLISE- on Christmas Eve. The Venetians STYLE BACCALA STEW This is baccala alia vicentina or ven- enjoy snails with olive oil,garlic, eziana, the traditional Christmas Eve and his family and parsley. appeared Rizzi own Rizzo's Malabar dish in the Veneto. In Italy, where food Snails also Inn, in Crabtree, Westmoreland County. (The and wine have become important to the on the Christmas Eve table of the family graciously offered the Malabar din- economy of the country, guilds exist that Plaitano family ing room as the setting to photograph the authenticate recipes like Parmesan of Jeannette. Joan Daigle, dishes prepared for this article, and also cheese, Chianti wine, Parma prosciutto, their granddaughter, re- provided all serving pieces and table ac- and various recipes for salami and mort- members eating snails along with coutrements. Chef Rizzi also prepared the adella. This recipe has been approved by fried smelts and fried baccala stew shown on page 165.) Each the "Venerable Confraternity for the baccala. The family year on Saint Joseph's Day, Rizzi's rest- Stockfish of Vicenza," which authenti- also enjoyed crab claws in aurant provides a Saint Joseph's Day menu. cates the stockfish recipes from Vicenza. tomato sauce and each Christmas recalls the time that one of the 1 cup olive oil 2 pounds stockfish ¥istick butter or margarine (can use baccala) uncles broke the legs withsuch gus- 2 cups chopped celery with leaves 1 pound onions to that when he was done eating 2 medium sweet bell peppers, diced 4 cups olive oil 2 heaping tablespoons spaghetti sauce dotted the ceiling. 4 whole anchovies or 14-16 fillets finely chopped garlic 2 cups fresh milk But the variety of fishprepar- 1/4 heads cauliflower, flour ed on Christmas Eve may never be blanched and cooled grated cheese, 4 thick as abundant as itwas in the Cam- cups sliced fresh mushrooms grana cheese preferred 3 pounds baccala soaked for arda home. Fishermen in Sicily two days to remove salt and hucksters of fruits and veget- 3, 28 oz. cans stewed tomatoes 3, Soak stockfish or baccala for 2-3 days in ables in Pittsburgh's Strip, they 28 oz. cans tomato sauce 2, 28 oz. cans tomato puree cold water. Change the water each day to cooked drain the salt. Once the fish is soft to the up a Christmas Eve meal dried basil touch, cut it in squares. of every fish they could find. They dried parsley Peel the onions and chop them into saved their pasta con le sardi for slivers. Rinse the anchovies. Place oil in Saint Joseph's Day and on Christ- a skillet, add parsley, onions, and ancho- Add oil and butter to a large stock pot. vies. Fry slowly. mas Eve they made the fish into Combine the celery, peppers, and garlic. Sprinkle the stockfish with a little salads, into stews, baked them, Saute. Place baccala into boiling water, flour. Place stockfish in a large cas- fried them, and boiled them. They bring back to boil, drain immediately. serole. Pour the anchovy and onion mix- Add to stock pot. ture over them. Add the milk and cheese, enjoyed crab, cuttle-fish, steamed Once baccala has been added to stock a salt and pepper. little some Add or boiled octopus or sea urchins, pot, add stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce enough oil to finish covering the fish. and tomato Simmer and fried or puree. for an hour. Cook in the oven at 250 degrees for4- stuffed calamari. Gui- Break the cooled cauliflower into pieces. 5 hours. Do not stir, but shake the cas- seppe's grandson, Tom Camarda, Place the mushrooms ina littleolive oil, serole every so often so the fish does not tells us that ifthey wanted sea ur- add pepper and cook untilsoft. Add cauli- stick to the bottom. flower, mushrooms, basil, and parsley to chins, they to buy Serve hot. had 50 pounds simmering stew. Cook an additional 15 Traditionally it is served over polenta. at a time. That's a lotof sea urchin. minutes. Iftoo thick, add water.

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WESTERN 166 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY |WINTER 1999 Josephina Parigi, the author's great aunt, 1$78, at the Parigi ancestral home in Tuscany

