RECIPES CHANGE: A culinary journey through 5 generations

By Michael Sabella

There are classical recipes that never change, cutting-edge recipes that are trendy, and then there are family recipes. Family recipes are handed down from generation to generation, but do they remain the same? Not always!

Follow five generations of a Sicilian family through over one hundred years of cooking-mostly truth with a few fun, tall tales and a little pure fiction mixed in.

Their story begins as fishermen in Sciacca, Sicily, during a time of turmoil. Luciano and his brothers took the twelve-dollar journey in the unsanitary steerage class aboard the Iniziativa, which left Naples in January 1890 bound for New York and crossed the states to San Francisco.

It did not take Luciano long to learn that the streets were not "paved with gold," but he worked hard and fished the San Francisco Bay and eventually helped his son, Antonino, open one of the first restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf.

Recipes evolved over generations due to the availability of ingredients, social events, nutritional awareness, trends, and culinary tools. What was delicious in 1950 might be considered too calorie-dense in 1980. Over 150 family recipes through five generations reflect those changes while respecting the original heart and soul of each one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662435782

Book preview

cover.jpg

RECIPES CHANGE

A culinary journey through 5 generations

Michael Sabella

Copyright © 2021 Michael Sabella

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2021

ISBN 978-1-6624-3577-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-3578-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Preface

When I was growing up and someone asked me if I was Italian, I would say, Yes. I am Sicilian. The reply would usually be, Why do Sicilians always say that? Aren’t they part of Italy? My reply was, Yes, but we weren’t always Italian! Although I am only half Sicilian (Mom’s side was German, Dutch, English, and Osage Indian and crossed our nation in covered wagons), I felt I was raised Sicilian.

I thought I knew a lot about Sicily. I knew that Sicily wasn’t always part of Italy. It’s language with ten different dialects, cuisine, and culture was a mix of Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Carthaginian, Byzantine, Saracen, Norman, Catalan, Spanish, Arabic, and French, plus the ancient Siculi tribe.

I had heard that the Mafia originated in ancient Sicily to fight against French persecution. I learned about the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 when Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily with a thousand men and conquered the Kingdom of Two Sicilies ruled by the Bourbons. He created the Kingdom of Sardinia, which joined Sicily and Naples. This was the last conquest before the Kingdom of Italy was created in 1861. I knew that there were Sabellas in the Middle East because several Sicilians fought in the Crusades and settled there.

On our way to the drive-in, with ten of us piled in his Cadillac convertible, my uncle Rico told me that Marsala was discovered in Sicily and made famous worldwide by an English trader in the 1770s (John Woodhouse) because it was similar to port and sherry and could be shipped long distances. He said Sicily was an important port of call because it was in the middle of the main trade route from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

What I didn’t know back then is that I hardly knew anything about Sicily. I later learned that Sicily lives and breathes! Sicily is a place so rich in culture, history, and tradition borne in a time of tolerance when Christians, Jews, and followers of the Koran lived harmoniously. A place where the white or gold sandy beaches, the lava rock and pebbled beaches gave way to so many different hues of blue-and-green waters and were filled with seafood, the livelihood of so many fishermen, including my family.

An outsider might be suspicious of how sweet and genuine the people in Sicily are. Family and friends are at the core of Sicilian life. They warmly socialize with friends and family every night of the week. They are sociable, traditional, welcoming, and have an incredible sense of humor.

All this now makes sense to me. I was taught all this here in San Francisco at Nana’s house every Sunday. I spent Sundays with twenty-eight cousins, three aunties, three uncles, Nana, her mother Nana-Wawa, my great-grandfather Luciano before his death at ninety-three. We would often set extra seats for a half-dozen great-aunts. We would all arrive in the morning after church and leave at night after Wild Kingdom and The Ed Sullivan Show.

This cookbook shows how the food that we eat today is not the food that was popular five generations ago. Things change, and sometimes food changes with it. In the Sicilian culture, however, life, love, tradition, family, and friends stay the same.

Enjoy the stories. They are purely fiction. No, they are fact. Well, sort of. Some of the stories 100 percent true, others are tall tales I was told as a child, and still others I made up with the intention of giving you a true sense what life was like during those times. In other words, I filled in a lot of blanks. This could be the story of hundreds of different Sicilian families.

The recipes are certainly genuine and reflect each generation based on the economical, geographical, and social environment of each time period. I wanted to show how and why certain recipes changed over the years and how some have even come full circle. Enjoy all the stories and the recipes.

When in San Francisco, please visit the Seaman’s Chapel behind Pier 45 on Fisherman’s Wharf to honor the hundreds of our local fishermen who died off the San Francisco coast.

