topic Re: Italian sauce in Kitchen

Italian sauce

Rosebud816 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:09:43 GMT

I have never heard a real italian call their sauce gravy! One of the hosts that claims to be italian claims they do call it gravy!

Re: Italian sauce

PA Mom-mom — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:15:21 GMT

@Rosebud816 I think it depends what part of the country you come from. I've heard both. Our neighbors were from north Jersey, and they called it gravy. No one ever got pugilistic over it though. What's with that? Jane needs to calm down!

Re: Italian sauce

nana59 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:16:01 GMT

grew up in an italian neighborhood...everyone called it gravy!

Re: Italian sauce

PickyPicky3 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:16:20 GMT

In the Philadelphia area many people call it gravy.

Re: Italian sauce

Mz iMac — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:16:27 GMT

I was in my 40's when I found out from an Italian co-worker that gravy=tomato sauce.

Re: Italian sauce

QVCkitty1 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:18:25 GMT

I'm on the Pa. border, and the nearby town was more or less founded by Italians on the railroad. Every Italian I know or worked with called sauce gravy.

Re: Italian sauce

homedecor1 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:19:19 GMT

@Rosebud816

I grew up in big italian family from NJ we always called spaghetti sauce "Sunday Gravy".

every Sunday we went to my Nonna's house for dinner after church.

Re: Italian sauce

docsgirl — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:27:08 GMT

I'm Italian and my dear mother always called her sauce 'gravy.' Her sisters also called it 'gravy.' The first time I brought my non-Italian husband to dinner, he was confused because he said 'gravy' was what he had at Thanksgiving. He never got used to calling Mom's sauce 'gravy' but he loved it and he loved her. By the way, we were from New York City so it may be an East Coast thing. docsgirl

Re: Italian sauce

Boehm Collector — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:24:53 GMT

My grandparents came to this country from Italy. They lived in Pennsylvania and eventually moved to New York. They and all their children always called sauce "gravy". But I have gotten out of that habit.

Re: Italian sauce

Rosebud816 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:25:15 GMT

Oh I never knew that, thanks for the info!

Re: Italian sauce

Carmie — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:25:55 GMT

I am Italian and grew up in an Italian neighborhood, went to an Italian grade school and went to an Italian church.

It was always sauce. I never heard tomato sauce called gravy until I was an adult and heard the term while watching a movie.

To me, gravy is made from pan meat drippings with flour or corn starch. I live in south central PA.

It must be a regional term. In the Italian language it is called Salsa de pomodoro...how anyone got gravy out of that beats me.

Re: Italian sauce

Deb0509 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:30:54 GMT

I'm from CT. Many people in CT are Italian. All of my brothers married girls that were Italian and my sister married a man whose Dad was Italian. Never heard any of them call sauce gravy. Actually this thread is the first time I ever heard it.

Re: Italian sauce

NicksmomESQ — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:32:28 GMT

My Italian MIL always called it gravy. DH always referred to it as sauce.🤷‍♀️In my house we call it sauce.

Re: Italian sauce

Sooner — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:33:58 GMT

Where I come from, if it doesn't go over a biscuit, a quail or a chicken-fried steak it isn't gravy any more.

Re: Italian sauce

QVCkitty1 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:37:39 GMT

This post made me think about a co- worker of mine who is Italian, and she would always talk about having macaroni. I would think to myself why only macaroni, with all of the kinds of pasta available. It was a few years later that what I thought was a specific kind of pasta , for her was the whole category. She is an amazing cook.

Re: Italian sauce

PA Mom-mom — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:43:43 GMT

@QVCkitty1 wrote:
This post made me think about a co- worker of mine who is Italian, and she would always talk about having macaroni. I would think to myself why only macaroni, with all of the kinds of pasta available. It was a few years later that what I thought was a specific kind of pasta , for her was the whole category. She is an amazing cook.

@QVCkitty1 Yep. My neighbor used to ask me "What macaroni are you going to use?"

Re: Italian sauce

Carmie — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:47:14 GMT

@QVCkitty1 My father always called pasta macaroni too. His first language was Italian. It Italian maccheroni means long pasta.

Re: Italian sauce

Razzy 7 — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:48:16 GMT

It was new to me, but now I've heard many people call what we called Italian tomato sauce, gravy. The first time I heard "gravy" used, I thought it referred to what we more traditionally call gravy - you know, what we might have with a pot roast. Whatever dish I ordered, came with what the restaurant called gravy. I was shocked as it was not at all what I expected.

Re: Italian sauce

proudlyfromNJ — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:28:57 GMT

Re: Italian sauce

spiderw — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:50:43 GMT

I am half Sicilian, always heard it called gravy from my grandparents on down !!!!!!