Gianna Finds Her Italian

Foodie-Mom Blog - 9/14/10

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I would have liked her first taste of pasta sauce to be homemade, but I was grateful that there are specialty jarred sauces that taste so homemade that I think even my grandmother would have eaten them.

At three years old, Gianna has finally settled into her ‘Italian’ foodwise, even though she is half Portuguese.

In truth, I thought this moment might have come sooner, like when we were in Italy last winter. Although I’ve been prepared for her culinary revelation, I almost fell over backwards when I actually heard the words come out of her tiny mouth: “Mommy, I’d like some sauce with my pasta.”

There it was: SAUCE, the word I had been waiting to hear for almost a year. How much pasta with butter could she eat? (Not to mention rice with soy sauce, which she gets from my husband, who was born and raised in Hawaii.) Her statement took me back to my childhood. As my Dad and I entered the house after Sunday Mass, fried meat, onions and my mom’s “gravy” that had been cooking for hours, wafted through the air. It perfumed the entire house and always lingered at least until Tuesday—a memory permanently ingrained in my senses.

But if I wanted to seize this moment with Gianna, I had to get my head out of nostalgia and think fast. Times are different. It’s not the 1970s and it’s not Sunday, more like 6 p.m. during the week and I have no time or ingredients to prepare a homemade pot of sauce. My grandmother would probably have turned in her grave if she had known what I was about to do next.

Before I even made it to the cupboard, Gianna was already holding a family-sized jar of Victoria Marinara. Although I really would have liked her first taste of pasta sauce to be homemade—either mine or my mom’s—and I still plan to create a ritual of making a pot of ‘Sunday Gravy,’ I was grateful that there are high-quality specialty jarred sauces that are organic, all-natural and preservative-free. Some taste so homemade that I think even my grandmother would have eaten them.

So, with the water almost at a full boil and a quick trip to the microwave to heat up a few tablespoons of marinara, Gianna was at the table ready to twirl her spaghetti. The verdict: “I love pasta sauce,” she says.

Now if I only can get her to eat a meatball.