AS AN Irish/Italian American growing up in northern New Jersey, I viewed March as a month of dueling saints: Patrick and Joseph. A Sunday-sauce type of family, we endured corned beef and cabbage only once a year; the foods of Sicily were much more prominent on our table.
Many people around the world know St. Joseph as the humble carpenter who was Christ’s father on earth. In Sicily, he is the patron saint credited with ending famine during a drought in the Middle Ages, bringing rain and making the land once again productive. The populace, in gratitude for their answered prayers, promised to honor him each year with an abundant feast.
Observant Sicilians festoon altars with food in their homes as well as in churches, schools and public spaces. Each offering holds symbolic significance. Loaves of bread take the shape of wreaths, hearts, crosses and even carpenter’s tools. Mounds of dried fava beans—remembered as the first crop to return after Joseph brought the rains—represent abundance, resilience and hope. Foods such as artichokes, chickpeas, fennel, citrus, figs, tomatoes and cardoons reflect Sicily’s bounty. And there’s always a vast spread of pastries—zeppole, cannoli, cookies and cakes. (St. Joseph also happens to be the patron saint of pastry chefs.)
Another important part of the day is feeding the hungry by bringing food to and volunteering at churches, shelters, nursing homes and soup kitchens. At home, the festive spread includes foods featured on the altar, pastas and fish (never meat, as this is the Lenten season).
In the U.S., nowhere is this saint’s day celebrated more elaborately than in New Orleans, a hub of Sicilian immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My own interest in the holiday was reignited after a St. Joseph’s Day visit to the restaurant Avo, in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, where I was delighted to find a painstakingly assembled altar as well as a lavish St. Joseph’s feast cooked by one of the city’s most talented chefs.
The Link LonkMarch 11, 2021 at 09:19PM
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This Pasta Is a Party Waiting to Happen - The Wall Street Journal
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Pasta
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