Il Giorno del Ringraziamento           

Giuseppe, the Italian Pilgrim
by Camille Di Loreto

Being an Italian American means having great Italian American traditions. These rich traditions are so strong sometimes I am not even fully aware of their impact in my life. For example, growing up we celebrated Thanksgiving in a very special fashion. Your could say that we had the typical Thanksgiving food items, however, the traditional meal was expanded to accomodate numerous Italian food items. In addition to the menu expansion, our home would also expand to receive numerous relatives.

Our holiday meal consisted of the usual roast turkey, potatoes and broccoli usually served with garlic and olive oil. In addition to these items were some very Italian favorites such as an antipasto, a lite turkey soup, a pasta dish consisting of ravioli or lasagna, some roasted artichokes, insalata and of course, the desserts. Preparation took days and the meal seemed to be endless.

As a child, I did not realize how different our Thanksgivings' were compared to other children in the neighborhood. On the surface it seemed like we were all celebrating the holiday in the same fashion but what took place in our home was quite different. Typically, most of the kids in the neighborhood celebrated with their grandparents. They ate turkey, potatoes and apple pie. The entire feast took place in about three hours. Our relatives started to arrive the Wednesday just before and stayed until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Our meal seemed to last an eternity. Everyone helped in the preparation of the meal. Even the men were involved. Their job was to prepare a make-shift table to accommodate the additional family members. This was no small task since the size of the family could double or even triple in size.

As a child I wondered how all this food preparation got tied into this holiday. My father offered this reason for all the fuss. It is a kind of American history lesson with an Italian twist. We celebrated Thanksgiving in this manner because of a little Italian man named Giuseppe.

The Italian Pilgrim
Giuseppe wanted to come to America. There was only one problem... He had no way of getting here so he decided to somehow hide himself on board of one of the great pilgrim ships making the voyage. Even though Guiseppe was a diminutive gentleman he definitely had great aspirations. So off he went aboard the ship. Within days during the voyage the new world he was discovered. He offered the captain with these solutions to his.. uhm.. little problem. He would either swim back to shore or help the cook. Of course, during his offer he also hinted about his fantastic culinary skills. The Captain allowed him to remain on board with the stipulation that he prepare all his Captain's meals.

Giuseppe worked diligently with the ships cook to provide the captain and his crew with their everyday meals. As one can imagine, these meals were not terribly exciting but were much better than the usual ship meals prepared by the cook. Giuseppe added his Italian flare and made the day to day meals interesting. Once the ship landed in the new world however Giuseppe believed it was time to show his thankfulness. He really wanted to have a great feast where everyone was invited to celebrate together.

The cook suggested preparing Hardtack etc. Giuseppe having had enough of hardtack protested. He thought that in order to celebrate this momentous occasion a more suitable feast was needed. His menus suggestions ran along the lines of antipasto, cannelloni, braised radicchio, braccioli, insalata and for dessert espresso and lots of sweets. Now the regular chef thought Giuseppe was a bit wacky since he never heard of most of these items and even if he did know of them the chance of finding all of them here in the new world were slim to none.

From the onset, Giusseppe encountered obstacles in trying to locate certain Italian ingredients. Certainly, there was not a place in this new world that sold items such as anise flavoring, artichokes, ravioli or canolis. However this witty Italian pilgrim persevered and accomplished the task of this grand feast.

On the day of this auspicious occasion, the feast was presented to all that arrived. Everyone marveled at the fantastic cuisine and glorious presentation done by Giuseppe. The feast was a great success. So that was how it came to be that Italians in America celebrated Thanksgiving just a little different then some of their neighbors. In any event that is how my family acquired the tradition of celebrating in the manner in which we did. It was all because of an Italian stow-away named Giuseppe.

In case you were wondering... my father's name was Giuseppe. I can only assume he was somehow related to this amazing little fellow!