>> Lou Maiuri: I can remember
eating ravioli all my life,
and as a kid, my mom made them.
And she always made
them by hand.
I can remember seeing her
make them, cut them out,
and make them by hand.
But my mom could cook anything
and make it taste good,
and I mean anything.
Here's a picture of my
mom just before she died.
She must have been in
her late 40s, there.
This is my dad, here,
about the same year.
You know, when you taste food
that your mom taught you how
to cook, it has to have
a nostalgic tie to be --
when you grow up, it
always reminds you of home.
[ Music ]
>> What is it really
that makes it home?
We tend to think
of home as a place,
as our physical surroundings
and all the things we put
in that place to make
it feel like our own.
But if we move and that
sense of place changes,
the people in our lives can
still give us a similar comfort,
even if they're not
still with us.
>> Lou Maiuri: Really
nice tomatoes.
>> We all have different ways
of remembering our loved ones,
and for Lou, so much of
that is in the garden
and in the kitchen,
keeping up the traditions
that were passed down to him.
>> Lou Maiuri: Well,
if you pick them,
you've got to do
something with them.
I'm kind of proud of my garden.
You know, I'm 92 years
old and still able to get
down here and lay some garden.
>> And Lou is such
a great storyteller.
So whether he's gardening,
or cooking, or anything else,
he will always connect
whatever he's doing back
to certain people.
>> Lou Maiuri: Yeah, my
dad always had a garden.
There the tomatoes, and green
peppers, and things like that
and he raised garlic,
raised his own garlic
and his own sweet basil.
And I used to raise sweet basil
and I used to raise garlic,
but you know, I don't work in
a garden all day like I used
to because I can't,
you know, it's hard
and I just don't have
the physical stamina
that I once had.
You know, I told the doctor,
you know, I work pretty hard,
and he said well,
he said it's better
to wear out than rest out.
That's what he told me.
>> His mom taught
him out to cook.
His dad taught him to
grow the ingredients,
and his wife Jessie taught
him out to can tomatoes.
So when he gets into
making spaghetti sauce,
it becomes this story with all
of these layers about people
who mean so much to him.
>> Lou Maiuri: Twenty-eight
quarts
of spaghetti sauce is all I
make a year, and that does me.
That only takes about 10 quarts
of tomato puree that I make.
I'll be through with these
tomatoes here in a minute.
>> And there's so much effort
that goes into that sauce.
From keeping up the garden
to harvesting the tomatoes
to processing and
canning those tomatoes.
It's just a lot of work before
he even gets around to cooking.
Of course, he could
just buy spaghetti sauce
that tasted pretty good.
But to put in this amount of
work, especially at his age,
it just says so much about what
this particular sauce means.
>> Lou Maiuri: Well, the
spaghetti sauce, you know,
my mom made it and after I
got married and moved away,
I didn't have access to that
unless I'd go back to the house
when she was cooking
and I'd having it there.
And so I decided that I
had to learn to make that.
It's really a good sauce.
I always use six onions
for my two gallon of sauce,
and I always put a
little celery in it, too.
You know, you leave
one thing out,
and it changes the flavor some.
Of course, this is the
way I learned to make it,
and it's just the way I do it.
That's all.
She gave me the recipe for her
sauce, didn't have the amounts
that went into the sauce.
It was pretty hard to
duplicate it because I had --
there was a trial-and-error
thing even though I had
the ingredients.
>> When food gets passed down as
an oral tradition, the methods
or cooking techniques might be
pretty clear, but oftentimes,
the recipes themselves
aren't very precise.
So we rely on our memories
and our personal experiences
to tell us exactly how
to recreate the flavors
that we know so well.
>> Lou Maiuri: Now, the
next thing is the spices.
I knew that she used rosemary,
and oregano, and thyme,
and parsley, and garlic,
and salt, and pepper.
But I you know, a little bit too
much thyme will overload your
spaghetti, or a little bit too
much oregano will overload it,
and I kept experimenting,
you know?
I got it regulated and I
got the taste that I wanted,
and the taste, it
tasted like my mom's.
>> There's a big difference
between making a dish or a sauce
that simply tastes good
and making it in a way
that allows us to associate
it with certain people
and honor the way they made it.
That's true for family
recipes in general,
but it's especially a story you
hear from immigrant families
because when you
move to a new place,
you move to a new country,
you eventually might lose
important parts of your culture.
You might lose your
language over time;
you might lose your music.
So food is often what's
left of your culture.
It makes it so much more
important to get that right.
>> Lou Maiuri: This picture
was taken in 1910, and it hangs
in the railroad museum at
[inaudible], but this was
when my dad first
came to this country
and that's my dad, right there.
My mom and dad were both Italian
immigrants, and my dad came here
when he was 16 years old,
couldn't speak a
word of English.
He went to work on
[inaudible] railroad.
And that was my uncle Tony.
He was already here.
And you see, those are
all Italian immigrants,
and they didn't call
them by name.
They gave them a number,
and that's how they
communicated with them.
Okay? You know, they
were exploited
and taken advantage of, and
considered low-class people.
