Sunday Supper
Mark K January 23rd, 2008
Our friend Angela invited us to her parents’ house for Sunday supper last Sunday. Her parents both come from the town of Molfetto, in the Puglia region of Italy (near the heel of the boot) and they have a tradition of having friends and family come over for dinner each Sunday. After Mass, the mother, with the help of her sister who is visiting from Molfetto, prepared a tremendous meal of Italian regional dishes. This is what we had last Sunday:
1. fish and green onion calzone
2. “fratelli” fried calzone filled with cheese, tomatoes and herbs or with vegetables
3. assorted cheese, wine-cured salami and olives, which were harvested and cured by varous family members
4. marinated eggplant
5. fresh mozzarella cheese, hand-stretched from cheese curd
6. mozzarella cheese rolled with prosciutto and then cut into thin slices
7. grilled octopus and calimari
8. eggplant with ground turkey and marinara
9. garden salad
10. dessert – fruit and Italian almond cookies, both homemade and imported from Italy
11. drinks, including Italian coffee, lemoncello and vin santo
And this is their weekly tradition!
They also told us about “Il Fornaio” back in Molfetto. Not the Il Fornaio restaurant chain popular in the U.S., but literally “il fornaio” – the baker. Back in old times not many people owned an oven, so they would prepare their bread dough, focaccia dough, or lasagne and then take it to one of the many businesses in the city where a professional baker would bake their goods for a small charge. Angela’s mom remembers when she was a girl and her family would take the lasagne to the fornaio on the way to the beach and then pick of the finished dish on their way home. A few of these establishment are still in business in Molfetto to this day.
There is something about this coming together around food, whether at Il Fornaio or at a friend or family member’s house for a Sunday Supper that really appeals to my wife and me. We invite people over from time-to-time for Sunday Supper, but have decided to make more of an effort to keep this tradition alive – but probably not with quite this impressive of a list of handcrafted, homemade labor-and-time-intensive treats!
- cultural diversity , slowing down
- Comments(1)
Mmmm, that sounds wonderful! My family also likes to have people over for dinner. We don’t do it every Sunday, but we definitely have someone over as often as we can. Usually at least a few people a month. I love to cook for guests. There’s something special about having a bunch of people around a table, and I think our society is losing out because of our lifestyle. Sad.