Spaghetti Cake. Wait, What?
/I’ve shared some history and facts about Italians and Tuscany in my recent blogs, however today, I wanted to share some memories of my wonderful mother-in-law, Gerardina. We called her Nonna, the Italian name for grandmother. My true deep dive into Italian cooking came from Nonna. When I first started dating my husband, 22 years ago, he took me to meet his mother, like a good Italian son should, and I’m pretty sure she didn’t like me. I wasn’t Italian or Catholic, but she wanted grandchildren and I looked to be her best shot.
I will never forget the dinner she made for us. It was sooo much food and she seemed to whip it up in no time at all! I found out later that Nonna always had sausage and peppers, spaghetti sauce and meatballs in the freezer, just in case. What was made fresh on the day that we came was the Braciole and the Sartu. Braciole is a wonderful braised meat dish that takes all day, sometime overnight, to make and it is served with spaghetti sauce. I had tried something similar before, and Nonna’s was exceptional. The other dish on the table that was puzzling me was this weird bundt cake thing.
I leaned over to my husband and whispered in his ear, “honey, what is that? Dessert?” He smiled, took my hand and said “no dear, that is Sartu. You will love it.” Turns out Sartu is one of the most emblematic dishes of Naples and Southern Italy, which is where my mother-in-law’s family is from. The word Sartu originates from the Italianized version of the French phrase sur tout, which means “above all” a reference to the wonderful filling inside this “cake.”
The original version of this dish was made with rice, however my mother-in-law was very frugal and wasn’t terribly fond of rice, so she altered the recipe to be the Newark, New Jersey Italian version. She used spaghetti, mini meatballs and mozzarella as her filing. My husband was right, I loved this dish and my children requested it every time we went to Nonna’s house, but they couldn’t remember the Italian name, they just called it Spaghetti Cake.
I have tried to make Sartu for my family, and my husband has been very grateful for my endeavors. Alas, it isn’t as good as Nonna’s. Gerardina has passed on now, (at the ripe old age of 95!) so we have to enjoy her wonderful Newark Sartu in our memories. But I’m going to keep trying to recreate it. Wish me luck.
My husband Rich and our beloved Nonna Geradina