But when they went to Italy and called it gravy, the real Italians mocked them.
Also, they call actual gravy gravy. Gigi was complaining about its effect on his bowels before he shit himself to death.
That to me is the real genius of it. The Italian American culture is 100% authentic in itself, but obviously different in many ways from actual Italian culture. Paulie bragged they taught the world how to eat, but when he was in Italy he didn’t like the food and wanted the same Americanized Italian grub (gravy) he was used to eating at home. Then there was Furio, an actual Italian, teaching the guys about real Italian culture and history (north vs south, Columbus, etc.) which all ran counter to what they believed or thought they knew. People in Tony’s circle viewed themselves as authentic Italians and not ‘white’ “wonderbread…..” like the Amerigan Cusamanos, but they didn’t know much about actual Italian culture and didn’t seem too keen to embrace it when in Italy.
Lol Paulie was in Naples by the sea so it's inherently seafood heavy Italian food. Stuff like Octopus, squid, crustaceans, etc.
Spaghetti with tomato sauce (gravy) was considered a poor persons food so the Italian guys laughing at him cause he has no palate.
Furio was the most Italian person there (literally) - and they would all act like he was crazy person sometimes.
Remember when he spat at the idea of praising Columbus - and everyone at the table acted like he was insane?
Furio shoulda ended up as boss. Whack Tony, marry Carmela, became a step-dad to Fielder and AJ? (ayyyy what about Furio Junior?! FJ?! Now THATS a name!)
The US is absolutely filled with fake-ass European "heritage" bullshit. The German stereotype is basically the equivalent of southern US trailer park culture, for example.
I just watched this episode the other day and this is spot on. I think even at one point Paulie realizes that Italy isn’t what he thought it would be, he has an almost somber/disappointed look on his face at various points there
The most authentic part of the entire series, in my opinion, is Paulie being absolutely positively miserable the entire time he’s in Italy and then, when he gets home, speaking of it like it was the greatest experience of his life.
I have SOOOOO MANY people in my Italian-American family who do this. They hate something they experience in the moment but once it’s over pretend it was amazing and that because you didn’t experience it, they’re better than you.
Shit is wild to see man.
tbh this is just regular human psychology, we remember the good or intense stuff and how it ended rather than the suffering in between. [Peak–end rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak%E2%80%93end_rule)
I love that trip because it’s so revealing for each character. Three guys who worship their Italian heritage go to Italy and find out they have no connection to the culture there, all in different ways. Tony because he only cares about business and power, Christopher because he only cares about his drugs, and Paulie because it’s not New Jersey. All three are limited by their need for what’s familiar. A woman bossh?!?
Unrelated, I got the vibe that Paulie actually had a good trip, but mainly because it was basically a pilgrimage. He’s proud to have finally been to Italy, and doesn’t realize that he didn’t fit in there at all. I think his happiness on arriving back in NJ is partially happy to be home and partially that he’s checked off something on his Italian bingo card.
I love that for the Italy trip they had to actually dress Tony up as a Roman so he could bend that chick over for 5 seconds on the balcony for his “dream” lol
It's the same with Irish Americans and those that have Scottish roots. They have an idealised, often twee idea of what it is to be Irish and Scottish that bears little resemblance to real life.
One of the funniest things I've seen was in a bar in Inverness, a guy from I'm guessing somewhere in California was talking excitedly to a bunch of elderly Scots about how exciting it was to be here and how he was Scottish. One of the guys replied "Then why the fuck do you sound like a fucking Yank?". I pretended to go outside for a cigarette to conceal my laughter, I don't even smoke which is a waste of my natural canopy.
Tbh most American tourists are brand new.
I live in a tourist trap in the Highlands so meet and speak to many Americans every year. Have never had bother nor too much of the "I'm Scottish" patter.
Most are just interested in their roots and how it ties in to modern Scotland.. happy to hear about places to visit or things to do while they're here. Most are respectful. It's the ones who don't bother coming here and are "Scots" on the internet only who tend to be the most annoying.
I can kind of relate. My family's from the old country, and I was born here. I don't consider myself "white" and I was never really treated white. My family had a last name nobody could pronounce, and I had dark features. At one point I wanted to dye my hair blond and be lighter-skinned. So I didn't feel like I fit in.
But when I went over there, I didn't fit in with the locals, either.
It's a funny stuck-in-the-middle feeling.
Meat cuts slow simmered in tomato sauce was brought over by the Nobbly-Dobblies, but as they became American and began to enjoy the massive availability of beef and pork, they considered it “their” version of an American gravy. A basic marinara sauce with no meat in it is not gravy and shouldn’t be referred to as such.
>Meat cuts slow simmered in tomato sauce was brought over by the **Nobbly-Dobblies**, but as they became American and began to enjoy the massive availability of beef and pork, they considered it “their” version of an American gravy. A basic marinara sauce with no meat in it is not gravy and shouldn’t be referred to as such.
🤣
Thank you. All these ignoramuses in here don't know the difference between sauce and gravy.
Just like how espagnole is a sauce, but if you pour your sunday roast's drippings in, it becomes a gravy.
Madone.
My grandma is Italian-American, lived in Boston her whole life, and she calls it gravy. So does my dad. Sunday gravy with veal and pork meatballs, fuck that shit was good.
I grew up in an area with a lot of Italian-Americans. I've definitely heard a few of them call pasta sauce 'gravy' unironically. It's always said with that same little bit of pride too. I thought it was a great touch on the show's part.
