Italian-Americanisms? or regionalisms?

[Dale Coye]

My summer class was instructing me on some of the finer points of Italian
cuisine--they were mostly from the Trenton area.  Don't know if these are
regionalisms or Italian-Americanisms.

Gravy 'tomato sauce for pasta'-- DARE has a meaning =sweet sauces, but this
meaning isn't there.   I asked them what they'd call gravy for turkey, or
meat, and some said 'brown gravy'

Pie  'a pizza'.  When you say, "We had a pie last night"  you mean a pizza.

Ricotta-  pronounced /rih GAWT/-- with open o (cot/caught distinction is
maintained almost universally by students here).

Manicotti-- same thing /man ih GAWT/

Dale Coye
The College of New Jersey