Italian Thanksgiving Traditions

I’m a quarter Italian.  I wish I was more.  It’s a goal I have always strived for but will never been able to achieve.  I would even settle for one of those cool Italian last names that many of my high school classmates had like Gatta, Salvatore, or Vigorito.  At least then I would appear full-blooded to others.  But no, I have a Welsh last name instead.  I can’t even fake Italian.

Fortunately, I did have the opportunity to grow up in an Italian family with the traditions and cuisine

Italian Wedding Soup

that accompanies it.  I lived within blocks of all of my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and countless cousins.  All from my Italian quarter.  Fridays were for homemade pizza and pasta fagioli made by my Grandpa (He’s where the quarter comes from).  Sundays were for spaghetti and meatballs at my grandparents after church.  If they were out of town, I hopscotched around the neighborhood on my bike dropping in at the dinner tables of my various relatives.  They always had a spot for one more, especially if a bribed them with a bottle of Dad’s homemade wine.  On Christmas Eve, the entire family (some 40 of us) descended on someone’s basement for our traditional family dinner.  But that’s a blog for a future date.  This blog focuses on the traditional Italian Thanksgiving.

So what does our Italian Thanksgiving look like?  It’s really not that much different than the American tradition.  I used to joke that we stuffed our turkey with spaghetti and meatballs, but we don’t.  We used to start the meal with a course of spaghetti somewhere between the soup and turkey, but not anymore.  There were just too many starches along with the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.  The only Italian themes that still remain are Grandma’s wedding soup, the homemade wine, and Italian sausage studded stuffing.  The rest is typical – deep fried turkey, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, apple pie, etc, etc. 

For those not familiar with wedding soup, it is very similar to chicken soup except with greens and tiny meatballs in it.  It’s served with parmesan cheese as an accompaniment.  I’ve learned that wedding soup is prepared much like Sunday gravy.  Each cook has their own twist.  My family uses homemade dumplings instead of noodle. 

So there you have it.  Our tradition is not that much different than most Thanksgiving traditions.  What is unique about your Thanksgiving dinner?