Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American

Red Sauce traces the evolution of popular Italian-American foods like lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, and penne alla vodka while seeking the origins of these “red sauce” recipes, debunking myths, and examining how Italians lost their foreign otherness as Americans embraced Italian-American cuisine over the Twentieth century.

Ian MacAllen is a writer, designer, and critic. He contributes regularly to the Chicago Review of Books, and has written for Whetstone, Insider, New Jersey Monthly, The Millions, The Brooklyn Rail, and others. He formerly worked as Senior Food Correspondent for the Italian American outlet America Domani, and previously served as Deputy Editor at The Rumpus. His maternal grandfather was born in Bagnoli del Trigno in Molise, Italy and his maternal grandmother’s family hails from Naples and Sicily. He is descended from a line of Sicilian Strega. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.