Origins of 6 More Classic Italian Meat Dishes

When Italian immigrants arrived in America, higher wages and cheaper food allowed them to eat like never before. The only problem? They didn’t know what it was like to eat in abundance. The solution was to create many new dishes. Like pasta sauces, Italian immigrants created new sauces for meat like veal and chicken. So, which meat dishes originated in Italy, and which were invented in America?

Here are the origins of 6 more classic Italian meat dishes:

Alla Francese

The term literally means “in the French style.” For Italian Americans, “French style” is a cutlet battered in egg, fried, and served with a sauce made from lemons, white wine, parsley, and garlic. While Americans are accustomed to trays of chicken Francese served at catering halls and wedding buffets, the recipe is completely unknown in Italy. However, sauce made with wine and lemon is a common topping for German-style schnitzel. The blend of German and Italian immigrants in cities like New York might explain the origin and a confusing connection to the French. Neither the French nor Italians serve a chicken in the French style!

Alla Parmigiana

Served over veal, chicken, shrimp or even eggplant, “alla parmigiana” preparation has been a favorite in America for over a century, both as meat entrée and a hero sandwich. The term originates from Sicily with eggplant, but looked differently than how you might know it. Melanzane alla parmigiana was baked with cheese but no sauce, and the term “parmigiana” doesn’t indicate Parmigiano Reggiano, but the shape of the sliced eggplant. The long slices look like the heavy shutters used to keep out the sun, and in dialect, sounds phonetically like “parmigiana”. By the twentieth century, Italian American restaurateurs appealing to German immigrants began serving a German-style schnitzel - a breaded cutlet, topped with tomato sauce and cheese. While similar to the Milanese cotoletta, the cut of meat is similar to what is used in German schnitzel. Veal parmigiana was a popular restaurant dish in New York City in the 1930s, and in post-war America it became synonymous with Italian American cuisine, but is unknown in Italy.

Scarpariello 

The term roughly translates to “the shoemaker's sauce,” but may simply refer to origins from the shoemaking district of Naples. However, most sources suggest the dish is of American origin, or at least far more popular in the United States than it ever was in Italy. It became well liked during the 1980s when it became a trendy food fad. Scarpariello combines sausages, peppers, onions, vinegar, and white wine to build a sauce for chicken, usually on the bone. 

Alla Pizzaiola

Steak Pizzaiola is an Italian American dish made with a low cost cut of beef braised in a rich tomato sauce. It was popular in the first years of the twentieth century when Italians arrived in the United States, but less popular by the mid-century. The origins of this dish come from Naples where Carne alla Pizzaiola means “meat in the style of the pizza makers” where pizza had grown to be a staple of working-class Naples in the nineteenth century. Braising meat in a tomato-based sauce helps tenderize cheap cuts, also meaning it was a working-class staple. In Naples, pork is frequently used rather than beef. 

Cacciatore 

Cacciatore is a chicken dish known as “hunter’s stew,” with various ingredients added based on local availability, typically containing root vegetables. The chicken is braised in a sauce. The recipe is old enough for Artusi to include Pollo alla Cacciatora in the nineteenth century volume of Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. However, the origins of the dish may actually be French, known as Poulet Chasseur. Italian American variations draw inspiration from Southern Italian cuisine, meaning the sauce often includes tomatoes or tomato paste. 

Tetrazzini 

Chicken or Turkey “Tetrazzini” is named for the opera singer, Luisa Tetrazzini, who sang across the country in the first decades of the twentieth century. The original version referred to a sauce with mushrooms, cream, parmigiana cheese, and bread crumbs, served over meat and spaghetti. The earliest recipes appear between 1908 and 1910, when Louisa Tetrazzini arrived in the United States. Hotel chefs in both San Francisco and New York City have been credited with inventing the dish around that time, but it only gained popularity in the 1930s as a hotel restaurant staple. Eventually, it evolved from a sauce to a casserole, a decidedly American invention promoted by canned soup companies to sell products like cream of mushroom soup. Although Tetrazzini lends her name, there is no clear indication she ever ate the dish, nor does the recipe appear on a list of her favorite foods published in a pamphlet, The Sunday American Cook Book.