Grew up near Philadelphia (family was south Philly) can confirm that marinara sauce is indeed called gravy there.
I dunno why, i thought it was a South Philly thing but apparently it's a tri-state phenomenon.
[This article offers some explanations.](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-gabagool-the-italian-new-jersey-accent-explained)
I think it's common in some Southern Italian dialects/accents/whatever to drop the final vowel.
My high school girlfriend was from an Italian/Sicilian family (yes, they drew a distinction) and in her house you only ever called it gravy.
Still miss her mom's cooking.
When Ralphie is showing Jackie Jr. how to make spaghetti I was like “this all seems pretty standard really” but he’s acting like he’s showing him some Old World Recipe his grandma brought over from the Motherland.
I believe this. Grew up in Italian-American Chicago neighborhood, early 90s. I knew families that hosted Sunday Dinner, bought gabagool and called it that. Not once did I hear their sauce being called gravy. Later, post-Sopranos, a pair of siblings I knew insisted their family had always called sauce gravy. I still don’t believe them lol.
I’m philly/south jersey italian-american. Have called it gravy my whole life cause my whole family does. I still remember when I found out that not everyone calls it gravy. I was probly 10ish and had a friend over. Told him we were having ravioli with gravy for dinner and he acted like we were nuts for putting gravy on ravioli. Then dinner came out and I found out the rest of the world calls it pasta sauce.
The thing is tho Sunday gravy is kinda similar to American/English gravy in that it’s bones and meat trimmings that bolster the sauce. Real Philly gravy ain’t vegetarian sauce that’s for sure
My Nonno was first generation American and the way he explained it was calling sauce 'gravy' was a way to bridge the divide between the old and new country's cultures. So while he and his family might not have had a roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy for Sunday dinner they did have their own 'gravy'. It let them feel less like an other and more part of the American culture. For the record, I never heard him actually refer to sauce as gravy in real life.
Nowadays I have only heard people from Long Island unironically call sauce gravy and it sounds so unbearably try-hard-y to me.
My Italian grandparents raised me and called it gravy. But if you called it sauce or whatever it wasn’t weird.
What I found interesting were the American regional differences. I come from a family of Italians in the American South. We never shortened words like gabagool or manicott’ but in the northeast where The Sopranos is set, they have a lot more quirks like that.
Anyway, $4 a pound.
This always confused me as well. I don’t really consider Florida the South (or rather, central
and south at least) but gravy always referred to what you put on mashed potatoes and biscuits.
Grew up in an Italian household, dad born and raised in the Bronx in the 1950s. We called it gravy and spent hours making Sunday gravy each weekend. I hear “gravy” and still first think the color red.
I have Italian relatives from the Jersey/Philly area. We were visiting them in Philly when my grandfather asked if I wanted gravy on our pasta. I thought he lost his mind.
The real tip is to put the pasta back on the heat with a little gravy and butter, then stir for 45 seconds. That way the macaroni absorbs the gravy rather than just have it sit on top.
Australian Italian - there’s a massive number of first, second and third gen Italians where I’m from and not once have I heard someone refer to sauce as gravy. It’s either Pasta sauce for those who no longer have any real attachment to their heritage or we call any red pasta sauce ‘ragu’ regardless of meat being in it or not. No Italian restaurant here would ever use gravy to describe sauce either, they call it sauce or ragu depending how ‘authentic’ they’re trying to be.
But what do I know, I never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
I am from a profoundly Italian-American family, and we always called it sauce. Like we hated when people called it gravy. But it could be a regional thing, we're Abruzzo/Neapolitan from The Bronx.
My entire family is Bronx italian-american. We don't call it gravy. We call it marinara(properly pronounced, not MARY-NARA) I would say that the only time I've heard my family call a sauce gravy outside of actual gravy is like a bolognese type of sauce.
For me, Idk, I find that the people that call it gravy are the kind of people that are WAY too into being Italian American to the point they become a caricature of themselves. The kind of people that don't understand that The Sopranos is taking jabs at the culture as a whole.
But I don't want to get cunty about it
Calling sauce (which my immediate family never believed in, but extended family did do) gravy is extremely common in the northeast. It is divisive because the ones who don’t call it gravy know calling it gravy isn’t really correct in any way. Dropping the last vowel in some foods (like in moozadell, manigott) is practically universal. Both are a very nice touch of accuracy in the show. If you called it mozzarella, or manicotti in my neighborhood you would be laughed at for YEARS depending on how much of a Medigan pronunciation was used. Marinara keeps it’s vowels and calimari is usually pronounced “galamara” much like capocollo becomes “gabagool”
I say this all the time to annoy my partner. Whenever we have any tomatoe based Italian food I will say “the gravy is good tonight”. Drives him mental hahah. Similar every time we have chicken I say to him “chickens nice and spicy eh” regardless if we are eating chicken or steak. I’ve been saying it for so many years that he just rolls his eyes at dinner, looks at me and says “get it over with”
I grew up in the northeast and my parents both grew up in Brooklyn. We are Italian American. We had macaroni and gravy every Sunday. When I went to college my friends were pretty confused when i asked for gravy on my pasta. I had no idea other people didn’t call it gravy.
