Sunday Dinner

Matt's POV

Growing up in an Irish Catholic family, I've experienced many traditions. However, there are none like the concept of the Sunday dinner... or, "Sunday dinnah," if pronounced correctly. Marrying into an Italian family has exposed me to numerous things, but few are as fun (and tasty) as the Sunday dinner. What is this, you ask? If you want to get together with family and friends and eat pasta (macaroni) and sauce (gravy) at a relatively early time on a Sunday afternoon, this is for you. I never knew much Italian until I met Allie. Now, I know a range of Italian words: basilico, ajada, fongool, spaghetti, tagliatelle, all said while wildly gesturing with my hands or while under-handedly clasping my index and middle finger in front of my chest with a limp wrist. It's silly, but I have really tried to embrace the Italian side of the family and make their culture a part of my culture because, well, it's fun. I spent last night (eventually) successfully bringing together a pasta dough, and I spent a couple of hours this morning rolling out pasta dough and shaping raviolis with my in-laws. All in anticipation of Sunday dinner. And they ended up tasting pretty damn good, too (assist goes to the mother-in-law's sauce). If you haven't experienced a legit Sunday dinnah with an Italian family, I encourage you to befriend an Italian... because you're going to get an invite at some point. And if you live in an area without a decent concentration of Italians, Google Mario Bitali's pasta dough recipe, make a simple gravy (AKA tomato sauce), and eat at 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. Make sure to involve family (and maybe a little wine) somehow. Because hanging with the fam on a Sunday afternoon while eating Italian food is a lot of fun.

Stereotypical Italian Music