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. Vodka sauce has always been one of my favorites, and as a kid growing up in the 1980s, it was always on the menu. I was surprised then when I started doing research on for “Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American,” to find that it was both a relatively new dish and one that didn’t have a clear origin. There were a lot of rumors and debates over who invented it and where. It does seem like it was ..read more

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. The first pizzas as we think of them today were created in 19th century Naples in working class neighborhoods. Popular styles included fried pizza, although these were more expensive because heating oil all day cost a lot of fuel. There were also pizza sell ..read more

Lobster fra diavolo was an early Italian American invention combining large American lobsters with southern style flavors. Shrimp is a low cost alternative. At the time, Maine lobsters were plentiful and a low-cost luxury. The “Fra Diavolo” was a nod to the spice of hot peppers — the phrase means with the devil. The original preparations involved whole lobsters with a side of spaghetti. Eventually the lobster was served on top of the spaghetti. As the price of lobster began to rise, cost cutting encouraged chefs to use less lobster — and that meant stripping the whole lobster from the shell i ..read more

Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso helped make Italian food mainstream, so perhaps it is unsurprising a spaghetti dish was named in his honor. However, not everyone agrees what that dish should be. Caruso loved chicken liver, and he believed it was essential to help him sing opera. Most spaghetti alla caruso recipes are similar to this one from 1939. In her cookbook, Where To Dine in Thirty-Nine, Diane Ahsley included a recipe from the Caruso chain of restaurants. That sauce contains= two essential ingredients: liver and mushrooms. However, Knickerbocker Hotel chef Louis DeGouy claims the rea ..read more

Italian meatballs were very different than American meatballs, and rarely served with spaghetti and red sauce. Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene collected recipes from across the newly united Italy. His meatball dish is quite different than anything served in America. The addition of raisins would suggest a slightly sweet meatball rather than a savory one. In this recipe adapted from Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene, 1891, he suggests serving the meatballs garnished with an egg. Ingredients Boiled Meat Parmesan Spices Raisins Pi ..read more

Eggplant rollatini is one of the those classic Italian American red sauce dishes that persists today. Rollatini has a lot in common with American style eggplant parmigiana, but instead of layered eggplant, each slice is rolled tightly together and then baked. In Italy, this dish is more commonly known as eggplant involtini, although American versions tend to be richer and heavier. The technique is also similar to Italian Americna braciole, where a piece of flattened meat is stuffed and rolled before simmering in sauce. Braciole as a term a holdover from an immigrant population speaking in dia ..read more

Ada Boni’s Il talismano della felicità collected Italian recipes from across the country when it was published in 1928. However, the English translation The Talisman Italian Cookbook often changed the content. The original talisman is often compared to the English The Joys of Cooking. Boni’s cookbook did continue to evolve over the years and even to this day is gifted to young people setting up their home for the first time. Matilde la Rosa translated the classic cookbook in 1950. Lobster fra Diavolo is a perfect example though of the American influence on Italian immigrant cuisine. The early ..read more

Chicken liver isn’t the most popular of meats these days, but for most of the 20th century it was the key component of a popular spaghetti dish. Spaghetti alla Caruso is so named for the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso. Caruso achieved celebrity status, with fans following him around, buying products with his name on them, and eating the foods he ate. And Caruso liked chicken liver. The singer also leveraged his celebrity into product endorsements for things like olive oil. But he also lent his name to a restaurant chain based in New York City, the Caruso spaghetti houses. The restaurants w ..read more

French Bread Pizza is often associated with Stouffer’s, the frozen food giant that helped popularize lasagna. French Bread Pizza followed a few years later. Stouffer’s launched the product in 1974 with an eye toward pizza ovens, then an increasingly popular home appliance. The Stouffer’s product was the result of the marketing department. Milton Miles needed more product lines to keep the Stouffer’s garlic bread baguettes in production. Covering the french bread with sauce and cheese created an open-face sandwich that the company smartly called a pizza. As refrigeration in the 20th century be ..read more

Pizza took off across America during the 1950s. There were numerous contributing factors to the rise in the sudden popularity, but one that profoundly shaped every day cooking was the desire for more convenient foods. Take out pizza from restaurants offered a great way to save on time, but could be costly. Domestic brands knew one way to appeal to the 1950s domestic housewife was combining the convenience of opening a can or jar with the thriftiness of eating at home. Marketing spawned numerous Franken-foods combining processed ingredients into semi-homemade treats. One of these that stands t ..read more