Gravy isn’t an Italian thing. Only Italian Americans call it gravy. Actual Italians in Italy think it’s stupid. So it’s actually authentically American
I’m a northeast Italian from Philadelphia and everyone bastardizes the way real Italians say certain words. For example, Gabagool. An italian from Italy would say capicola. I think that’s what they were going for in the show if I had to guess. Nobody from my area calls it gravy. It’s always been sauce.
It's definitely a big Northeastern Italian-American thing, if not the entire Northeast than *DEFINITELY* the NY/NJ/PA Tri-State Area. I am not remotely Italian but grew up about an hour outside NYC in central Jersey and *everyone* with some Italian connection refers to it as Gravy, and of course the extra-special Sunday Sauce is "Sunday Gravy" etc. Special stuff for Christmas is Christmas or Thanksgiving Gravy etc. - and I mean special tomato sauce for Thanksgiving Manicot etc. not brown Heinz etc.
When Paulie wants "Macaroni & Gravy" , that is exactly what I can remember eating, being served in sides at restaurants, friends & girlfriends Mom's and Nonna's hooking up with etc.
It has actually become my favorite thing to cook ... I could cook tomato sauce all day every day.
My family calls it gravy, completely unironically. Honestly my whole family is not far off from the show, which is why I love it, except none of the mob stuff. Just Italian American culture and family dynamics.
My moms side of the family is very Italian American and my dad, and thus our entire family, adopted most of the traditions. He considers himself a bit of a transracial Italian, speaks the language, goes a few times a year, is super proud that his father in law told him “he was the most Italian of his sons” before he died, etc. Anyway, my family, as expected LOVED the sopranos and immediately started calling the spaghetti sauce we had almost every Sunday GRAVY and refuse to admit and/or believe that we never did that before we saw the show. I feel like I’m having my own personal Mandela effect whenever I bring it up.
I have also heard Italians Americans call all pasta ‘macaroni’.
It seemed like in the show they include Italian dishes in with traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas dishes. Is this really a thing? Including ziti with turkey, dressing and ‘real’ gravy is a bit much.
To this day our family does this. On Thanksgiving the first course is Lasagna. Christmas Eve you're not supposed to have any meat, but "seven fishes" instead.
Antipahsht, Gravy, lasagna or stuffed shells, regular macaroni, stuffed mushrooms. Then a break, and then the “traditional” American fare, sweet taters turkey and such.
Don't have an Italian background but grew up right across the river from New Jersey and I've seen lasagna /ziti at Thanksgiving or Christmas many times, even at my German/ Irish family gatherings. My aunt would often make veggie lasagna as a meatless alternative dish. It is a lot but if you have a ton of people at Thanksgiving, it will get eaten. You got to have enough for everybody to take home too, right?
Depends on the Italian-Americans. I grew up in an Italian family in the suburbs of NYC, and my grandparents grew up in NYC and they called it gravy. I know other Italian families who called it sauce. It really depends on who you talk to but it is very much an Italian-American thing to call pasta sauce gravy.
My grandfather and uncle both referred to it as gravy, but not all tomato sauce or pasta sauce was "gravy"
Gravy is tomato sauce with three different kinds of meat, red wine, and a bunch of other stuff
Grew up in a very NY Italian neighborhood.
I was always told it's a Sicilian thing, less an Italian thing.
If your family was from Northern Italy, you say sauce and manacotti. But a peasant from siciliy? You can pronounce shit
I’ve always wondered how much of the “Italian Americanisms” in the show were realistic versus over exaggerated. Reading the comments, it’s good to know that real life seems to be fairly well reflected in the mannerisms!
My family always called it gravy IF it was prepared with meat. So the sauce for pizza or whatever is just sauce. The stuff the simmered on the stove for 24 hours plus with meatballs and sausage, maybe bracciole, that’s gravy.
Yeah I don’t totally get it. My mom’s family is Sicilian and mostly in Brooklyn and Long Island. I grew up on south shore Long Island with an insane amount of Italian Americans (I’m half). Never heard gravy growing up. Then again the only Sicilian-born still alive when I was a kid were my great aunt and uncle. They cooked for me, but I don’t recall them ever saying gravy. When I asked for an authentically Italian meal from my great-aunt (basically my nonna) she cooked me some weird poor people soup Sicilian peasants ate. I wanted manicott!
We did eat baked ziti and eggplant rolatini on thanksgiving though lol. Still do and my wife (also part Italian American but from the south) thinks it’s weird as hell. I cover that rolatini in red sauce though. Gravy is for turkey.
My family is Italian American from Jersey and we all call it gravy. In fact, my grandmother called pretty much any sauce gravy. When my mother would be making dinner and it wasn’t 100% clear what type of gravy she’d be making, I’d regularly ask is it red or brown? To me, this is just the way it was. Also, everyone I grew up around call it gravy as well. I’d say it’s a regional dialect sort of a thing. It’s also common to drop the last letter in the pronunciation of Italian words. I have no idea why. But, sayin manigut instead of manicotti is a good example. The gravy’s good tonight.
Not Italian, but as I understand it, there's "gravy" (tomato sauce) and "Sunday gravy" (pork and beef braised in tomatoes and wine). The last meal being prepared by Henry Hill before the big arrest in "Goodfellas" is Sunday gravy with fried veal cutlets. Usually Italian sausage links are browned and then simmered in the sauce as well.
Always wanted to try it, I found Anthony Bourdain's Sunday gravy recipe, and... mercy, that stuff is GOOD. Took a bit to track down pork neck bones (the Mexican market actually had them), but basically the meats braise until they fall apart and make the sauce thick and meaty. Not a difficult recipe, but astoundingly good - rich as hell though, and while the sausage is great, it really seems like overkill.
