Italians love any holiday or opportunity to bring friends and family together around food, and nothing compares to the sights, sounds, and smells of an Italian-American Thanksgiving.
According to some of the tales that surround the first Thanksgiving, they say the Pilgrims and Native Americans feasted for a full three days. Well, you could also say that the same holds true for Italian-Americans, except we’ve managed to squeeze all that feasting into a single day because let’s face it – if anyone knows how to feast, it’s certainly the Italians!
So how do Italian-Americans celebrate Thanksgiving? A classic Italian-American Thanksgiving meal is very much like a typical Sunday Italian dinner combined with a traditional Turkey Day in America – but on steroids. In my case, it almost always consists of my big, loud Italian family sitting around a long stretched-out dining room table with a lot of shouting. My mom never sits down to eat and yells at us to not fill up on antipasto and bread, and then a family member invites a friend who isn't Italian, forcing my dad to speak in his very broken English. And then there’s my dad giving my sisters and me "the look" to get up and help our mom clear the table between courses, only to bring out more clean dishes and food – and there are way too many desserts. All the men eventually slump back on the couch with the top button of their pants unbuttoned watching football. It is an all-day marathon of feasting!
Every year, we all swear we’re not going to fill up on antipasto, the appetizer and the first course, consisting of a large platter of robust dry-aged and cured meats, fresh homemade mozzarella, salty-stinky imported cheeses, an array of olives, roasted peppers, delicious marinated and preserved vegetables, and a basket of crusty Italian bread. Followed by the "pasta course," where typically my mom makes her classic 'Tortellini in Brodo'. But it's too good to resist, and the word "restraint" simply does not exist in our home when it comes to food. So of course, we are all beyond full even before the bird and all the trimmings make their way to the table. Luckily, after years and years of training for the “main event,” we have this down to a science. It's all about pacing ourselves and moderation. The key is taking a break between each course – and of course, wear stretchy pants!
The first two courses are just the warm-up to the Thanksgiving game plan. Traditionally, we all anxiously await the ceremonial slicing of the turkey as it makes its grand entrance to the center of the table. But in our home, we actually really can't wait for my mom's Italian stuffing! Stuffing is usually in the side dish hall-of-fame for the holiday, but on our Thanksgiving table, the stuffing is the unparalleled star of the show, while Turkey is its co-star. And while children traditionally bicker over who gets the “wishbone,” my family bickers over who gets the crusted part of the stuffing that forms on the outside of the stuffed bird.
Italian stuffing is a more rich, rustic, and intense stuffing than the usual version – and it’s made with a mixture of homemade bread croutons from seasoned and toasted Italian bread, cut into cubes and soaked in chicken broth. Then it’s sautéed with sweet Italian sausage, which gives the stuffing an aromatic kick with fennel and other spices, and a fragrant blend of vegetables and fresh herbs. After making it, we then refrigerate the stuffing overnight to allow the ingredients to meld together. The intense aroma that fills our entire home on the Eve of Thanksgiving as my mom sautés the sausage and vegetables is absolutely incredible. (It's impossible not to taste a few spoonfuls.) And my mom always makes more than enough stuffing to feed a small city – because everyone expects a second or third helping, even as full as we all are! The best part is the leftovers that last for days and days. The stuffing just gets better and better.
It might seem impossible that anyone would still be hungry after all that food, but dessert is just as important! After the turkey, the prominent stuffing, the ham (yes there is even a ham), mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, yams, broccoli, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, and a big bowl of salad, there is the final course of the evening – dessert! It consists first of a large platter filled with fresh fruit, roasted chestnuts, walnuts, raw fennel, and lupini beans (so it’s actually more like a prelude to the dessert). And finally, an abundance of pies, cakes, and sweets – apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, my mom's famous ricotta cheesecake, tiramisù, and even a box of Italian pastries (with cannoli, rainbow cookies, pignoli cookies, and sfogliatelle) – which will certainly put us all in a food coma. Last but not least, a nice cup of espresso with sambuca or grappa liqueurs, to help with digestion!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My Mom's Italian Stuffing Recipe by Daniela Savone
*Yields one large roasting pan to stuff a giant 24 lb. turkey
Ingredients:
5 lbs sweet pork sausage (casing removed & crumbled)
12 cloves of minced garlic (½ for sausage sauté, ½ for vegetable sauté)
1 ½ large yellow onions, finely chopped (½ for sausage sauté, ½ for vegetable sauté)
4 large carrots, finely chopped
1 whole celery (only the tender parts), finely chopped
2 12oz pkgs. of white mushrooms, minced
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped (½ for sausage sauté, ½ for vegetable sauté)
1 can colossal pitted black onions, chopped
1 12oz bag Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Cubed Stuffing
1 medium-sized round Italian bread (sliced and seasoned with garlic powder, dry oregano, dry parsley & grated parmesan cheese, then toasted & broken into large crouton-like pieces)
1 32oz container low-sodium chicken broth
½ cup white cooking wine
Olive oil
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste
Method:
In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil. Sauté the garlic, onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, & parsley until soft & translucent. Add salt & pepper to taste.
In another large sauté pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Sauté the garlic & onion, adding the crumbled sausage, parsley & white cooking wine. (Sauté sausage until browned.)
In a large mixing bowl, add homemade toasted croutons & a bag of Pepperidge Farms Herb Seasoned Cubed Stuffing. Pour in the chicken broth & wet ingredients.
In an extra-large mixing bowl, add the sausage sauté, vegetable sauté, wet croutons, olives & parmesan cheese. Mix together well. (Add salt & pepper to taste.)
In a large roasting pan, bake stuffing at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes covered with aluminum foil. For the last 10 minutes, remove the foil and bake until a crust forms over the top.