« Go back Made in Italy on the Table: The New York Times Praises Sunday Lunch and Pasta
The New York Times haspraised a great Italian tradition: Sunday lunch.
A special moment when family gathers around a table full of food, and endless conversations unfold. Frank Bruni, a journalist of Italian descent, devoted a lengthy article to this tradition.
In his piece, Bruni explains that the term “Pleasure of the table” does not have an equivalent in English, because Americans and Brits don’t experience this pleasure the way Italians do.
He goes on to recall the Sundays of his childhood, when his grandmother, Angelina Bruni, who emigrated from southern Italy to New York, turned the kitchen and dining table into a chaotic spread of Italian dishes: "She would put lasagna on the table, meatballs, eggplants, calamari and chicken. It wasn’t so much a multi-course meal as it was an emotional blackmail: you couldn’t get up from the table while there were still cutlets on it, and a tray of cannoli and cookies was coming."
However, the article also acknowledges that times have changed in Italy: grandmothers no longer wake up at dawn to cook, families are smaller, and Sundays are no longer a day when everything shuts down.
The American praise for Italian cuisine doesn't end there. The New York Times also dedicated an entire article to celebrating pasta: “There are those who don’t eat meat, some who don’t eat fish, some who don’t eat eggs, others who don’t eat fruit, vegetables, dried fruit, or sugar, but everyone eats pasta.
Pasta is so beloved that it almost seems elemental,” the newspaper writes, celebrating the universality and simplicity of this dish, which wins over the taste buds of all.
09 October 2024