Let's end the mystery. In Italy, made with tomatoes, it's sauce. Always. Except when it's sugo or ragù, then it's a meat sauce. Pasta Bolognese may properly be called Pasta Bolognese Sugo or Ragù, but its popularity has eliminated the last defining word; every mother's son knows what Pasta Bolognese is, without any further ID.
Why is this even a thing? Because many second and third generation Italian Americans, in learning their new language, translated it as such. The sauce-as-gravy Italian Americans have strong outposts in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago, New York and, oddly enough, New Orleans. The vast majority of Italian Americans, however, call it sauce. End of story..
No? This isn't definitive enough for you? Well then, arm yourself! Click here, on the word 'GRAVY', and get ready for war!
In my family, we accept both words. Our version came to America in 1916, from the little town of Rodi Garganico (population 4,000) a little spit of Apulia on the Adriatic - easily located because it's on the spur of the Italian boot. My mother-in-law, Maria Teresa Giuiliani, brought her family sauce over in her heart and passed it along to my wife, Diana, and our children, Teresa, Jennifer and Katherine.
There is no recipe. It's different every time and the same every time. Back 50 years ago, when wifey was earning her bones, there were good sauces and better sauces; now we have only 'spectacular' or OMG versions. explainable with 'I added something different,' or 'I didn't put as much _____in this time.
Today is leftover spaghetti and meat balls. Which is what inspired this article.
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Rodi Garganico
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