Wide world of Italy

Esquire's John Mariani plumbs contadini cuisine

by Johnette Rodriguez

When the Harvard Common Press proposed to food writer and Esquire columnist John Mariani that he write a 100-year history of Italian-American food, he knew he didn't want it to be merely a collection of recipes from family and friends. He wanted to look at the whole phenomenon of contadini -- the southern Italian farmers who comprised most of the Italian emigrants to Providence and other Northeast cities at the turn of the 19th-century before moving west with their language, traditions, and most influentially, food. The results can be found in The Italian-American Cookbook, written by Mariani with his wife, Galina.

Speaking during a recent dinner at Raphael Bar-Risto in Providence, Mariani reminded his audience that many of the foods perceived as typically Italian were actually introduced by early explorers returning from the New World. Tomatoes, for example, came to Italy in the late 17th- and early 18th-centuries, although they didn't reach the northern part of the country until the late 19th-century. Potatoes, peppers and corn (think polenta) also came from the Americas. But once here, "The immigrants looked to American markets and found different ingredients," Mariani noted. "Their plates of pasta grew to match American proportions; they found plenty of fresh meat; foods were abundant."

The Italian-American Cookbook was completed in just seven months, with help from the couple's "two teenage boys who ate up the evidence." The Marianis included his mother's cheesecake, Galina's meat sauce, his father's Thanksgiving stuffing, and his grandmother's struffoli -- fried honey balls -- and her zeppole -- what are called doughboys in Rhode Island, not the cream-filled zeppole of St. Joseph's Day.

In a post-prandial conversation, Mariani, described the research as the most enjoyable part; "And to think through what Italian-American food and culture mean, not to be mistaken for Italian food. Don't throw up your hands and say, `It's just Americanized!' That doesn't mean it can't be good."

Mariani accordingly draws on chefs from St. Louis, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, Boston, and, yes, Providence -- with an adapted version of George Germon and Johanne Killeen's spicy roasted sausages and grapes. And the chefs, like the duo from Al Forno, aren't always Italian-American: Mariani includes an East-meets-West oxtail stew from Ming Tsai, of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

The Italian-American Cookbook is nothing if not informative, with 150 sidebars that range from cooking tips and the history of Italian-American food companies, such as Ragu and Progresso, to quotes from such Italian-Americans as Sophia Loren and Mario Cuomo, and Mariani's personal reminiscences about Christmas dinners with his family in the Bronx and listening to Toscanini records with his father. It also includes more than three dozen historic photographs and an extensive essay on "How to tell an Italian restaurant from an Italian-American restaurant."

Raphael's, with chef-owner Ralph Conte in the kitchen, turned out a fabulous dinner composed exclusively of recipes from Mariani's book. Highlights included tuna carpaccio with chives and asparagus spears wrapped with prosciutto; a delicious pan-seared halibut atop pureed potatoes and arugula; beef braciola with polenta; and perfectly poached pears in red wine.

This was by no means Mariani's first exposure to the Providence food scene. His brother and his family have lived here since the '70s, and local restaurants have frequently found their way into his annual list of the best new restaurants in America. The writer can name a dozen places he's known and loved for years, beginning with Haven Brothers and pizza at Little John's in Cranston, moving on to Al Forno, New Rivers, and L'Epicureo. He has fond memories of the Bluepoint and Leo's. More recent discoveries include Raphael's, XO Cafe, Cafe Nuovo, the Gatehouse, and Walter's La Locanda del Coccio.

Asked by a diner at Raphael's about a certain Manhattan eatery, Mariani replied emphatically that it's not as good as most of the restaurants in Providence, and he also waxed ecstatic about the Italian markets here. "I was wowed when I went to Venda Ravioli," he remarked. "You find things there you couldn't have found anywhere 15 years ago. There is nothing resembling that in Westchester County, where I live. You'd have to go as far as Fordham, in the Bronx."

Mariani is thrilled that most people can now find authentic Italian ingredients to use in their own homes, items such as virgin olive oil, true Parmigiano Reggiano, imported wines, polenta, and prosciutto di Parma, which was allowed into the US only in the 1980s. He pointed out that the crostini with pureed beans and prosciutto served at Raphael's might have been, 10 or 15 years ago, a "not very good Italian bread with garlic salt and paprika on it -- this crostini is emblematic of other things."