The author of this article, looking very confused on her first Italian Thanksgiving. She was forced to pose while holding turkey and being photographed paparazzi style.for a solid 15 minutes.

While Thanksgiving is deservingly the most American of holidays- there is something particularly Italian about it. Perhaps it is the heaps of food, the merriment, the familial chutzpah that makes Thanksgiving my favorite American holiday. And also, the fact that no advanced gift purchasing and wrapping is required. I hate gifts—both giving and receiving them. But I love food. Thusly for all of the years I have lived in Europe- six total now- I have celebrated Thanksgiving with gusto.

There are a few notable Thanksgiving celebrations that stand out. I spent one memorable Thanksgiving with a group of French Zumba instructors who thought my pumpkin pie was amazing, even though it was more of a butternut squash mascarpone semifreddo that bore no resemblance to the American original. I fear a half dozen French fitness instructors are now pouncing around Grenoble raving about a truly American no-bake pumpkin cake.

I also hosted a maddeningly fabulous Thanksgiving in Agerola the first year I lived there. Many of my ancient nonna guests were thoroughly mystified when I insisted on roasting the Turkey whole. They had that frustrating Italian habit of taking any international dish of merit, viewing it through provincial Italian eyes and proclaiming- well, it’s basically ragù….cacciatore…. lasagna…pasta al forno with different spices. It’s happened when I served Mexican mole, Ashekenazi noodle kugle, Hungarian goulash and Pad Thai. So it was that when I began trussing and stuffing my Agerolese Turkey, a 95 year old neighbor attempted to wrestle the bird from my grip and butcher it into wing, thigh and breast pieces.

“It will never cook whole!” she screamed in an authoritative tumble of mountain dialect, “we’ll make cacciatore. Just let me do it.”

On most days I am happy to let the geriatric lady chefs of Italy do it their way. They certainly do a hell of a job. But as my Italian companions have come to discover over the years, I get ONE day, just ONE day per year to cook things my way. And in return for giving me Thanksgiving- these same Italians reserve the right to decline my attempts at pozole, pho, nasi goreng and moqueca and injera.

My Thanksgivings have gradually absorbed some notable nods to my Italian culture, while also retaining the essential Americanness of the holiday. I will never butcher my turkey turning it into dinosaur sized cacciatore. I will never serve pasta as a primo at a Thanksgiving meal. What a waste of stomach space when there is stuffing! I will never substitute cranberry sauce with ragù nor pumpkin pie for tiramisu.

What I will do is serve Taurasi wine with turkey and stud my stuffing with porcini mushrooms. Below you will find my ways of making the spectacularly American holiday of Thanksgiving just a little bit Italian.

A group of Southern Italians carefully considering their thoughts on Cranberry Sauce.

1) Serve an Antipasti Tray

A perfect way to keep hungry guests out of the kitchen and away from your roasting turkey. Especially if said guests are geriatric know-it-all Italian nonnas who will do everything in their power to sabotage your whole roasted turkey. To distract them from poking, prodding, coaxing and butchering my big bird, I serve a colorful antipasti board and ask them to tell me their recipes for ragù. On my board, I include rolled prosciutto, marinated grilled pumpkin, marcona almonds, crostini, Reggiano Parmesan and an oozing Robiola. If you are feeling ‘extra’ make fall bruschetta to include pumpkin, porcini and chestnut topped toasted bread.

2) Make a Savory Pumpkin Dish

Pumpkin pie gets all the love on Thanksgiving as well it should. But Italians are more accustomed to enjoying savory pumpkin dishes. I like to serve it both ways. Consider grilling a pumpkin side dish- check out our recipe here or make a pumpkin bruschetta.

3) Serve an Italian Red

When roasted, Turkey, especially the dark meat, pairs perfectly with an unctuous Italian red. I live in the South and thus will suggest a Taurasi or the noble Pallagrello Nero. A full Campania red wine guide is here.

4) Use Mushrooms

And I don’t mean button or cremini mushrooms. Make use of the rich dried porcini, soaking it in hot water and chopping into your stuffing. The soaking liquid has the added benefit of enriching stock which you might use for your gravy or stuffing. If you are fancy and serve a soup prior to your Thanksgiving feast, you may consider a Porcini Soup.

5) Take Pictures in front of your roasted turkey like its a wedding cake

Italians have this fun habit of taking really staged photos in front of birthday cakes, baptism cakes and wedding cakes at a decorated table full of confetti and goody bags. Guests pose with birthday boys, girls and wedding couples in front of whatever cake is being served at said celebration. I have learned that they also do this when a roast turkey is in the house. When I first hosted my Italian Thanksgiving, neighbors and extended family queued in front of the roasted bird to have their portrait taken. I suggest you do the same.

6) Gaze Quizzically at Cranberry Sauce

Make a face at it. Reluctantly and unceremoniously heap a glob in the middle of your plate. Frown and furrow brows when your American host explains the culinary merits of cranberry sauce are really not so different from say, gremolata. Grimace when your host asks if you want more.

7) Benedict the Bird

Say a Padre Nostro, throw holy water at it, pray over it. Ask your host why we are celebrating this holiday anyway. When your American host explains Thanksgiving bares no religious significance, consult the Catholic calendar that is inevitably hanging on a nearby wall to determine what saint day it is. Proclaim with authority ‘Today is St. Hippolytus Day!” Then google Saint H to figure out what the hell he did to become a saint anyway and wonder out loud if perhaps your American host isn’t telling you the FULL Thanksgiving origin story. Which by the way she probably isn’t because she’s not so sure about the historic veracity of that pilgrim and Indian meet cute anyway. She also suspects that such a meeting may have resulted in unwitting small pox exposure. Anyhow, just eat your turkey and leave Hippolytus out of it!

8) Drink a Digestivo

After you have sufficiently gorged on turkey, stuffing and the dreaded cranberry sauce, you deserve a digestive aid. Limoncello may be the most famous, but for a day of gluttony like Thanksgiving, there is only one distilled spirit for the job and that is GRAPPA! It will roto-rooter your regrettably excessive eating straight through your intestines.

9) Play Tombola

Southern Italians know a lot about how to fight off the food coma portion following particularly zealous eating. They play Tombola. It is basically bingo but every number is associated with a symbol. Some of the symbols include a drunkard, beans, the Virgin Mary, money, blood, steak and tits. For the record, the number associated with tits, or zizze in Neapolitan is 28. And yes, everyone will titter when that number is called out because let’s face it tits are funny. Especially if they are painted cartoon like on a bingo board and you’ve been drinking grappa.

10) Don’t t Throw Anything Away

Then muse about some ratchet pasta al forno mélange of every possible left over scrap that you will turn into the meal of the century. Italians particularly love to turn left-overs into baked pasta dishes. I would forgo the turkey tetrazzini as I think pasta and poultry together is gross. But I will suggest not throwing any bread away. Make yourself a post-Thanksgiving panino, sip a glass of Taurasi and play a round of Tombola. Now that’s Thanksgiving all’Italiana!