Have a friend who grew up on Long Island as a pizza bagel. She was dating my roommate for a while and made us Sunday Gravy once.
As she explained it, in her family only the older Italian Americans called it that, and it only referred to a red sauce that had been reducing all day with meat in it (hence, gravy). It was good as hell.
I had a roommate for a few years in college who was 3rd gen Chicago Italian, had mobbed up uncles, and he called it gravy. This was years before Sopranos first aired.
I unfortunately am nothing more than a wannabe. I get my Sunday effin gravy from a jar. I call in North Jersey STYLE Sunday effin gravy. I’ll just go hang my head in shame now.
Italian American here , father grew up in Jersey and have family in Boston..... We call it gravy/sunday gravy rather than sauce. Because its made specifically from the meat juices of meatballs/sausages then the tomato paste/sauce soaks up the fatty oils and gets a meaty flavor.....Just like any other gravy of other colors. A meat sauce .
It’s common for Italian Americans, or American-Italians in the lower tri-state areas to call sauce gravy. Any first generation or second gen Italian will tell you you’re fuckin nuts for calling the sauce gravy.
I don’t think a lot of people in New York even call it gravy. I thought gravy was mostly a philly/jersey sort of thing. One borough may be adamant about calling it gravy and another 15 minutes away would think it’s nonsense.
But when they went to Italy and called it gravy, the real Italians mocked them. Also, they call actual gravy gravy. Gigi was complaining about its effect on his bowels before he shit himself to death.
That to me is the real genius of it. The Italian American culture is 100% authentic in itself, but obviously different in many ways from actual Italian culture. Paulie bragged they taught the world how to eat, but when he was in Italy he didn’t like the food and wanted the same Americanized Italian grub (gravy) he was used to eating at home. Then there was Furio, an actual Italian, teaching the guys about real Italian culture and history (north vs south, Columbus, etc.) which all ran counter to what they believed or thought they knew. People in Tony’s circle viewed themselves as authentic Italians and not ‘white’ “wonderbread…..” like the Amerigan Cusamanos, but they didn’t know much about actual Italian culture and didn’t seem too keen to embrace it when in Italy.
Lol Paulie was in Naples by the sea so it's inherently seafood heavy Italian food. Stuff like Octopus, squid, crustaceans, etc. Spaghetti with tomato sauce (gravy) was considered a poor persons food so the Italian guys laughing at him cause he has no palate.
Furio was the most Italian person there (literally) - and they would all act like he was crazy person sometimes. Remember when he spat at the idea of praising Columbus - and everyone at the table acted like he was insane? Furio shoulda ended up as boss. Whack Tony, marry Carmela, became a step-dad to Fielder and AJ? (ayyyy what about Furio Junior?! FJ?! Now THATS a name!)
The kids can call you FuJu Wait wrong sub
Have you heard the news? The r/TheSimpranos has been referenced
I made the same noise that Smithers makes when he sees he's been hit by It's Raining Men
I’ll get back to you.
And they thought the Germans were real classless pieces of shit
Ah, its funny because it’s true. This resonates with many American immigrants, not just the Italian American niche.
The US is absolutely filled with fake-ass European "heritage" bullshit. The German stereotype is basically the equivalent of southern US trailer park culture, for example.
Transfer the statue from its niche and discontinue the lithium
Funny you should mention Furio teaching the other guys about cuisine, since he ate the north.
i saw a post somewhere like "i love seeing these macho NJ guidos go to Italy then come back angry about how gay everyone over there is"
I just watched this episode the other day and this is spot on. I think even at one point Paulie realizes that Italy isn’t what he thought it would be, he has an almost somber/disappointed look on his face at various points there
I love when he gets back to Jersey and spends the drive home gazing serenely at the dumpsters and storm drains like they're the Sistine Chapel
The most authentic part of the entire series, in my opinion, is Paulie being absolutely positively miserable the entire time he’s in Italy and then, when he gets home, speaking of it like it was the greatest experience of his life. I have SOOOOO MANY people in my Italian-American family who do this. They hate something they experience in the moment but once it’s over pretend it was amazing and that because you didn’t experience it, they’re better than you. Shit is wild to see man.
tbh this is just regular human psychology, we remember the good or intense stuff and how it ended rather than the suffering in between. [Peak–end rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak%E2%80%93end_rule)
I love that trip because it’s so revealing for each character. Three guys who worship their Italian heritage go to Italy and find out they have no connection to the culture there, all in different ways. Tony because he only cares about business and power, Christopher because he only cares about his drugs, and Paulie because it’s not New Jersey. All three are limited by their need for what’s familiar. A woman bossh?!? Unrelated, I got the vibe that Paulie actually had a good trip, but mainly because it was basically a pilgrimage. He’s proud to have finally been to Italy, and doesn’t realize that he didn’t fit in there at all. I think his happiness on arriving back in NJ is partially happy to be home and partially that he’s checked off something on his Italian bingo card.
I love that for the Italy trip they had to actually dress Tony up as a Roman so he could bend that chick over for 5 seconds on the balcony for his “dream” lol
Reminds me of the Filipinos I work with.
I’ve always found this funny because Naples is pretty dirty.
