Lisa Caponigri - Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner?: A Year of Italian Menus with 250 Recipes That Celebrate Family

Whatever
Happened
to Sunday
Dinner?

A year of Italian menus with
250 recipes that celebrate family

Lisa Caponigri
Food photography by Guy Ambrosino

STERLING EPICURE is a trademark of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. The distinctive Sterling logo is a registered trademark of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

2012 by Lisa Caponigri
Photographs 2012 by Guy Ambrosino
Food styling by Kate Winslow

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4027-8482-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4027-9443-8 (ebook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Caponigri, Lisa.

Whatever happened to Sunday dinner? : a year of Italian menus, with more than 250 recipes, that celebrate family / Lisa Caponigri; photographs by Guy Ambrosino.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4027-8482-8 (hardback)

1. Cooking, Italian. 2. Dinners and dining. 3. Cookbooks. I. Title.

TX723.C2835 2012
641.5945dc23

2011035569

For information about custom editions, special sales, and premium and corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales at 800-805-5489 or specialsales@sterlingpublishing.com.

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This book is dedicated to my grandmother Catherine Lione Franco, who, through her example, instilled in me a love of Italian cooking, an unconditional love of family, and the belief that your glass is always half full.

Grazie infinite, nana.

contents

left:My mother, grandparents and me, Laguna Hills, California

I am a second-generation Italian-American and, like many Italian-Americans, I grew up with the tradition of Sunday dinner. Sunday was for gathering, preparing, cooking, eating, sharing, talking, laughing. Some of my happiest memories are of sitting around my Nana Francos big dining room table with my immediate family, my cousins, aunts, uncles, family friends, and whoever else happened to be visiting. Every Sunday was a time to disconnect from the rest of the world and reconnect with family and friends.

Sitting down to eat was the final phase of the day. For me, the experience began much earlier in the day, as I was my grandmothers official helper in the kitchen. Thanks to my parents, I grew up with a love of all things Italian and spent a great deal of my childhood in Italy. This thrilled my nana and she made her own personal contribution to my educationteaching me how to prepare the dishes she had learned to make from her mother and grandmother.

My grandmother, as well as my father, have passed on. I now have three children of my own, growing up faster than I could have imagined. The world moves so quickly, and there are so many demands on our time. But Sunday dinner is still sacred to my family. It is a day to plan together, cook together, dream together. As we chop, stir, set places at the table, sit, drink, eat, we talk about the week that has passed and the week that is to come. Sunday dinner is irreplaceable, the meeting place of memories that will last a lifetime.

You say, Thats fine for you, Lisa. But Sunday dinner isnt a tradition for my family. Theres no way I can get everyone to the table for a relaxed meal every Sunday.

Thats why I wrote this book. Inside its covers youll find 52 Sunday dinner menus in the Italian tradition: an antipasto (usually a crostini to pass at the table), a primo (first course: this is almost always a pasta, but it can also be a risotto, polenta, or a soup), a secondo (call it the main course) served with a single contorno (side dish), and, finally, dessert. Every menu is different, not a single recipe is repeated. Do you have to make every menu as I have planned it? Certainly not. Though many of these menus are thematic for me, there is no reason why you cant switch around recipes or drop a course, if you prefer. But remember, the goal isnt just to eat, its to linger and relax.

Guido, Felicia and me, cooking at home, South Bend, Indiana

With that in mind, here are five tips for making Sunday dinner a weekly reality in your home: