Home Cooking Parties forTM
The Story
Since I told you about the Greek side of my family, I thought I would share a few of the special Italian memories and tastes of my childhood. We had a big family on the Italian side, seven aunts, seven uncles, fifteen cousins and my grandparents. Add to that the once-removed cousins from around the corner, godmothers and godfathers, and just close family friends and you can see how a Sunday dinner could escalate quickly into feeding the entire Italian population of Brooklyn!
Antipasto and cocktails made up an important event during our family gatherings. On holidays or any Sunday my mother would set out chunks of Italian cheeses, ham, salami, capicola, olives, pickles and canapes on the built-in bar in our knotty pine basement. Between 1 and 2 pm aunts, uncles, cousins and friends would gather around that small feast for an hour or two before dinner was served. Everyone was hungry by that time, and so many laughs and good moments were shared during the antipasto and dinners in our house that fifty years later we still seek each other out to relive those moments of closeness and have some good things to eat together.
Soup was rarely served, usually it was a bowl of macaroni or baked macaroni, but the soup I offer in this meal is so good, I couldnt pass up sharing it. Veal was served on special occasions and was always a family favorite. Those tender morsels of meat just melted in your mouth and provide a lasting memory. My mother liked preparing them in advance, usually Milanese style. Tonight you will cook medallions of veal and eat them as soon as they are ready. Veal against a backdrop of fresh vegetables and risotto will give you the classic makings of the Italian family Sunday meal.
We never finished a meal quickly and dashed off. Sunday was for taking pause in the company of people you took great comfort in being around. Spending a few hours around the table was not uncommon. The main course was always followed by fruit and nuts. Oranges, pears and apples were peeled right at the table with steak knives while toasted almonds and walnuts were opened with nut crackers with the shells being collected all over the table cloth, to be swept away later. Hot castagnes (pronounced cas-ta-nyas) (chestnuts) were served, too, when in season. I always had the job of stabbing the castagnes with a fork before they were toasted in the oven, so they wouldnt explode. After some time had passed over fruit and nuts, the pies and cakes would come to the table with coffee. For this meal we will have one of the classic desserts our family had so often and never tired of, ricotta pie. In fact, we had ricotta desserts in pie form, cakes, and pastries. If it was someones birthday there was always an Italian cassata cream (cannoli cream) cake and a big box of pastries from Napolis Bakery on Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie. Fortunately for all of us, it was almost always someones birthday! Enjoy the good tastes from my family!
Italian Family Favorites
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