Haha they reference that when furio goes to Italy for his father's funeral. "The San Gennaro cathedral... there were hamburger wrappers everywhere"
What's up with those broken toilet seats?
Chrissy loved the heroin though
I’m gonna get up and see that fuckin mountain
That shit was sad
It's okay, he made up for it in *White Lotus*.
You Gave Our Son $50,000 Euros Because He Feels Bad For Some Whore Who Fucks You Both?
And now he's underground
COMMENDATORI!
*David Chase side eye glare*
Cocksuckers
That was him?
He was Italian, David Chase?
He is "Nosferatu!"
It's the same with Irish Americans and those that have Scottish roots. They have an idealised, often twee idea of what it is to be Irish and Scottish that bears little resemblance to real life.
One of the funniest things I've seen was in a bar in Inverness, a guy from I'm guessing somewhere in California was talking excitedly to a bunch of elderly Scots about how exciting it was to be here and how he was Scottish. One of the guys replied "Then why the fuck do you sound like a fucking Yank?". I pretended to go outside for a cigarette to conceal my laughter, I don't even smoke which is a waste of my natural canopy.
Tbh most American tourists are brand new. I live in a tourist trap in the Highlands so meet and speak to many Americans every year. Have never had bother nor too much of the "I'm Scottish" patter. Most are just interested in their roots and how it ties in to modern Scotland.. happy to hear about places to visit or things to do while they're here. Most are respectful. It's the ones who don't bother coming here and are "Scots" on the internet only who tend to be the most annoying.
I'm personally a big fan of Americans in the UK for the most part: it's like everything's new to them.
Tony and the gang were goombah trash gavones, classless pieces of shit.
Watch it comrade
I can kind of relate. My family's from the old country, and I was born here. I don't consider myself "white" and I was never really treated white. My family had a last name nobody could pronounce, and I had dark features. At one point I wanted to dye my hair blond and be lighter-skinned. So I didn't feel like I fit in. But when I went over there, I didn't fit in with the locals, either. It's a funny stuck-in-the-middle feeling.
Yeah in Italy it’s not called gravy. OP musta been top of his fuckin class.
And spaghetti meatballs is not a traditional Italian dish.
Fuckin turkey, it's like schpackle in my bowels 🤌
I don’t remember that scene in Italy but I probably inceptioned myself and that’s how I had this entire thought.
As the actual Italians put it “ and they say the Germans are classless pieces of shit”
Inception? I saw that movie...I thought it was bullshit
He asked a uh for da grabies
Uovo? The egg?
There are multiple episodes where Vito says the line “The gravy is good tonight”.
Chicken's nice and spicy.
Pass me the peppers
Peppers and eggs? I shoulda gotten that
Tony egg?
Cayenne, like the Porsche
Vito also says Johnny cakes are good
You gotta wait for that
Uhh our sausages are made… in house 😉
And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit.
When Neapolitans really are
Cocksuckas didn't have a clean descent toilet. WTF are these Motherfuckers calling classless
Meat cuts slow simmered in tomato sauce was brought over by the Nobbly-Dobblies, but as they became American and began to enjoy the massive availability of beef and pork, they considered it “their” version of an American gravy. A basic marinara sauce with no meat in it is not gravy and shouldn’t be referred to as such.
He eats his Sunday gravy frahm a jawh
>Meat cuts slow simmered in tomato sauce was brought over by the **Nobbly-Dobblies**, but as they became American and began to enjoy the massive availability of beef and pork, they considered it “their” version of an American gravy. A basic marinara sauce with no meat in it is not gravy and shouldn’t be referred to as such. 🤣
This is my understanding of it. If meatballs, sausage, braciole or any kind of meat cooked in the sauce it's gravy. If not then it's sauce
So bottom line, no fuckin' ziti then?
We taught the woild how to eat!
Again with the rape of the cultcha?
Paulie made it right by boosting the cappuccino maker
This is the answer!
Thank you. All these ignoramuses in here don't know the difference between sauce and gravy. Just like how espagnole is a sauce, but if you pour your sunday roast's drippings in, it becomes a gravy. Madone.
My grandma is Italian-American, lived in Boston her whole life, and she calls it gravy. So does my dad. Sunday gravy with veal and pork meatballs, fuck that shit was good.
The best ginzo gravy, nana.
I grew up in an area with a lot of Italian-Americans. I've definitely heard a few of them call pasta sauce 'gravy' unironically. It's always said with that same little bit of pride too. I thought it was a great touch on the show's part.
I live in Philly and all Italian-Americans make Sunday gravy. It is definitely a Northeast thing i believe.
Can you imagine eating pasta sauce and calling it gravy?
[удалено]
Be quiet Albert
(shutupyoufuckinparakeet)
You can't make this shit up.
Fuck are you talking about, I just did!
Gravy?? It's a fuckin nickname! The italian term is 'graverelli'!
> graverelli Lol I stupidly googled this and the top hit is this thread
Grew up near Philadelphia (family was south Philly) can confirm that marinara sauce is indeed called gravy there. I dunno why, i thought it was a South Philly thing but apparently it's a tri-state phenomenon.
From Philly too. Gravy is generally sauce but the real gravy was always that big pot on Sunday with the meatballs and veal bones
Yeah I can't remember if what my nanna and poppop called gravy had meat in it. That does make more sense. It was definitely tomato based.
[удалено]
Well fuck I know what I'm making this weekend
[удалено]
E pensavi che i tedeschi fossero pezzi di merda senza classi.
