It's the old Italian debate. If you are like me and come from a family that is 100% Italian on both sides, you've had a lot of family time in your life. You've also eaten a lot in your life. You would go to your grandmother's house for Sunday dinner and eat a great 5-course meal, and when you were done eating, she would say in broken English "Why you no eat?" Even though you already ate seconds of everything. You would then have to eat more or else you would sincerely insult her and even though you were extremely full, you wouldn't complain because her food was the best food in the whole entire world. When it was time to leave she would make you go under her cabinet and get an old container that she has been saving for longer than you have been alive and take home a little doggy bag filled with macaroni, meatballs, and gravy.
Yes, that's right. I said gravy. Gravy is the beautifully delicious red stuff you put all over your macaroni. It is called gravy. Not sauce.
I didn't even know that there was a debate until I started school when I was five years old. Everyone that I knew called it gravy. So to hear somebody call it sauce really made me chuckle.
As I got older, I started to be able to tell the difference between the newer Italian Americans, like myself and the older ones. What I mean is, my family is new to America. On my dad's side, my Nonni and Nonno came to America for good after they got married. On my mom's side, my great grandparents came to America to start their families. In the scheme of things, my family is new here compared to other Italians who have been here for 5 or 6 generations.
The newer ones tend to call it gravy. It's much more Italian.
I also started to learn that depending on where in Italy you came from played a key factor in what you called it. I am mostly from Avellino and we call it gravy.
Now you may be thinking, if you call it gravy, then what do you call the stuff you put on turkey? That's simple. It's called brown gravy. Boom.
In conclusion to this rant, there is no argument. It is called gravy. Sauce is something that you dip your chicken nuggets into like BBQ Sauce, Sweet & Sour Sauce and so on.
Gravy is what you put on your macaroni.
And don't even get me started: my Nonni's gravy recipe is better than yours.
