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If you have an Italian American background, your ancestors most likely came from southern Italy. If you remember listening to your grandparents or great-grandparents speak, you know that they did not “speak” Italian, they “sang” it. The Italian phrases I remember from childhood are not distinguished as individual words. They were a stream of indistinguishable sounds, some very musical, some pungent expletives. I remember the phrase, “mah’lay-bonz” which I think it meant; “you are a pain in the stomach.” Similar to this phrase was “doo-zee-jarsthat now, as an adult who speaks Italian, I have come to know that it is a corruption of “Tu sei pozzo”, “You are crazy”. There was also the phrase addressed to babies, “Doo – zee – pee-zhad , which meant, “You wet your diaper.” There was also the call “Aye…why-yoh”, which was intended for any youngster. Still I have no idea what that means.One of the most curious aspects of the southern Italian dialect is the way it doubles consonants at the beginning of words.
The double consonant is characteristic of how southern Italians sing their language. (Wikipedia offers a very interesting look at the Neapolitan dialect.) And here is a word and food from the Amalfi area that offers a perfect example of Neapolitan dialect and food: “ndunderi”. I found the recipe for ndunderi (Doon-der-ee) when I was researching gnocchi and cavatelli. “Ndunderi” was not something she had ever heard of. Even though these pasta-like gnocchi come from the Naples region, I don’t think this variety of dumpling made its way to America. I have never heard the word among Italian-American friends nor have I seen it on the menus of any Italian-American restaurant. In fact, I have never heard of them in Italy.
According to most Italian sites, ndunderi is a very old form of pasta and is even recognized as such by UNESCO. In Roman times, they were made with ground faro or other grains. The liquid was originally sour milk. Nduderi, as they are known today, at least in most recipes, are made from a combination of semolina and regular white flour. For the liquid, today’s ndunderi use ricotta cheese and eggs. According to an Italian site, “Virtual Sorrento”, the pre-Columbian version of ndunderi were rather large meatballs. They were garnished with various spices and olive oil. With the discovery of America and the introduction of the tomato, the dumpling became smaller and tomato sauce came into play.
In the funny way things happen simultaneously, I watched an episode of David Rocco’s Amalfi Getaway, and what’s the standout but ndunderi? The significant variation in the recipe that he presented was the sauce. David Rocco’s recipe featured a lemon flavored cream sauce. At first this confused me as it looked like the lemon juice would curdle the cream. But I thought if I added the lemon juice to the melted butter first and then slowly added the cream, it might work. And he did. What’s more, as my daughter pointed out, this lemon sauce would be delicious on baked fish and also on asparagus. The ndunderi recipe is at http://www.thefoodtable.com/ndunderi.html