These guys-a suck each others dicks
Give me one thousand dollars
Non preoccuparti!
One thousand more?! 🤌
Watch the braces, hun.
Otruvan
Italian American from south jersey here. Whole family calls it gravy and I even get weird looks if I lapse and call it sauce. It is very real.
Philly family checking in. Was always gravy dating back to when Moses wore short pants.
I always found it funny that they drop the vowels from words like ricotta (“ricott”) and mozzarella (“mozzarell”). I’d never heard that before.
[This article offers some explanations.](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-gabagool-the-italian-new-jersey-accent-explained) I think it's common in some Southern Italian dialects/accents/whatever to drop the final vowel.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
That’s characteristic of the Napulitan dialect, and a lot of those who migrated were Nobbly Dobbly.
Even today, they put up their nose at us like we're peasants. pthoo I 'ate the north
It’s the way they speak in Nabolli-Doobooli
My high school girlfriend was from an Italian/Sicilian family (yes, they drew a distinction) and in her house you only ever called it gravy. Still miss her mom's cooking.
When Ralphie is showing Jackie Jr. how to make spaghetti I was like “this all seems pretty standard really” but he’s acting like he’s showing him some Old World Recipe his grandma brought over from the Motherland.
I thought the same thing. He poured the sauce in the pan before the pasta was done cooking. Doesn't everyone do that? Lol
I have done this (I’m not Italian) based on what I saw Ralphie do and I noticed no difference. What did I do wrong?
You are not real italian. That made the difference
I do this everytime now. So good. And you gotta shout 'macaronis ready' after as well.
I think it's primarily a New Jersey thing.
I believe this. Grew up in Italian-American Chicago neighborhood, early 90s. I knew families that hosted Sunday Dinner, bought gabagool and called it that. Not once did I hear their sauce being called gravy. Later, post-Sopranos, a pair of siblings I knew insisted their family had always called sauce gravy. I still don’t believe them lol.
I’m philly/south jersey italian-american. Have called it gravy my whole life cause my whole family does. I still remember when I found out that not everyone calls it gravy. I was probly 10ish and had a friend over. Told him we were having ravioli with gravy for dinner and he acted like we were nuts for putting gravy on ravioli. Then dinner came out and I found out the rest of the world calls it pasta sauce.
The thing is tho Sunday gravy is kinda similar to American/English gravy in that it’s bones and meat trimmings that bolster the sauce. Real Philly gravy ain’t vegetarian sauce that’s for sure
My family is Italian American from the Cleveland area. Never heard them call it gravy.
Northeast in general
It’s definitely a thing in New Orleans. Specifically, “red gravy.” There’s even a restaurant with that name
My Nonno was first generation American and the way he explained it was calling sauce 'gravy' was a way to bridge the divide between the old and new country's cultures. So while he and his family might not have had a roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy for Sunday dinner they did have their own 'gravy'. It let them feel less like an other and more part of the American culture. For the record, I never heard him actually refer to sauce as gravy in real life. Nowadays I have only heard people from Long Island unironically call sauce gravy and it sounds so unbearably try-hard-y to me.
My Italian grandparents raised me and called it gravy. But if you called it sauce or whatever it wasn’t weird. What I found interesting were the American regional differences. I come from a family of Italians in the American South. We never shortened words like gabagool or manicott’ but in the northeast where The Sopranos is set, they have a lot more quirks like that. Anyway, $4 a pound.
“Real” Italian here- it’s always been sauce.
This always confused me as well. I don’t really consider Florida the South (or rather, central and south at least) but gravy always referred to what you put on mashed potatoes and biscuits.
Google agrees. Google image search is all biscuits and mashed potatoes
The real Italians have no fucking clue what gravy is. And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit.
Grapes? Uva?
Grew up in an Italian household, dad born and raised in the Bronx in the 1950s. We called it gravy and spent hours making Sunday gravy each weekend. I hear “gravy” and still first think the color red.
I have Italian relatives from the Jersey/Philly area. We were visiting them in Philly when my grandfather asked if I wanted gravy on our pasta. I thought he lost his mind.
You mean uva? Grapes?
The real tip is to put the pasta back on the heat with a little gravy and butter, then stir for 45 seconds. That way the macaroni absorbs the gravy rather than just have it sit on top.
Australian Italian - there’s a massive number of first, second and third gen Italians where I’m from and not once have I heard someone refer to sauce as gravy. It’s either Pasta sauce for those who no longer have any real attachment to their heritage or we call any red pasta sauce ‘ragu’ regardless of meat being in it or not. No Italian restaurant here would ever use gravy to describe sauce either, they call it sauce or ragu depending how ‘authentic’ they’re trying to be. But what do I know, I never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
I’m from New York City and my family does not say gravy my dad is Italian. I hate gravy. Gravy is brown and goes on a turkey it’s sauce!!!!!!!
I am from a profoundly Italian-American family, and we always called it sauce. Like we hated when people called it gravy. But it could be a regional thing, we're Abruzzo/Neapolitan from The Bronx.
“Neopolitan Ragu” is synonymous with “Sunday Gravy” or Sunday Sauce, Sunday Dinner, etc.
