I found this article while looking for the Pasta references. My family always calls the sauce "sugu", and I see it's referenced in here too. Anyway, I'll post the whole article (see link), you might find it interesting.
BTW, are the places they mention in NYC?
Sunday pasta
"I cannot recall a Sunday without pasta and meat sauce. Spaghetti was the norm for Sicilians and macaroni for the Neapolitans. We fondly referred to them as ''Napolitanos.'' They were not so fond of Sicilians. They called us ''Sarrags.''
There was always meat sauce with meatballs, pork, bracciola and sometimes stretched with chicken. That was meat sauce, not gravy as some non-Italians may call it. My parents, grandparents and all the people in the area never heard of the word ''gravy.'' True Italians call it meat sauce or ''sugu.'' Also, I doubt that many of the homes had mayonnaise in their ice box then.
During the week, the food was usually vegetarian, with meals like pasta in combination with broccoli, or cauliflower, or peas and carrots, or asparagus, or with escarole, or rabe, or with garlic and oil. All these foods today are called healthy or gourmet dishes, when in fact it was ''Sicilian soul food.'' Other meals were omelets with cauliflower or asparagus, and artichokes stuffed or baked. Italian bread was always used.
No foods were wasted. Much of the meals were improvised, especially during World War II. Leftover bread was made into breadcrumbs using a hand grater. Toast was made on a triangular wire rack placed on the stove. Calzones were meat pies then referred to as ''scatch'' by the younger guys. They used up the meat leftovers. The stews and minestrone used up the vegetables. Also common was escarole and bean soup. Mason jars preserved our tomato sauce, peppers and mushrooms. Hard bread and coffee made a breakfast called ''souppa.''
Popular stores in the area were Leone's Soda Fountain at the corner of Essex and Newbury streets. On Essex Street there was Coco's Bakery, Joe's Shine Parlor, Sciuto's Dry Goods, Tom's Variety, the Essex Barbers, the Essex Fish Market and Mack's Men's Shop. On Common Street there was the Catania Restaurant, where the owner always gave the young guys extra-large portions.
There was Petralia's on Common Street for cold cuts and Italian imports; Carruba's on Newbury Street for lemonade or almonade, gelati and cannoli; DiGrazia Bakery on the corner of Common and Newbury for pasticiotti and lady fingers; Pappy's on Common Street for the seeded twist bread and round bread; Tripoli for bread and pastries; Fisichelli Bakery for biscotti and cassatas; Stamondo's for meat pie; Napoli on Garden Street for the best pizza ever and Jackson Bakery for doughnuts, crullers and Bismarcks.
In our neighborhood, you could bring a loaf of bread to Petralia's and have a sandwich made by Don Ciciu that consisted of a generous serving of capacollo, mortadella, provolone and tomatoes that made a large healthy sandwich.
Orange Phosphate was the drink of choice in their back room. Funny, when I was a boy, it looked like homemade wine. Funnier still, when I got older, it tasted like homemade wine -- wine like my grandfather made in his cellar on Union Street during the grape-squeezing time. The gutters leading to the sewers were purple throughout the neighborhood and the ''fetza,'' or squeezed out grape, from the bottom of the barrel was dispersed in various trash cans in the neighborhood so as to not show the garbage collectors how much wine was being made."
web page TIS
