Thanksgiving’s oddest combinations

By

Opinion

November 29, 2019 - 10:15 AM

For Thanksgiving in Brooklyn, my Sicilian grandmother would make lasagna to eat and cook a turkey to prove she was a naturalized citizen.

The turkey — a bird the size of a Buick — reigned, solitary, on the sideboard. It was separate from the more ordinary, familiar and delicious (whaddya want me to do, lie?) food that fed the immediate family of approximately 113. A totem offering to the blessed land of America that had opened its doors to her at Ellis Island, the turkey fulfilled its role as a ritual display of patriotism as we feasted on eggplant, lamb, chicken, sausage, bread, olives, artichokes and peas.

Cooking both turkey and lasagna for Thanksgiving was like being bilingual — but in culinary terms.

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