But back then, there was so
much prejudice, you know?
But growing up in an
Italian family, you know,
they were really
clan-ish back then.
Not by choice, but
out of necessity.
And you know, Italians
associated with Italians.
And I can remember, we
lived in Montgomery.
There were only about five
or six families of Italians
that lived in Montgomery,
and the rest of them lived
over in Smothers and Boomer.
You know, Boomer Hollow
was full of Italians.
And Smothers was an
Italian community,
called it little Italy because
they worked in the coal mines
and that's where they settled.
The Italian families,
they would gather
at somebody's house every
weekend and they would eat,
and play cards, and socialize.
It was kind of a
comfort, you see.
They was all together.
Everybody was comfortable,
you know?
Most of their gatherings
was all around food.
You went to visit an Italian
family, and they put something
on the table to eat, you had to
eat it or they would, you know,
they would be offended.
Of course, this is the Italian
sausage that I use in it.
My mom always used what we call
the lesser cuts of the chicken.
She would fry the good parts,
and she would use the necks
and the wings and the backs to
flavor her spaghetti sauce with.
And you know, I let that
simmer a little bit.
Now, she always made her
sauce with pork and chicken.
She always used two
kinds of meat in hers.
But my mom and dad,
they always raised food
and they always canned food.
I helped my dad raise a garden.
It always puts me in
touch with him, you see.
We'll dig the end of this
row, so we don't have
to get up in that mud.
>> Lou certainly has his
parent's skills of gardening
and cooking and preserving food,
but he also inherited their
strong sense of hospitality,
and you'll see this
if you pay him a visit
because he will insist on
feeding you every single time.
>> Lou Maiuri: And I get these
potatoes out here for you.
>> And if it's summertime, you
will probably get a full tour
of the garden, and he won't
let you leave without a bag
that is full of produce.
>> Lou Maiuri: Let's go down
and get you a couple onions.
Let's walk up this way.
We won't have to
walk on the mud.
>> And if he's making spaghetti
sauce, you will want to go
with him to the cellar when
he gets his canned tomatoes.
The shelves are filled
with hundreds of beautiful,
colorful jars full of food.
There are so many
years of his hard work,
but also so many generations
of family wisdom on display.
>> Lou Maiuri: These are the
juiced tomatoes, you see.
These are what I
make my sauce with.
These are my home
canned tomatoes.
The two-gallon always
needs two quarts of tomato.
>> And Lou is so proud to
use those canned tomatoes
in his sauce, and you know,
he'll also add some tomato paste
and tomato sauce from the store,
but for as long as he's able,
if he can use some of those
tomatoes he canned himself,
it maintained this
important tie.
Not only back to that
whole cycle of gardening
and preserving food, but to
the people he learned from.
>> Lou Maiuri: Some tomatoes
are more acid than others
and mine are usually
pretty acidy
because I cook them
down pretty good.
All we have to do now,
is let it cook down.
So the sauce is done.
So the next thing we'll
do is we'll go ahead
and mix the filling
for the ravioli.
All right.
My mom, she made
ravioli and spaghetti.
She made spaghetti about every
week, but ravioli twice a year.
Okay. Now, here again, I make
my ravioli fillings strictly
by recipe, and it's a recipe
that I got from my mom.
Now, she made two
kinds of ravioli.
She made it with meat -- well,
she actually made three --
and she made them with cheese,
and then she made them a mixed.
Well, I prefer to mix the cheese
and the meat mixed together.
>> Over the years, Amy and
I have shared so many meals
and so many conversations
with Lou.
And every time he talks
about this ravioli,
we might be calling each
other on the phone to talk
about the green beans
growing in our garden,
but he'll still remind
us that we need
to come down for ravioli.
>> Lou Maiuri: You start
out with roast beef.
Now, I always roast beef --
I always roast my beef in the
oven, and this is farm beef,
beef that I got off the farm.
The roast beef changes
the taste.
Now, you fry a hamburger, and
you eat a piece of roast beef,
it has different tastes.
And my mom never made
it with ground beef,
and I want to make it
like my mom made it.
I'll spoon this two
kinds of cheese in here.
Always use Italian cheese.
And then this has to be -- this
has to be mixed up pretty good.
>> And it's not like this
can happen all the time.
It takes a lot of
planning, and Lou kind
of makes an event out of it.
That's how it was when he grew
up eating this ravioli
from his mom.
>> Lou Maiuri: She made them at
Christmas time, she'd made them
at Easter, and she would make
them at special occasions,
if somebody special came in and
she had to do something special.
Of course, after I got
married, you know, I moved away,
and I would still go back
home when she made them.
I'm going to start adding
ingredients to this,
and as I add them, I'll
set them over here,
so I don't forget anything.
You see? And you know, when
you get old, you forget.
So there's the cheese, and
one-half cup of Roman cheese.
Okay. That's a quarter cup.
>> Lou makes his ravioli
over the course of two days.
On the first day, he
makes the filling,
and that extra time allows
for all the flavors to settle.
But also, ravioli is just
such a long, involved process.