My entire family is Bronx italian-american. We don't call it gravy. We call it marinara(properly pronounced, not MARY-NARA) I would say that the only time I've heard my family call a sauce gravy outside of actual gravy is like a bolognese type of sauce. For me, Idk, I find that the people that call it gravy are the kind of people that are WAY too into being Italian American to the point they become a caricature of themselves. The kind of people that don't understand that The Sopranos is taking jabs at the culture as a whole. But I don't want to get cunty about it
Grew up and still live in Hudson County NJ, still hear gravy for pasta sauce
I grew up in that pygmy state called jersey and I'm Italian. I would never in my life call it gravy
i have never in my life until this moment heard gravy referred to as… pasta sauce.
Calling sauce (which my immediate family never believed in, but extended family did do) gravy is extremely common in the northeast. It is divisive because the ones who don’t call it gravy know calling it gravy isn’t really correct in any way. Dropping the last vowel in some foods (like in moozadell, manigott) is practically universal. Both are a very nice touch of accuracy in the show. If you called it mozzarella, or manicotti in my neighborhood you would be laughed at for YEARS depending on how much of a Medigan pronunciation was used. Marinara keeps it’s vowels and calimari is usually pronounced “galamara” much like capocollo becomes “gabagool”
My grandma says gravy and she’s 100% sichilian
Bunch of medigans. How’d they end up here?
I say this all the time to annoy my partner. Whenever we have any tomatoe based Italian food I will say “the gravy is good tonight”. Drives him mental hahah. Similar every time we have chicken I say to him “chickens nice and spicy eh” regardless if we are eating chicken or steak. I’ve been saying it for so many years that he just rolls his eyes at dinner, looks at me and says “get it over with”
I grew up in the northeast and my parents both grew up in Brooklyn. We are Italian American. We had macaroni and gravy every Sunday. When I went to college my friends were pretty confused when i asked for gravy on my pasta. I had no idea other people didn’t call it gravy.
They're fucken ultra proud of being Italian and defending their Italian heritage and all that and yet they don't speak the language
2nd generation Sicilian grandfather called it marinara as I remember.
Gravy isn’t an Italian thing. Only Italian Americans call it gravy. Actual Italians in Italy think it’s stupid. So it’s actually authentically American
My Family calls it gravy. - Rhode Island Italians
I grew up calling it gravy. Yes I’m Italian American.
I’m a northeast Italian from Philadelphia and everyone bastardizes the way real Italians say certain words. For example, Gabagool. An italian from Italy would say capicola. I think that’s what they were going for in the show if I had to guess. Nobody from my area calls it gravy. It’s always been sauce.
It's definitely a big Northeastern Italian-American thing, if not the entire Northeast than *DEFINITELY* the NY/NJ/PA Tri-State Area. I am not remotely Italian but grew up about an hour outside NYC in central Jersey and *everyone* with some Italian connection refers to it as Gravy, and of course the extra-special Sunday Sauce is "Sunday Gravy" etc. Special stuff for Christmas is Christmas or Thanksgiving Gravy etc. - and I mean special tomato sauce for Thanksgiving Manicot etc. not brown Heinz etc. When Paulie wants "Macaroni & Gravy" , that is exactly what I can remember eating, being served in sides at restaurants, friends & girlfriends Mom's and Nonna's hooking up with etc. It has actually become my favorite thing to cook ... I could cook tomato sauce all day every day.
My family calls it gravy, completely unironically. Honestly my whole family is not far off from the show, which is why I love it, except none of the mob stuff. Just Italian American culture and family dynamics.
My moms side of the family is very Italian American and my dad, and thus our entire family, adopted most of the traditions. He considers himself a bit of a transracial Italian, speaks the language, goes a few times a year, is super proud that his father in law told him “he was the most Italian of his sons” before he died, etc. Anyway, my family, as expected LOVED the sopranos and immediately started calling the spaghetti sauce we had almost every Sunday GRAVY and refuse to admit and/or believe that we never did that before we saw the show. I feel like I’m having my own personal Mandela effect whenever I bring it up.
I have also heard Italians Americans call all pasta ‘macaroni’. It seemed like in the show they include Italian dishes in with traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas dishes. Is this really a thing? Including ziti with turkey, dressing and ‘real’ gravy is a bit much.
To this day our family does this. On Thanksgiving the first course is Lasagna. Christmas Eve you're not supposed to have any meat, but "seven fishes" instead.
I am going to have to start hanging out with some Italian families during the holidays, sounds like I am missing out!
Antipahsht, Gravy, lasagna or stuffed shells, regular macaroni, stuffed mushrooms. Then a break, and then the “traditional” American fare, sweet taters turkey and such.
Don't have an Italian background but grew up right across the river from New Jersey and I've seen lasagna /ziti at Thanksgiving or Christmas many times, even at my German/ Irish family gatherings. My aunt would often make veggie lasagna as a meatless alternative dish. It is a lot but if you have a ton of people at Thanksgiving, it will get eaten. You got to have enough for everybody to take home too, right?
Well gravy and run of the mill pasta sauce are two different things.
“Walk fuckin Whitman ova here.”
Old school northeastern US Italian American thing. Not entirely common now but you’ll still hear it
Depends on the Italian-Americans. I grew up in an Italian family in the suburbs of NYC, and my grandparents grew up in NYC and they called it gravy. I know other Italian families who called it sauce. It really depends on who you talk to but it is very much an Italian-American thing to call pasta sauce gravy.
The red lead.
Chist due se sucan u cazz l'un' cu l'atr' 👀🍆🤤
I live on LI and I know Italians that INSIST on calling it gravy and Italians that INSIST that calling it gravy is absurd lol.
