Nothing is quite like cutting open a panettone on Christmas morning. It’s a tradition that has been in my family since before I even liked eating bread filled with candied fruit. While Panettone has become an important Italian Christmas tradition, the modern recipe synonymous with the holiday only evolved in the mid-twentieth century.
Turkey is an iconic food of the Thanksgiving table. There are many ways of preparing turkey–roasted, fried, or stuffed with a duck and chicken come to mind–but for most people, their Thanksgiving meal becomes their own through the side dishes they serve.
The Olive Garden restaurant chain is often ridiculed by Italian Americans. The experience is inauthentic, the pasta overcooked, and the Alfredo sauce made with heavy cream. Yet, in one respect, the success of the chain represents the acceptance and integration of Italian American culture as simply mainstream American culture.
E. Rossi & Company is the oldest souvenir shop in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Over the last century its had three locations and faces an uncertain future. Filmmaker Agata De Santis has a new film celebrating the shop and the owner, Ernest Rossi. I spoke to her about the project screening this week at the Big Apple Film Festival.
Pizza was born in Naples, but it was the Italian immigrants in New York City who mastered it. Today, pizza grown into a truly American food available in every corner of the country. Yet, a little more than a century ago, it was an unknown ethnic food few Americans had ever heard of.
Philadelphia might be best known for its cheesesteak, but there’s a secret sandwich lurking in the city of Brotherly love. The Philadelphia Italian Roast Pork sandwich is a local delicacy created in the city a century ago by Italian immigrants, and it’s since become a local favorite that’s hard to find outside the city.
The Feast of San Gennaro festival in New York City started in 1926 when a group of men from the same village in Naples decided to roast a few chickens to celebrate their beloved saint.The neighborhood block party quickly evolved into a street fair organized by Italian Americans in Manhattan.
The Feast of San Gennaro kicked off last night in New York City. One of the largest celebrations of its kind in the United States, the feast has been celebrated since 1926.
Vodka sauce is suddenly trendy again. The creamy, sometimes spicy, pink-orange sauce is an Italian American classic. Ella Quittner at Bon Appétit takes a look at why this dish is suddenly popular.
February 9 is National pizza day. Don’t worry if you thought this was in October, which is National Pizza Month. Today is dedicated to pizzas of all sorts — so don’t confuse today with September 5, dedicated to National Cheese Pizza Day, September 20 for Pepperoni Pizza, and October 11 for Sausage pizza. Apparently, the nation loves pizza.