Sunday dinners were always special events for Italian-American families. Pasta was usually the norm. For Mamma, the day began before breakfast “che aveva già cominciato a preparare la salsa,” banging her wooden spoon around the tomato sauce, and stretching the pasta dough in preparation for the “tagliatelle, orecchiette, cavatelli, or ravioli.” The bread dough had already been prepared, sitting in a pot and protected by “un mappin,” a dish towel, and was ready to be punched and kneaded.

The dinner meat choices for the day: chicken, sausage, meatballs, “braciole,” pig’s feet, or neck bones – would go through a braising, or browning in olive oil before adding to the sauce. A favorite type of “braciole,” often on the menu, was a combination made with chicken giblets, gizzards and livers, wrapped around small twigs of rosemary, rolled together and tied with chicken – in our dialect – “stindini.”