“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
Federico Fellini
Around the Farm
County fairs and annual festivals, such as the Feast of the Assumption, signal that the bittersweet end of summer is on the horizon. One sweet aspect of late summer is the bounty of some of our favorite crops: tomatoes and peppers.
The consequences of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas are legion. But when it comes to dinner, the introduction of the Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash) and their nightshade cousins, tomatoes and peppers, to the Mediterranean Triumvirate of wheat, wine, and olive oil ranks high.
The poor peasants on the Italian peninsula, particularly in regions influenced by Spain, such as Naples and Sicily, adopted strange New World crops to grow on their “handkerchiefs” of land. In the north, polenta was invented from corn, while southern Italians incorporated corn into flatbreads. By the 1830s, in the lively port of Naples, vendors sold macaroni and flatbread (pizze) topped with tomatoes, tomato sauce and cheese.
With the advent of canned food later in the 19th century, southern Italian entrepreneurs devised new ways to process tomatoes, including canned sauces and paste. At the same time, the poverty endured by many Italian peasants compelled them to seek work elsewhere. The large immigrant populations in the Americas supported the Italian canned tomato industry.
In 1920, the two largest Italian cities were New York City and Buenos Aires, Argentina (followed by cities on the Italian peninsula). In the United States, activists campaigned to Americanize their immigrant neighbors. Reformers encouraged immigrants to eat more American-produced foods. Italians began to incorporate cheap cuts of plentiful American beef into their more traditional fare. The Italian-American classic, spaghetti and meatballs, was born.
In Buenos Aries, immigrants pounded fresh beef into something resembling the veal cutlets of Milan. The cutlets were smothered with canned tomatoes shipped from southern Italy. The dish milanese alla napoletana was created.
Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922 ushered a nationalist period in Italy. Under Mussolini’s Italian-first policies, exports to the Americas dried up. Immigrants recreated and expanded Italian-style agricultural goods in New World.
Hector Boiardi, a chef at the Hotel Winton on Prospect and E. 9th St. in downtown Cleveland, experimented with canning Italian-American spaghetti and meatballs. The restaurant patrons loved the new convenience food. Word of the Cleveland canned spaghetti reached the U.S. military, which distributed thousands of “Chef-Boy-Ardee” entrées to U.S. fighters during World War II. Unsurprisingly, Italian-American cuisine quickly went mainstream.
Late summer is the perfect time to celebrate Italian-American favorites: minestrone, stuffed peppers with marinara, fried zucchini, sausage with peppers and onions, or good ol’ spaghetti and meatballs. Mangia!
Zucchini Noodles in Sweet Tomato Sauce
- Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in skillet.
- Add 8 ounces of chopped sweet tomatoes (25-30 cherry, 4 plum or 1-2 round garden tomatoes).
- Add two cloves of minced or thinly sliced garlic.
- Add red pepper flakes, to taste.
- Cook, stirring often, until tomatoes blister and release their juices (10-12 minutes).
- Cut 2 medium zucchini lengthwise with a vegetable or julienne peeler, creating thin ribbons of zucchini “pasta.”
- Add zucchini to hot skillet, along with ½ cup of water or broth.
- Cook, stirring often, until sauce thickens and zucchini softens, adding liquid if necessary.
- Top with fresh basil, grated cheese, and breadcrumbs, if desired.