There was a time not too long ago when nobody in America knew anything about Italian food. Well, a few people did—because they had moved here from Italy. Everyone else was clueless, or close to it. Americans loved pizza and lasagna and heaping platters of spaghetti and meatballs, sure.

They loved a certain style of cooking that had originated with immigrants from southern Italy, primarily Sicily and Naples, and that had (like Cantonese food) endured a curious process of Americanization. But how actual Italians ate—that was another matter.