Every single holiday, my mom makes certain types of food based on the holiday. Each holiday wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for these recipes. These types of food are strictly eaten on these holidays and no other time. My mom is stubborn and won’t make them for them outside of the year and it’s almost like a sin if we do eat them. Unfortunately I always have to wait a full year for these recipes but that’s what makes it much more special.
Christmas
7 Fishes: For Christmas, it’s a tradition to always have 7 fishes for the meal. This tradition was started in South Italy, in Naples but I’m not too sure why my family does this. It’s something that I’ve always done even as a child. Along with these 7 fishes, we have dessert.
Struffoli: This is a dessert that consists of deep fried dough balls that are soft in the center and soaked in honey that are a size of marble. It’s topped off with rainbow sprinkles. It’s a desert that my mom only makes at Christmas time. To find out the recipe for this amazing dessert, click on the picture below!
Panettone: This is a sweet bread dessert that has candied fruit and dried raisins in it. Every Christmas, you expect to give a Panettone to your family members as well as receive one too. (What is the point of giving it if you’re going to receive one back from the same person anyway?? Italian logic) After Christmas is over, you will have a pantry filled with Panettone. We only receive this on Christmas but we eat it year round for breakfast since we have so many boxes of it. Although Italians buy the boxes at the store, learn how to make your own homemade Panettone by clicking on the picture below!
Easter
“Pasqua” as we say it in Italian, is a time where we go to church and then celebrate by eating so much food. There are two traditional recipes that my mom makes every year along with eating lamb, which is Pizza Rustica and Pasteria.
Pizza Rustica: This is pretty much a heart attack in a pizza. This deep -dish pizza pie consists of at least 10 different types of cheeses and meat. This recipe calls for a pinch of salt but you don’t even need to add it because of the fatty and salty meat and cheese. It’s not Easter without a slice of this mouth-watering pie. Learn how to get a heart attack by making this recipe by clicking on the deep dish pizza picture below!
Pasteria: This is a ricotta and wheat grain dessert that is filled with orange blossom water making it a very flavorful dessert. This combined sounds strange but once you try it, you can’t stop eating it. This recipe is a long process and has many precise ingredients but it’s worth it in the end. Click on the picture below to see the uniqueness of this traditional Italian easter dessert.
New Years
Lentil Soup: We eat lentil soup before the clock hits 12. Why lentil soup? I always thought it was a weird thing as well but it symbolizes good luck for the New Year. Our myth is that if you don’t eat it, you will get bad luck. There is a specific Italian lentil soup recipe that my mom makes every year that they make you want to eat on other days besides New years. Click on the picture to get good luck on your next new years party.
Grispelle: This is the name of deep fried Italian potato donuts. This can be served with confectioners sugar on top for dessert or have is it a side dish for your meal by putting anchovies in it as well. They can be shaped as rings like a donut or as a big “munchkin”. Learn how to make these Italian tasty donuts by clicking on the picture!
"Che Mangia Bene, Via Bene"
"Who Eats Well, Lives Well"
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Why would you want to live like an Italian? Well, these ways can help you learn how to enjoy and make your food, you can learn how to appreciate and value your time with family members and learn the multiple ways to raise your children. Whether you may be Italian or not, these can act as inspiration in what you can do in your own life with an Italian touch.
1. Always and I mean ALWAYS have food with you at home. Italians never stop eating. They value food so much that whenever people come over, you have to offer it to them even if they stop by for 5 minutes. When you do give them food, give them a 5 course meal. Never think you made enough food.
2. Make sure your children have a wine tasting at age 10, which helps them fall asleep too ;)
3. Have a huge garden in your backyard for fresh tomatoes, eggplants, string beans, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. Maintain the garden by checking it everyday after work or before work.
4. Have Sunday dinner every Sunday at 1:00. Yes, dinner is at 1:00 pm on Sundays and make sure pasta is one of the entrees and wine as the only beverage option.
5. Give your children a full course meal to bring to school for lunch. Pack some pasta with a side of meatballs or some fresh homemade lasagna. Make your children’s friends jealous. Also include real silverware, no plastic forks.
6. Have a cornicello or corno that looks like red peppers hanging from your car, around your neck, in your house. A corno is an item that Italians always have with them that symbolizes to get off evil eyes way. It is a myth that Italians go by that if you have this with you, you have remove all of the bad luck from our surroundings.
7. Live with your family members. This means you have to live with you parents, in laws, grandparents etc. Or live next to or down the street from your uncle, aunt, cousins, 10th cousin, etc. This makes it much more special living with them and plus they make you food too ;)
8. Embarrass your children any chance you get. Look at my last blog post on how to embarrass your children.
9. Visit your family members in Italy
10. Talk with your hands overtime you speak. Yes, even when you are on the phone and can't see your hand gestures, do it anyway.
