Flipping through the channels the other night, I ended up watching Lidia Bastianich making meatballs on her Italian cooking show. Lidia’s homey recipes and thick Italian accent reminded me of the Italian side of my family.

When I was very young, my parents drove us from our home in Queens to visit relatives in Brooklyn once or twice a year. My mother’s paternal grandfather and a host of Uncle Tonys and Aunt Marys always greeted us warmly. The hallways of their four-story brick row house smelled of freshly simmering tomato sauce. Different family members lived in apartments on each floor. A pigeon coop was up on the roof.