Italian influence in New York City isn’t hard to find; it’s in the faces of 12% of the population, the trattoria-like restaurants that seem to be on every corner, the Aperol Spritzes in everyone’s hand come happy hour, and the neighborhoods in which you hear more Italian spoken than English.

In the early 20th century, the city saw a massive influx of Italian immigrants–over two million–and today, it still houses the largest population of Italians and Italian Americans in the US. As in Italy, food became, and remains, the cornerstone of their lives.