Having Thanksgiving in Italy was a whirlwind of emotions. First I missed my parents, I missed the smell of my parents house, and all of our traditions leading up to turkey day and after turkey day. But, at some point you have to make your own traditions and to be honest, I would have been back in America for Thanksgiving this year if it wasn’t for all the travel restrictions and the fact that I am in a “zona gialla” here in Italy.
But after spending an hour in our local supermarket trying to find things that you can use to substitute the Thanksgiving things that are easy to find and accessible to us in the US, I decided to make a list.
Firs things first, the Turkey.
Turkey
Luckily, my butcher knows where I come from and he is familiar with the “tacchino per del Giorno del Ringraziamento”. I asked him to get me the smallest turkey he could find.. and last year I received a 12kg turkey, and this year I was blessed with a 16kg turkey! Madonna!
But, if you are not friendly with your local butcher, most stores do have petto di tacchino (turkey breast) all year round. I love turkey!
No good turkey goes uneaten without Cranberry sauce..
Cranberries (this struggle is real)
Cranberries directly translates to Mirtilli Rossi. Mirtilli are blueberries, and that makes all kinds of sense in my head, because the Italian language is so literal. But, I still haven’t been able to find mirtilli rossi anywhere, and honey I have checked fruttivendolo, supermarkets, farmers markets, but, there is nothing. The internet says they exist but, I’m not 100% sure.
I was given advice to try sour, red ribes (current berries). I was a little skeptical because, they are small and super sour. I mean I like them a whole lot. But, I wasn’t sure. In short, they are the perfect substitution. You can find them everywhere in Italy. I made a cranberry compote with mine…
Along side the Turkey and Cranberry Dressing… You need Stuffing. Ci vuole!
Stuffing
Don’t waste you time circling the grocery stores in Italy. Boxed stuffing doesn’t exist, end point. trying to find a box of stuffing mix in Italy is a moot point. The word “stuffing” doesn’t even translate. The only way I could explain it is really just a “ripieno” which is a catch all for something that you “stuff/place” inside of another food.
But, you can make the cornbread stuffing with no problems from scratch. But, we need to talk about corn meal:
Corn Bread
With much regret, I have never seen cornbread anywhere in Italy. We have a flour that is for polenta. Polenta is cornmeal and Grits all in one 2kg package! Usually this is ground a little bit more coarser, because they stone ground a lot of flour here. And this Polenta is actually a dish just like Grits. In fact here in Trentino they make it very dense to go with sausage and peppers and bratwurst, pretty much everything. And traveling further down the coast you get more of a creamy polenta, much like our grits. I have heard that in Tuscany they even have white corn meal (polenta). You can use this recipe for a cornbread, I make it all the time with polenta.
Now onto the sides:
Sweet Potatoes (Yams)
Sweet potatoes here are strange. I found some in a high end fruttivendolo here in my region. I was never a big sweet potato casserole fan, and the general consensus here is that they don’t like them. So I didn’t even bother. I still buy the sweet potatoes, because I love to eat them baked with just a little bit of cinnamon. With the Sweet Potatoes makes me think of Marshmallows…
Marshmallows
I personally have never looked for these sugary puffs of sugar (LOL!) And come to think of it I have never seen them by chance either. And I frequent the chocolate aisle, mamma’s gotta buy her pocket coffee! But, thinking on this, I think that I would look at Lidl for having marshmallows, Lidl is a little bit more international in their variety of food selections. Continuing on with the Sugary theme. Brown Sugar.
Brown Sugar
Brown sugar is usually carried in all of the Italian supermarket chains. The closest I could find for a while was something called zucchero di canna (coarsely-granulated raw sugar). Then one day I found the word “Fine” and that is finely ground brown sugar. You can substitute either one for any recipe you have, but I like the finer blend.
Pumpkin
Pumpkin is a big seller here. We do all kinds of things with pumpkin, risotto, baked, puree, you name it. Almost all grocery stores and markets sell it whole, pre-sliced, or frozen. Here we call pumpkin “Zucca” or “zucca gialla”. But! You will not find it canned and ready to make your pumpkin pie. You need to buy your pumpkin, fresh, pre-sliced or frozen and make the puree. Then you can use this recipe for making a Pumpkin Pie from scratch. And this brings me to Pie Crust.
Pie Crust
I searched high and low for pie crust. Mainly because I had no idea where the hell to find Crisco to make a pie crust. But knowing that you can substitute butter for crisco. I decided to run a few trials with a butter based pie crust. That pie crust has been the best to make here, with the ingredients I have here. Yet, if you do not want to make one, Pastafrola (Pasta frolla) is your best option. I have seen this for sale in the bigger supermarkets, pre made.
Crisco
Oh Dear God and Sweet Baby Jesus! About two weeks ago I found Crisco!!!!! It was late one night, and I couldn’t sleep, so I was watching food network (like always) and there was a show about the best cannolo in Sicily. Well one chef had mentioned something about Lo Strutto. I thought, what the heck is strutto. I googled it and found out it is just like CRISCO!!!!!!!!! That was the last missing piece of my baking life. All the biscuits I have made here with butter are good. but, Crisco, you just can’t beat the crisco texture!
So that is my little cheat sheet for thanksgiving. If you have questions let me know. I’m thinking about making a list of Flour differences as well.