National Meatball Day falls on Thursday (March 9) and Thursdays were always the day of the week when my Sicilian grandmother made red gravy. Often, she would stew young hens in tomato gravy, but sometimes she'd make meatballs. In fact, she had a special pot, which we were not allowed to use for anything else. (I boiled water in it to make a big pitcher of iced tea once and yikes!)

In a city with a large Italian- and Sicilian-American population, Italian grandmothers and Italian restaurants still abound. Today, however, the restaurants calling themselves Italian include newcomers, like Domenica and Ristorante del Porto, which steer away from the traditional red-gravy Creole Italian menus, such as those found at Mandina's and Sal & Judy's.