11. Make homemade tomato sauce. The steps include: 1) pick a case of perfectly fresh tomatoes; 2) Cut off the bad parts of the tomatoes after you wash them; 3) Buy a machine that juices that tomatoes; 4) Put cut tomatoes into hole in machine or have your children do it for you 5). Press down and watch the fresh tomato sauce pour into the bucket 5) Add salt for flavor 6) Add a basil leaf in specific jars (click here to buy these jars) and pour in tomatoes sauce 6) Shut jars 7) Last but not least, boil all of the jars in a huge pot to seal them shut 8) Use these tomato sauce jars whenever you need sauce. NEVER use store bought Ragu.
12. Know and meet every single Italian from your neighborhood.
13. Be extremely loud whenever you speak.
14. Love your family unconditionally and put them before yourself.
Friend: “Why is your mom mad? She’s screaming on the phone”
Me: “Oh no she isn’t mad. That’s just how us Italians speak” This is a common question I get whenever my mom is on the phone speaking to her mother or anyone in general. There are many struggles that come with having immigrant parents that people don’t usually think about. With these struggles, there will be ways to cope with these struggles. Even though I speak their language and know the culture inside and out, these struggles definitely make American living hard. If you have immigrant parents, learn the solutions I’ve learned to do. If you don’t, try to empathize with other immigrant parents’ children. Trust me you really should; it’s tough. 1. My parents speak so loudly and use hand gestures when they speak, which can make my friends shocked and feel awkward being around them since they think they’re angry. My mom isn’t angry; she just gets excited when she speaks. Resolution: Have an automated response by saying “They’re not mad, they’re Italian” whenever friends are around them when they are on the phone.
2. I'm always their translator/always have to repeat what others say for them.
Whether we are in the grocery store, just causally out doing errands, or if we are with my friends’ family, etc., I have to clarify things for them. It’s never a simple conversation back and forth. There’s always some explaining or reiteration I have to do for them. Resolution: Don’t answer and wait for your siblings to do it. If you don’t have siblings, sorry compá (an Italian word for buddy). 3. Having to speak slowly in English when speaking to my parents. My parents don’t know the English language well. So whenever we talk, my parents speak to me in Italian (sometimes in English) and I respond in English, but slowly so they can understand me. Resolution: Gradually speak faster and faster when talking about words and topics you know they know. 4. They never really helped me with homework. They didn’t understand the language, so I always had to do homework without any assistance; meanwhile, all of my friends’ parents helped them. Resolution: Go to extra help, work with friends on homework, ask siblings for help, etc.
5. Saying words wrong and not knowing how to say words in English was a regular thing to me since my parents wouldn’t speak proper English.
“Can you please pass me the....” I froze and couldn’t continue speaking to my friend. I forgot/never knew how to say the word “remote” in English. How embarrassing. Or when I was called to read out of the science textbook in class. The word “intestines” was shown on the page but I pronounced it as “in-tis-teens”. That’s how my mom would say it. My classmates laughed.... Resolution: Don’t speak ever :p or just say words you know you are confident in that you learned in school 6. I would get embarrassed if my parents speak to/in front of my friends. Lets go to the “bitch” tomorrow. “No dad, it’s pronounced, “beach.” Resolution: Laugh it off and hope and pray your friends didn’t hear. If they did, just make it into a joke and change the subject.
7. Never having any type of privacy.
If I tell my mom something, my aunts, grandma, and half of the family knows. Literally half the family. Resolution: Lock your doors if you can get away with it, never tell your family anything unless you don’t care the world knowing, or keep your mouth shut at family Italian gatherings
8. My mother and grandmother know EVERYTHING.
Even more than Internet. “They’re never wrong” They are stubborn. Resolution: Try to fight back, but you most likely won’t win. So, ignore them because you know you are right ;) 9. The annoy commands: “Turn the bread over!” and “Go stir the sauce for me” There is an Italian myth that you get bad luck if a loaf of bread is upside down. Getting yelled at by my parents to turn over the bread in front of friends certainly isn’t something I would want to hear. In addition, Italian sauce takes an hour to make on the stove. Imagine being in a middle of a movie and having your mom scream that to you? You had no choice but to get up, miss part of the movie to go stir the tomato sauce. Resolution: Pretend you didn’t hear, have headphones on you at all times and put them in your hear when the commands are said, or pretend you are asleep.
Although these are all terrible and extremely embarrassing struggles, I know that I am a part of a loving, but crazy family who will always be there for me. So whenever you are someone with immigrant parents or someone who doesn’t have them, please empathize with us! It’s a lot harder than it looks, and can be really frustrating. If you have any questions or want to share your funny stories about immigrant parents with me, contact me here! You might get featured on my page!
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AuthorBorn and raised in NJ by two immigrant Italian parents. If you see me move my hands while I speak, don't be surprised. It's an Italian thing. ArchivesCategories
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