So especially if
you're making the sauce,
it's just way too much
to fit into one day.
>> Lou Maiuri: Now, let's
go make a ton of ravioli.
This will make 50 big ones.
Okay.
Now, we'll add eggs
to the mixture.
That don't look like it's
fit to eat, but I swear --
-- it's really good.
My left arm gets weak,
and I've got to put it
down below me for a minute.
It's almost mixed.
I'd say that's about done.
All right.
We'll go ahead and
just start, here,
and make the skins
for the ravioli.
We'll start out with this
recipe that I use that calls
for four cups of flour.
>> And the next morning, Lou
makes the dough for the pasta.
It's really just a simple,
four-ingredient recipe,
but it is still a
lot of hard work.
>> Lou Maiuri: My mom used
to -- when she made them,
she made them with
only the egg yellows,
but I use the whole
egg when I make it.
So I'll break six
eggs into here.
Even with six eggs, you have to
add about one eggshell of water
to make enough moisture
for a good mix.
Make the little place in the
flour, here, and I'm going
to pour these eggs
right in there.
>> For his age, Lou
is incredibly active,
but being almost 93 is
still taking its toll.
>> Lou Maiuri: Starting
to get there, now.
>> It makes it harder and
harder to pull this off.
>> Lou Maiuri: To change arms.
I don't much strength
in my right arm at all,
and my old age, I lost all
my muscle in my right arm.
>> And that makes you
appreciate it more.
It makes it so that it
doesn't have to happen
on a holiday for
it to be special.
>> Lou Maiuri: Nowadays, they've
got machines to mix this with,
but I've always done it by hand.
I've never used a
machine to mix with.
Now, it's getting there.
Now, I get my mom's rolling pin.
I know this rolling pin
is at least 100 years old.
And when you're rolling this
out, I'll show you in a minute.
You kind of have to
stretch this dough.
Now, this is the way I've
always made them all my life.
And you can see from this,
that this recipe makes enough
to feed a good-sized family.
You know, about three or four
of these is all you could eat
at a meal by the time you've
had your salad and other stuff.
We're just about ready to
start cutting, my friend.
And they have to -- we have
to leave a little bit of edge
on them because if
you don't, you know,
you don't room to crimp them.
It's very time consuming to
make them, because you know,
you have to go around
each one of them.
But you know, it
really takes time,
but it doesn't take time either.
These things will come
apart in the cooker
if you don't crimp them.
You see? So I go along and I
crimp every one of them by hand.
Now buddy, there's the
finished product on the ravioli.
And we'll put these
babies in there, now.
You have to be kind of gentle
when you put them in there.
You can't just flop
them in there.
Those things expand quite a bit
when you put them in the heat.
See, they'll be about
like that when I cut them.
They expand to twice as big.
That's why I say, if you
eat three of them at a meal,
you've got to be pretty hungry.
And homemade pasta has
altogether a different taste
than store bought pasta.
And you know, my mom, she would
fix -- usually once a week,
she would fix three-course
meals.
And she was having fried
chicken and another thing,
she'd have a plate of
spaghetti as an appetizer.
Eat your spaghetti first,
then you ate your meal.
So cooking was very
important in Italian families.
I think we can start
getting this stuff out, now.
Now, we'll let these drain
because sometimes they
fill up with water.
The water is hard to get out
of them, but we lucked out.
This time they all
stayed together.
We didn't have one
separate in there.
Okay. Now, we'll put them
in the pot, over here,
and we'll put some
sauce on those.
Now, we'll cover these in sauce,
that way it will keep them
from sticking together.
>> Amy and I have collected
lots of seeds and recipes
that have been handed
down for many generations.
And we don't always have
the chance to interact
with tradition bearers as
they're growing the plants
and cooking these
dishes, but when we do,
and when we hear the stories,
it changes the way we
relate to that food.
>> Lou Maiuri: All
right, here we go.
We're ready to put
this on the table, now.
>> You know, I've only seen
Lou's parents through pictures,
but when I eat this ravioli,
and when I open a jar
of Lou's spaghetti
sauce, I think about them,
and I almost feel
like I know them
because they live on
through this food.
>> Lou Maiuri: Folks, I
guess we're ready to eat.
Here we go.
Bless us -- bless us, oh Lord,
these thy gifts which we are
about to receive by bounty.
Thank you, Lord, for this day
and this good fellowship
and good friends.
And be sure and bless the ones
that prepared it
and provided it.
These favors I ask in your name.
Amen.
>> Amen.
>> Lou Maiuri: I know
some of it will be lost,
but the spaghetti sauce and
the ravioli, when I pass it
down to my family, they
have recipes and I'm sure
when I'm gone, they'll
carry on and do it.
Here we go.
Them things really swell
up after you cook them.
It means a lot to me
because it keeps me in touch
with where I came from
and my roots, you know?
And it's kind of like going
back in time for a visit
when I'm able to
make these recipes
that my mom handed down to me.
And it means a lot to me.
This is just about as
Italian as you can get.
Mike and I have been
talking about these raviolis
for two or three years.