An Italian Tries ITALIAN-AMERICAN FOOD

An Italian Tries ITALIAN-AMERICAN FOOD for the First Time

Italian food and Italian-American food are not always the same thing. When Italian immigrants came to America, they had to adapt their cuisine to the ingredients available to them.

In short, my native Italian wife has been completely unexposed to a variety of classic "Italian" dishes. Today, I'm showing her some of my favorites to get her thoughts and examine how these dishes developed out of the old world cuisine.

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00:00 Introduction
01:06 Baked Ziti Recipe by Lidia Bastianich
02:59 Trying Baked Ziti
06:47 Stromboli Recipe by NOT ANOTHER COOKING SHOW
09:46 Trying Stromboli
12:30 Chicken Parmesan Recipe by Babish Culinary Universe
14:33 Trying Chicken Parm
17:52 Cotoletta alla Bolognese
21:54 Ciao for Now!

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[NOTANOTHERCOOKINGSHOW]

Grazie Mille!! Much love to you both. 🤌🏼

[TheMrFarkle]

When Eva circles her fork with a big smile, I know that's a "must cook" recipe!

[lifeinkorea]

A lot of people believe Italian food is tasty because there are a lot of ingredients. But they don't understand that the reason why it's tasty is because there are less ingredients than in any other cuisine. Love from Korea 🇰🇷💕

[andrearigano]

I'm 100% Sicilian, I don't know if it's traditional but my grandma made a cutlet with veal, pork or rarely chicken with cheese, tomato sauce and peas on top. And she added some butter in the pan or in the oven tray, it depends on where she decided to cook them. So exists in the Italian cuisine something very similar to the chicken parm, but never with pasta like side dish or with a plantation of garlic, we don't have to kill vampires, after all we live in Italy not in Transylvania.

[josephpanzarella]

Veal Parmigiana was enormously popular when I was growing up in NY. It didn't transfer to the rest of the country because everyone cried at the thought of baby cows. So it evolved into the very American dish "Chicken Parm". ("Parm" is more pronouncable to people in the US.)
But Eggplant Parmigiana is popular both in Italy and in the US.

[carolynmeister]

My grandmother came to the US from Northern Italy in 1906 with her parents. I remember regularly eating ravioli, made by my grandmother and aunts. We ate sauce with spaghetti and never did we have baked ziti or pizza. We had veal parmesan once for a special occasion. Because they were immigrants and didn’t have a lot of money, most of the food we ate was very simple and did not often have meat. Never did we garlic bread, either. Any chance that you would be interested in doing a video on ravioli making?

[robstlace]

Eva, potrei essere nata in Italia, ma sono cresciuta in America. Vederti cucinare mi ha riportato alle mie radici. Ho cambiato molti metodi dopo averti visto cucinare. Grazie!

[jillcnc]

I would like to see Eva go to New Jersey and cook with Grandma Gina of the Buon-a-Pettiti channel. She's from Puglia -- a different part of southern Italy. We could then see how the regions differ and they would probably have fun together.

[christopherlupone]

I am an Italian-American, raised by a family who acted as if they knew everything about Italy, even though most of them had never been there. Actually going to Italy and seeing how Italians live and eat was a revelation! And speaking of eating, I’m eating up (visually) your podcast episodes!

[floki]

I'm from the North of Italy and it's actually pretty common to put butter in tomato sauce, in the north we use buttera lot and in the south they use oil, just to stick to the tradition of using what you have fresh around you.

[SteveScapesYT]

I think the guy for Italian American is Sip and Feast. His clear appreciation for core simplicity of authentic Italian, but also his clear understanding and heritage in the Italian American, and New York Italian American food lets him span that gap. Plus just great recipes. His Chicken Parm is so much simpler than Babish, who’s just needlessly bombastic with Italian.

[vittocincotta]

Eva's reactions brought back memories. My father's parents came from Stromboli. My mother's came from Naples. They each cooked for us in either Sicilian or southern Italian styles. Each of them thought it was mandatory to explain what was different with the dish compared to their parent's versions which was usually hysterical. 57 years later I try to cook like both of them however I will never EVER put peas in my aglio e olio. Sorry Pop, can't do it. Thanks for the memory!

[anitafaccenda]

Every time I say:" this is so garlicky!" someone looks at me to say:" but you're Italian!" so I share your video about how Italians use garlic. Thank you for solving a lot of my problems 😁

[Rachel-ujvq]

My grandma was full Italian, i unfortunately didnt not have much of a relationship with my with her before she died. I am learning so many interesting things from your channel. My mom( who isn't Italian) puts her chicken parm on a bed of rice instead of pasta, she dosen't deep fry the chicken either, she sears it with some green peppers and olive oil, then puts it and the tomatoe sauce in a baking dish and tops it with mozzarella and parmesan. That way the chicken can cook the rest of the way and its not as dry or heavy. Oh and she also uses thighs instead of chicken breast. I am look forward to catching up on your video's and learning more!

[GabbzNEW]

Eva, my grandma never made chicken parmesan.
We had chicken cutlets, and we had pasta...not together.
My 1st experience of chicken parmesan was actually school cafeteria....the worst. At least Harper gave you the best version of these recipes.

I thank God every day for you & your recipes. I haven't had REAL Italian food since Nona Nunziata!

[aleksandarljustina]

I'm glad 'Not Another Cooking Show" was on this list. It's one of my favorite channels and the guy has some really good stuff. Eva is the authority on what's good and what's not so to get her approval made my day.

[poundpound]

After watching countless Italian cooks, they have taught me one important lesson, 15:43 'too many elements' is not the way to go. Italian dish is about simplicity.

[judycolella]

My husband and his family came over on the Andrea Doria from Arce, Italy. My mother-in-law made a chicken cutlet dish that she didn't call "chicken parmesan, " but which was similar in many ways. She used a knife to cut the chicken breast width-wise, making it a large cutlet, then used the edge of the knife on both sides to tenderize it. Then she dipped it in egg, then breadcrumbs, then egg, and then breadcrumbs again. She lightly sautéed in olive oil, purposely not cooking it all the way through, then put it on a baking sheet. Over the top of the cutlets she put a layer of her homemade "gravy" (an exquisite, simple sauce made from her own canned tomatoes, a small amount of minced garlic, fresh basil, a dash of salt and olive oil poured over an inexpensive cut of beef and simmered gently for exactly two hours). On top of that she put a layer of fresh mozzarella from the Italian shop down the street from her house, and some sliced mushrooms. She baked it for about 20 minutes until the chicken was cooked through, and wow. It almost melted in your mouth it was so tender. The flavor was delicate and no, she didn't serve it over pasta. That was an earlier course in the meal. It was always amazing, and the reason why I watched her like a hawk when she cooked. My husband now enjoys the same dishes as his mother served, and is the one thing he never complains about, lol.

[GrecoCalabrese]

I grew up in an Italian American family in New York (Staten Island and Brooklyn) and I think its important to note that there is a pretty big difference between actual Italian-American food that real Italian Americans eat vs food that regular Americans eat which they call Italian. My grandmother never used that much garlic or garlic bread or any of this shit, I would say the biggest difference between the food we made and that in Italy was more meat.

[dangallagher]

This video is very informative and makes me feel refreshed regarding cooking Italian. I've cooked a lot of food from cookbooks like Lydia's and found them too unnecessarily mingled with ingredients like carrots in tomato sauce. I'm inspired to go back to Italy and simply eat everything... Thank you to a wonderful couple.