Inher remarkable book Celebrat- cio) DelBene ofJeannette, Christ- ingItaly,Carol Field exclaims cap- CAPONATA & mas is not Christmas for their onata di pesce, fish salad, should OTHFR VFC^FTABTFS family of 12 unless they fry an be eaten daily from Christmas to Abruzzi-style savoy cabbage with Epiphany inCampania homes. Itis called a rinforzo, anchovies, garlic, and potatoes. for itis reinforced each day with fresh ingredients as Fennel, cooked or raw, is a universal Christmas its quantity diminishes. The Meles of Oliver agree. Eve vegetable. The long celery-looking plant with the Their caponata di pesce is filled with 1can each of bulbous bottom that tastes like licorice once ended the smoked oysters, smoked mussels, smoked clams, and meal all over Italy, but this tradition has practically shrimp, %pound each of black and green olives, arti- disappeared. Not in America. Sometimes it is merely choke hearts, baby ears of corn, hot pepper flakes, placed ina dish along withcelery and olives. But more olive oil, and garlic. Rita Mele believes that the oy- often fennel is part ofa special dish. In Apulia, a region sters, mussels, and clams were probably fresh at one abutting the Campania on the east, itis combined not time, but affordability or availability turned the fresh only withgarlic, but also with anchovies. InSicily, itis fish to preserved fish. cooked with pasta and octopus in an aglio e olio, or The traditional Sicilian caponata, mixed in a salad with oranges (which also a must at Christmas, is really a DEL BENE'S ABRUZZI-STYLE bring good luck ifeaten at Christmas), • \u25a0iij j- \u25a0 SAVOY CABBAGE WITH POTATOES ,. ,,, , , pickled vegetableli dishlwithla variety chicory, and black. olives... And. .in the of ingredients. The most traditional 1 Savoy cabbage, North, it is part of a fresh vegetable includes eggplant, onions, tomatoes, steamed and cooled platter that is accompanied by a dip olive oil celery, anchovies, pine nuts, olives, ca- 3 cloves of garlic, diced called Pinzimonio, a bath like the sim- pers, sugar, vinegar, and oil,but zuc- 1 can anchovies ilar 16th century dip from the Pied- chini,cauliflower, and any other veg- 5 P otatoes. P eeled and diced mont called Bagna Calda (Hot Bath), etable may be added. ~k -k -k -k -k Pinzimonio is a mixture of oil, salt,

The winter vegetables of radicch- Dl . .,,. , , and pepper which is placed in a small & Place olive oil in a skillet. When hot add.. r rr r io, cauliflower, broccoli, and Savoy diced garlic. Allow to brown. Reduce salt cellar to the right of the plate at cabbage complete the Christmas Eve neat and add anchovies. Allow to cook eacn place setting. The Parigi and Pel- __ , „. _ apart i -pi , , until anchovies break with a fork. . . y . . L -n u you no L meal. The Mele Christmas Eve feast Chop coo|ed cabbage and add to ski||et ini families will tell anchovies is rounded off with fennel inaglio e Mixwell and add potatoes. Allow to sim- are inPinzimonio. The Romans, where until potatoes are cooked, about 15- olio, fried cauliflower, lupini beans, mer some sc,holars,, maintain this dish ori- „„\u25a0 i • \u25a0 20 minutes. Stir often so as not to stick. and r ii ,r t i i gmated,. . .. fresh and dried fruit.Inthe home Add additiona | oN on, y ifabsolutely nee- add lemon juice. The Meles ofFrancesco and Louise Mash (Mas- essary. Serves 6-8 as a side dish. add vinegar.

AN ITALIAN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS 167 Italian foodways have had little influence on a typical American Christmas meal, but Italian Americans have contributed other Christmas traditions to America. The Yule Log is an Italian American custom. It was liton Christmas Eve and burned for the 12 nights of Christmas, ending on Epiphany, the Twelfth Night. As its fire litthe evening, children would dance in front of it and try to kick the log inthe hopes that it would disgorge good presents for them on Twelfth Night, January 6. brought by Befana, ugly So if you are not ofItalian Those gifts would be La an old hag who refused to go with the wisemen on that first heritage and are invited to DIGESTIVO Christmas Eve and was doomed to forever search for the an Italian American home Christ Child thereafter. She could bring coal as quickly for Christmas Eve, and expect to eat a mythical num- as she brought fruit, nuts, and presents. In Italy, the ber of dishes, you may be disappointed. Ifyou expect children sing: pasta, you may get soup. Ifyou are anxious to taste 7JTTO ZITTO QUESTA NOTTE LABEFANA DALLEGROTTE eel, it may not be there. You may have a sit-down dinner, a QUIETQUIET THIS NIGHT but you could also have buffet. THE OLD WOMAN COMES FROM THE GAVE. What you can expect is an appetizer, a soup or It is surprising how many Italian American homes pasta dish or two, a fish dish or two (or seven or 13), still celebrate La Bafana and still hang their stockings lots of vegetables, and good bread. Ifyou want to on January 5 in anticipation of her visit. learn something about Italian American food and the But the best-known tradition that Italian Ameri- family you are visiting, the question willnot only be cans gave to America's Christmas is the presepio, the what is prepared, but how itis prepared. That may nativity scene. This practice, stillvery popular in Italy, originated in 1224 when Saint Francis of Assisi created your heritage.® well be the most telling clue to hosts' a live replica of Christ's birth inthe church in Greccio to LOOK FOR PART 2 NEXT YEAR IN THE WINTER accompany his narrative of the Christmas Story. He also 2000-01 ISSUE: CHRISTMAS DAYAND ITS RECIPES integrated Christmas Carols into the traditional mass.

168 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY |WINTER 1999 -1 .- >' *

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