DELISH MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020
BY MICHAEL CALLERI
I
t’s strange, the things you remember.
Growing up as a kid in a large
Italian-American family had many joys,
one of which was the abundance of good
food.
For more Sundays than I can remem-
ber, upwards of a dozen times a year, my
cousins and I would go to a movie, usu-
ally in the neighborhood of the relative’s
house our parents were hanging out in
doing whatever it was that adults did.
Upon returning from the theater,
there were platters of lunchmeat for
sandwiches: genoa salami, bologna, ham,
capicola, and bresaola, as well as diff erent
kinds of cheese.
On one of those relaxing Sundays,
when I was 11, my Aunt Rita, knowing
about my love for homemade chicken
soup, asked me if I wanted a bowl of her
wondrous, piping-hot goodness. She had
some leftovers. I eagerly said yes, be-
cause if there was one thing that I loved
more than my comic book collection, it
was chicken soup.
Th is fond memory has stayed with
me. I don’t know why. Most of our child-
hood fades away. Is it because I didn’t
have to eat yet another cold sandwich
of my childhood? I wasn’t a picky eater,
but I did have some odd dislikes. I never
enjoyed mayonnaise, mustard, or ketch-
up. Still don’t. Most assuredly, I would
have a sandwich on another Sunday. Is
it because chicken soup is so unvaried:
a simple, well-made broth tastes good.
Or is it because the answer is obvious:
chicken soup made Michael happy.
Th at Sunday, as it always did, and still
does, a bowl of chicken soup made me
very happy.
Classic homemade chicken soup is,
for me, the perfect meal. Th e fl avorful
mix of broth, carrot, onion, and celery,
when done correctly, is unbeatable. Th e
dish can also be made more elaborate
with additions of diff erent vegetables or
seasonings. As long as the base ingredi-
ent is chicken, the henhouse, not the sky,
is the limit.
6
Michael Calleri and his three sisters learned their love of cooking from their mom, Geraldine Calleri..
Th e history of chicken soup is long,
and a little bit surprising. One might
think it was an Asian or a Mediterranean
staple. While it’s true that chickens, a
member of the fowl family, were domes-
ticated in either Southeast Asia or India
probably 10,000 years ago, the culinary
staple we call chicken soup was borne of
colder climes.
Originally, chicken stock was a North-
ern European dish made popular because
autumn’s root vegetables put into the
broth took quite well to long-simmering
cooking times. Nothing warms the heart,
and the hearth, better than hot soup on
a cold night.
Th e passion for chicken soup spread
to the southern region of Europe, includ-
ing to the kingdoms that would eventu-
ally unify to become Italy in 1861. Th e
classic Tortellini in Brodo is the reigning
Italian champion of ways to make chick-
en broth work its magic.
Chicken soup as we know it arrived
originally to the North American
continent from Poland and Scotland.
Immigrants from those two countries,
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