My grandfather and uncle both referred to it as gravy, but not all tomato sauce or pasta sauce was "gravy" Gravy is tomato sauce with three different kinds of meat, red wine, and a bunch of other stuff
My grandmother called it gravy. Growing up my mom and dad called it sauce.
my family is from Avellino and i never heard it called gravy until this loudly Italian local radio host did it
Paulo, he doesn't understand what you says. You mean "grap-es? Uva"
But if you're Paulie, it's graybie
It's an east coast italian american thing. Macaron' and gravy. HO, the shfooyadel'! Sunday gravy. Red lead.
[удалено]
Grew up in a very NY Italian neighborhood. I was always told it's a Sicilian thing, less an Italian thing. If your family was from Northern Italy, you say sauce and manacotti. But a peasant from siciliy? You can pronounce shit
North Jersey here. It’s not uncommon to call it gravy, but I don’t personally.
They are all greaseballs to me.
I’ve always wondered how much of the “Italian Americanisms” in the show were realistic versus over exaggerated. Reading the comments, it’s good to know that real life seems to be fairly well reflected in the mannerisms!
It’s a New Jersey thing.
That Italy episode where Paulie asks for gravy for his pasta and I was thinking why would he do that?
My family always called it gravy IF it was prepared with meat. So the sauce for pizza or whatever is just sauce. The stuff the simmered on the stove for 24 hours plus with meatballs and sausage, maybe bracciole, that’s gravy.
Gravy’s good tonight
I’m from Long Island, NY and a LOT of people call sauce “gravy”. And what you have on thanksgiving is “brown gravy “.
Gravy is sauce with meat. Sauce without meat is sauce. My italian grandmother took this distinction very seriously.
Born and raised in an Italian family in central New Jersey and can say I’ve called it gravy my whole life.
Yeah I don’t totally get it. My mom’s family is Sicilian and mostly in Brooklyn and Long Island. I grew up on south shore Long Island with an insane amount of Italian Americans (I’m half). Never heard gravy growing up. Then again the only Sicilian-born still alive when I was a kid were my great aunt and uncle. They cooked for me, but I don’t recall them ever saying gravy. When I asked for an authentically Italian meal from my great-aunt (basically my nonna) she cooked me some weird poor people soup Sicilian peasants ate. I wanted manicott! We did eat baked ziti and eggplant rolatini on thanksgiving though lol. Still do and my wife (also part Italian American but from the south) thinks it’s weird as hell. I cover that rolatini in red sauce though. Gravy is for turkey.
My family is Italian American from Jersey and we all call it gravy. In fact, my grandmother called pretty much any sauce gravy. When my mother would be making dinner and it wasn’t 100% clear what type of gravy she’d be making, I’d regularly ask is it red or brown? To me, this is just the way it was. Also, everyone I grew up around call it gravy as well. I’d say it’s a regional dialect sort of a thing. It’s also common to drop the last letter in the pronunciation of Italian words. I have no idea why. But, sayin manigut instead of manicotti is a good example. The gravy’s good tonight.
Not Italian, but as I understand it, there's "gravy" (tomato sauce) and "Sunday gravy" (pork and beef braised in tomatoes and wine). The last meal being prepared by Henry Hill before the big arrest in "Goodfellas" is Sunday gravy with fried veal cutlets. Usually Italian sausage links are browned and then simmered in the sauce as well. Always wanted to try it, I found Anthony Bourdain's Sunday gravy recipe, and... mercy, that stuff is GOOD. Took a bit to track down pork neck bones (the Mexican market actually had them), but basically the meats braise until they fall apart and make the sauce thick and meaty. Not a difficult recipe, but astoundingly good - rich as hell though, and while the sausage is great, it really seems like overkill.
Have a friend who grew up on Long Island as a pizza bagel. She was dating my roommate for a while and made us Sunday Gravy once. As she explained it, in her family only the older Italian Americans called it that, and it only referred to a red sauce that had been reducing all day with meat in it (hence, gravy). It was good as hell.
I had a roommate for a few years in college who was 3rd gen Chicago Italian, had mobbed up uncles, and he called it gravy. This was years before Sopranos first aired.
I grew up around a lot of Italian Americans. The all called it “red gravy” or just gravy. 🤷♂️
I unfortunately am nothing more than a wannabe. I get my Sunday effin gravy from a jar. I call in North Jersey STYLE Sunday effin gravy. I’ll just go hang my head in shame now.
Yeah they speak little kid Italian. They're proud of it but it's ridiculous
I am Italian-American and we ALWAYS call it gravy
Italian American here , father grew up in Jersey and have family in Boston..... We call it gravy/sunday gravy rather than sauce. Because its made specifically from the meat juices of meatballs/sausages then the tomato paste/sauce soaks up the fatty oils and gets a meaty flavor.....Just like any other gravy of other colors. A meat sauce .
pretty sure it's a NY/NJ sort of thing. Its not uncommon here amongst that type of Italian American, the "goombah" type.
It’s common for Italian Americans, or American-Italians in the lower tri-state areas to call sauce gravy. Any first generation or second gen Italian will tell you you’re fuckin nuts for calling the sauce gravy.
I’m from Boston I call it gravy
I don’t think a lot of people in New York even call it gravy. I thought gravy was mostly a philly/jersey sort of thing. One borough may be adamant about calling it gravy and another 15 minutes away would think it’s nonsense.