This book is dedicated to all the Sicilian Americans and their families, and especially those fishermen who lost their lives to their other love—the sea.

Chapter 1

Born in 1874, seventeen-year-old Luciano had fished with his three brothers since he was ten. His father, Agostino, had died at sea when his boat capsized in a storm while fishing for octopus. Agostino’s death made Luciano’s twelve-year-old brother Augusto the man of the house, who quickly enlisted his brothers Luciano, Giovanni, and Francesco to fish for the family. They would leave their home near the old city walls around four o’clock in the morning to hike down the hill past the town’s main square, the panoramic Piazza Scandaliato, then down countless steps to the docks to find work. Most of the captains would be in one of the bars near the port. Ever since coral was found off the coast again in 1880 (for the third time since 1875), getting work was easy, but the day was long and the pay next to nothing. The coral brought over six hundred more boats to Sciacca and Agrigento, and many stayed after the tons of coral were taken.

Luciano’s loved to fish for lampuga (mahi-mahi). Sometimes he would get extra pay to help weave the carpetlike net that would float on the surface to lure the lampuga to the shaded waters underneath. They were easy to catch. Pesce stupido! He often dreamed of owning his own felucca and pulling up tons of fish in his paranzella.

He knew his way around the boats and the fish and was known to be a hard worker. He had fished for so many different things: anchovy (acciuga), herring (aringa), slipper lobster (aragosta), seabass (branzino), carp (carpa), squid (calamari), mantis shrimp (canochie), grouper (cernia), mussels (cozze), sea robin (coccio), shrimp (gambero), Flathead grey mullet (cefalo)—bottarga is made from its roe, oysters (ostrica), octopus (polpo), urchin (riccio di mare), turbot (rombo chiodato), salmon (salmone), sardine (sardina), cuttlefish (seppia—the ink used in cooking), sole (scogliola), swordfish (spada), bluefin tuna (tonno), albacore tuna (tonno alalunga), striped clams(vongole).

Sometimes on Saturday morning he would work at one of the fish stalls that dotted the walls of the port or sell fish at the large, bustling street market in the district of San Michele. He loved to watch the loud, animated market traders sell everything from marinated olives, local cheeses, cured meats, seasonal fruit and veg, fresh meat and seafood, local ceramics and jewelry.

Sunday was a day for church and family. Both played a big part of Luciano’s life. The Sunday table wasn’t just for eating; it was a social event. The house always smelled like fresh bread, sugo, cheese, and of course, fish. Luciano and his brothers would often bring home leftover bait and scraps from the catch. His favorite meals were when Mama would make pasta with anchovy, garlic, pignolis, and bread crumbs, or stew the scraps of fish in tomato sauce with a little saffron. A really special meal was tonno in agrodolce con piselli e mentuccia (tuna with sweet-and-sour onions, peas, and mint).

Everyone would sit around and drink wine, eat, and discuss life. When Luciano was six, Nanu gave him a glass half filled with wine and water. He felt like an adult!

On All Saints’ Day, Mama would leave frutta martorana, an almond treat shaped and colored like real fruit by his bed. Every February 2 and August 15 the family would attend the Madonna del Soccorso festival and watch the barefoot sailors carry the patron saint of the City of Sciacca through the streets. The Madonna del Soccoroso was proudly kept at the mother church where Luciano’s family attended mass every Sunday and holiday.

May 28 was Luciano’s name day, the celebrated day of his patron, Saint Luciano di Cagliari. Mama, Nana, and Nanu would all tug his earlobe and say, Buon anomastico! Luciano wouldn’t mind because he knew they would eat his most favorite dessert that night—murine eggs. This ancient Sicilian dessert was born around 1700 in the Great Abbey of Sciacca. Ricotta was only produced in the winter months, so the nuns replaced it with custard in their cannoli. It also had cucuzzata (candied pumpkin) and cinnamon.

Luciano’s favorite festival, however, was on June 29. The Christian world honors the life of Saint Peter the Apostle and Fisherman and Paul, but in Sciacca the day is more special as San Pietro is the patron saint of Sicilian fisherman. It is a celebration of the blessings the saint provides to them, their safety, and a celebration of the treasures that come from the sea. When he was fifteen, he won a contest at the festival by being the first to reach the end of a greased pole slipping into the sea! When he was sixteen, he was chosen to be part of the procession. He helped carry the statue of Saint Pietro to a boat in the harbor, then row the boat into the harbor, followed by several other fishing boats. When they returned to shore, the feasting began! It seemed the whole town was in the Piazza Scandaliato for the feast! Some of the foods served were sautéed shrimp with olive