Which region of Italy is the origin for so much of what we consider simple Italian-American cuisine?

Question

Foods like thick, hearty, spicey, red spaghetti sauces; Italian sausage; meat balls; garlic bread; raviolli; lasagne, etc., etc.

I know much of these food items can be found throughout Italy today, but which region or area was home to the hearty red sauces. I don't mean a Bolognaise sauce or a Marinara sauce, but the thick, pasty, red meat sauce served in most Italian-American households every Sunday. Thanks.

Answer 1

American Italian food has evolved and been commercialized over the years. The Italian food in the northern part of Italy is closer to German style with white or brown sauces. As you move down the boot, the sauces get more like what you are used to here in the US. Mid-boot where my mother's family comes from, a good tomato sauce is simply fresh tomatoes with garlic and onions cooked  lightly. As you move toward Naples in the south, where my father is from, the sauces get more like the kind of tomato sauce we get here, thick, cooked a long time. Pizza was actually a peasant dish in Italy, eaten only by the poor. It was introduced here because the soldiers came back from WWII having shared meals with the farmer Italians and fell in love with "pizza". Again, the US version is not much like what you get in Italy.

Answer 2

These folks are all right on....another thing to remember is certain areas are more likely to use different pastas..where in some areas risotto would be more prevalent..then you go over here and they have polenta with everything..then over there its fresh pasta.. unlike the states, Italians like to use and  cook the foods of their regions.....and speaking of Sicily....the seafood is some of the best in the world!!!!

Answer 3

All over Italy. But I would say the part that has food mostly like ours is Sicialy and Southern Italy.

Answer 4

Bravo, Donna!  Qui negli stati uniti, l'ignoranza della cucina italiana e' terribile!  E' molto triste.

Answer 5

Not a chance at any real answer

you have to go back to the 14  -15 hundreds

all the peoples from OVER there came here...

Answer 6

Probably not anywhere in Italy.  Americans tend to Americanize foods and still call them what ever ethnic  region they think they came from.  Look up pizza once.  It started out as olive oil and fresh tomato rubbed on a piece of dough and baked.  It was a simple lunch for poor folks.  If they had cheese, they put some on too.  Nothing at all like what we call pizza here in America. Same with chow mein.  that was invented to feed the Chinese people who worked on building the railroads back in the 1800's. There is no such thing in China

Answer 7

The thick, pasty, red meat sauce you have in mind (and many of the other dishes, like lasagna using ricotta, and meatballs on spaghetti) isn't really like anything that's actually found over here, although its origins are more in southern Italy than northern. Tomato paste, as such, is used relatively seldom in sauces here: usually fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, or a purée called "passata" are used, making for a much lighter sauce than is common in the States. Only some dishes are spicy (like "penne all'arrabbiata"), not all sauces, to be "good", have to contain a hundred ingredients and spices and cook for hours, and people don't eat meatballs on their spaghetti. The sauce used to cook the meatballs would be used on the pasta, but then the meatballs would be served separately, as the second course, or for another meal.

Southern Italian dishes use more tomato, hardly any butter, and very little cream and bechamel (cream sauce): these are more common in northern Italy: ravioli with sage and butter, tortellini alla panna (with cream), lasagna made with meat sauce and bechamel, etc. Polenta and risottos are generally from northern Italy, and so is pesto: from Liguria, to be exact. Herbs like basil and oregano aren't used indiscriminately on everything. There are actually very  few pasta dishes that call for oregano.

(Oh, and speaking of pasta, people here usually don't twirl their spaghetti on a soupspoon -- actually, I've never seen anyone do it. You usually do it directly on or over your plate.)

Italian dishes have been modified tremendously in the U.S., and many no longer bear any resemblance whatsoever to authentic Italian food in Italy. And some dishes have been outright invented. For example, "veal parmesan" and "chicken parmesan" do not exist over here. These are "Italian-style" American inventions. The original, authentic Italian dish is with eggplant: "melanzane alla parmigiana", not with meat.

Another one: there is no such thing as "Italian" salad dressing. Most Italians dress their salads very simply with oil, vinegar, salt, and (sometimes) pepper.

There is also no such thing as the "garlic bread" that is so popular in the States. Over here there's "bruschetta" (pronounced "broo-sket-ta"), which is just toasted bread rubbed with a cut garlic clove on one side, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt. Other toppings can be used too, but this is the basic version: definitely no butter, garlic salt, or other herbs or spices.

Oh, and by the way, I heard recently from a friend that there are restaurants in the U.S. serving pasta dishes with names like "spaghetti alla bruschetta", which doesn't make much sense (garlic bread spaghetti?).

Also, "panini" (it's plural: one would be "panino") simply means sandwiches in Italy, the kinds on buns or thicker bread. "Tramezzini" are the sliced-bread kinds of sandwiches. And in general Italians aren't too imaginative with their sandwich making (a typical "panino" is simply a slice of prosciutto between two thick slices of bread, or mortadella on a roll -- no mayonnaise, mustard, butter, or the like), and there's a fairly limited variety of "tramezzini" in Italian bars, so all those "panini" you're eating in the U.S., even with their exotic Italian-sounding names, are mostly American inventions.

One last one: "biscotti" simply and generically means cookies (also plural: one would be "biscotto"), and the kinds Americans usually refer to as such are known as "tozzetti", "cantucci", and "cantuccini" over here.

And this is the very last one: Starbucks has done a lot toward bastardizing Italian words. "Latte" simply means milk (which is what you'll get if you ask for it over here: at most, they'll ask if you want it warm or cold), "venti" means twenty, and "grande" means big. As I saw written somewhere, "Is 'Venti Latte' Italian for "I'm a pretentious a**hole?"  ;-)

To Carlo d'Umbria: Grazie! E' qualcosa che a volte mi manda in bestia. Non che sia totalmente una purista (anche gli italiani usano male -- e inutilmente -- varie parole inglesi), ma mi sembra che ultimamente stia diventando esaggerata questa "moda".