The Reading Corner....Growing Up Italian

“Growing Up Italian;

Grandfather’s Fig Tree and Other Stories.”

The Maine House is hosting Book Club on Sunday and I cannot wait for this review. This is a most enjoyable book read. Secretly I have always wished to be Italian....not that I don't want to be German-Irish, but I so admire Italian families. Our darling Jay is from Italian descent and we have the best time looking at the old family photographs of his family.

This book is full of little vignettes about life in a middle class Italian neighborhood in the Northeast during the '40's and '50's. It is written from the perspective of a young boy from childhood through high school. The author is Ed Iannuccilli, M.D. ,who indeed "grew up Italian," and is a prominent physician, educator and innovator in Rhode Island, and is past Chairman of the Board at Rhode Island Hospital." This book is a true nostalgic gem!

Excerpt from the book, “Growing Up Italian; Grandfather’s Fig Tree and Other Stories.” 

I awoke to the aroma of a simmering sauce that filled the kitchen and crept into my room and onto my pillow. My ears were tuned to the sound of…plop blurp, plop, blurp. The aroma and the sounds were coming from the tomato sauce…gravy…cooking on the kitchen stove, and it meant it was Sunday.

The gravy was bubbling and popping, releasing with each burst a pocket of vapor with its smell into the atmosphere. Partly exposed meatballs floated along the surface like hot icebergs. A piece of bone, probably pork, was peeking through.

I shuffled like a hockey player to the pantry and the bag of Italian rolls fresh from Crugnale’s Bakery. Dad was reliable. The rolls were warm and soft. I removed one, ripped off a corner, held it between my thumb and two fingers, returned to the pan, swiped it through the gravy and held it up straight, gravy at the top.

Steam rose from the roll as the gravy cooled. To protect my fingers, I twirled the bread just ahead of the dripping lava, allowing the gravy to move to another side of the bread, cooling as it did so…a skill learned in the early years of the Italian family. Though irresistible, it was still too hot for my sensitive, eager tongue. Test it. Touch it lightly with the tip of my tongue. OK. Ready. Cool enough.

The mass was formless, soft in my mouth, wet, moist, full bodied, and rich with the rage of tomato and the hint of garlic and basil… breaded gravy heaven. Time for another dunk, and another and another, piece after piece of bread ripped off, dunk after dunk made with the same caution, taste after taste completed for the thrill of Sunday’s gravy. “You’ll ruin your dinner”.

Now for the meatballs. I needed another corner of bread. There they were, floating; a deep brown color laced with red meant they were done. They had been fried before they were put into the gravy, and sometimes good to eat just after the frying, the simple flavors of garlic and olive oil enveloping the meatball and spilling into the bread. But today, I planned to rescue them from the gravy.

They were ripe. It seemed as if the meatball fit better into a split rather than cut bun. A spoon was sitting in the ladle next to the simmering pot. I lifted out a meatball, dropped it into the bun, and then ladled more of the deep red, shimmering, hot sauce. Blowing the steam away, I resisted the tendency to gulp it down. The meatball was firm, the bread soft and chewy, the gravy almost hot. Some of the gravy spilled out of the bun onto my pajama top. No matter.I chewed slowly, rolled my tongue around and enjoyed the flavors of the heated, slightly crunchy meatball that married perfectly with the soggy bun and the gravy. “You’ll ruin your dinner.” I smiled. 

Tomorrow's featured recipe will be Estelle's favorite

Sunday Red Sauce ,which will be served for our

dinner party gathering on Sunday evening!