Red Sauce Red Sauce How Italian Food Became American Ian MacAllen ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom Copyright © 2022 by Ian MacAllen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: MacAllen, Ian, 1981– author. Title: Red sauce : how Italian food became American / Ian MacAllen. Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A narrative social history tracing the evolution of traditional Italian American cuisine from its origins in Italy and its transformation in America into a distinct new cuisine”— Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021042830 (print) | LCCN 2021042831 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538162347 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538162354 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Tomato sauces—United States—History. | Italian Americans—Foods—History. | Cooking, Italian—History. | Cooking, American—History. | Food habits—Italy—History. | Food habits—United States—History. Classification: LCC TX819.T65 M33 2022 (print) | LCC TX819.T65 (ebook) | DDC 641.81/4—dc23/eng/20211004 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042830 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042831 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. For Annmarie, who wanted to read a book. Contents Contents Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Salty Like the Sea 3 Chapter 2 The Great Arrival 9 Chapter 3 A Macaroni by Any Other Name 19 Chapter 4 We Are What We Read 33 Chapter 5 Red Sauce Fundamentals 43 Chapter 6 One Fruit to Rule Them All 51 Chapter 7 The Opening Acts 63 Chapter 8 Meat and Tomatoes 75 Chapter 9 Red Sauce Enters a Golden Age 83 Chapter 10 The Other Red Sauce 95 Chapter 11 As American as Pizza Pie 101 Chapter 12 Curds and Whey 113 vii viii Contents Chapter 13 One Lasagna, Many Lasagne 121 Chapter 14 A Taste of Rome 127 Chapter 15 The Last Red Sauce 141 Chapter 16 The Fall of Rome 151 Chapter 17 The Search for Authenticity 157 Chapter 18 The Red Sauce Renaissance: An Epilogue 163 Appendix: Historic Recipes 165 Notes 173 Bibliography 201 Index 217 About the Author 231 Acknowledgments Acknowledgments Writing a book begins as a solitary endeavor, but it never concludes that way. I am so grateful to the numerous people who have helped over the years of research and writing. First, I need to thank my writing and workshopping group: Jonathan Corcoran, Max Gray, and Mark Labowskie for their support with craft and literary gossip. I am also grateful to Marisa Siegel and everyone at The Rumpus, who have all supported my growth as a writer, and Catherine LaSota and the Cabana Club, who have been essential for kvetching about the pandemic and supportive through the final phases of preparing the book. I am forever grateful to Clayton Lamar, who is always willing to be my first reader, and to Kristen Majewski, Heather Pharo, Cyriaque Lamar, Annick Lamar, and Peter Geller, who have put up with hearing about many obscure macaroni and tomato sauce facts. Thank you to Brian Gresko for his guidance preparing the book proposal. Thank you to Jonathan Agin and O’Connor Literary for believing in the project and guiding me through this process, as well as Suzanne Staszak- Silva and everyone else at Rowman & Littlefield for trusting me. Thank you to Sabrina Cartan for your insights to publicize the book and to Emily Epstein for connecting me to the right people. I am, of course, indebted to the New York Public Library for maintaining many rare and expensive books and online database access. Thank you also to my parents, Arlene and Tom Mac Allen, and my in-laws, Joe and Judy Pisano, for serving ix