Settle an argument - is it gravy or sauce?.

Use of the word "gravy" for tomato sauce sets my teeth on edge but language belongs to it's users- if the term is current in your area, or among people you know, then it's correct. Look at all the tomato soup with chili powder (and at least one spaghetti with chili powder) versions of chili, for example; you can hate it,, but you can't stop it.

Wrong. They don’t have or use the term “gravy” in Italian. If they say salsa, or ragu or sugo, they mean “sauce,” meat or no meat. In America, the term gravy referred to the sauce or dressing used for meat or fish. So it could be that the early Italian immigrants, cooking meat in their tomatoes, and when in America doing like the Americans did, did the trendy thing and called it “gravy.”

I call it sauce but I personally don't like meat sauce. I have minimal authority, being Indian and Irish, but I did grow up in Northern New Jersey, so I know a bit about Italian American traditions. I think gravy is more common in the south jersey/ philly area.

That doesn't matter Scruz... the question was which is correct. The answer is sauce. There is no such thing as gravy in Italy. Italian is a culture loved by so many because of its customs that go back hundreds of years. Yes fine if you want to call it gravy. But everyone that says gravy should know it's not correct to our beautiful italian (from italy) customs. The word gravy comes from an American tradition.

it's up to the maker to call it what he or she wants.

Sugo... meat juice; sauce

Sono Italiana, volete smettere con questa parola GRAVY??? Non esiste in Italia...ma Dio mio smettetela adesso!!!!!

Red Gravy ~ sauce is to delicate for my pasta

It's easy to get confused. A gravy is something made with trimmings/drippings. A sauce is anything made from the juice(s) (liquid) of food item(s), or pureed/macerated/other into a liquid form. If we are talking about Italian cooking, every tomato sauce has a particular name, and none of them are gravy. BTW the word sugo is not gravy!! It's a derivative of succo, and that means juice and is ypically a simple tomato-only sauce. Also, salsa is the same as sauce...the stuff you dip your chips into is called salsa fresca/picada (fresh/chopped). I will offer the following as an Italian-American, and budding chef, who loves and appreciates the cultural history surrounding this topic. A pasta sauce can be with meat, or meatless. Italian tomato sauces with meat in it typically have particular names, and were birthed in specific regions. A gravy is reduced from meat trimmings to get thick and flavorful, or quickly thickened with flour. Personally, I add tomato to my beef gravy for amazing flavor, but it's still a gravy and should accompany meat/fish/poultry/pork. If you stew your meatballs in a tomato sauce, you are getting the meat drippings in your sauce but that is still not a gravy. I guess if you want to call it a gravy, that's your prerogative. To me it's simply, and wonderfully, adding beef/veal/pork flavor to your pasta sauce. The important thing to realize is that it's delicious, whatever you call it, and that families are sitting down together to have dinner :)

Thank you so much Phil, for clearing that up. I'm sorry if I came on a little strong. But yes it does get to me. I have had friends tell me their grandmothers or mothers cooked their sauce all day, or even over night!!! That makes me crazy! But how you described it made sense, I do the same thing. I have lots or meatballs and sausage in my sauce too. I make my own bread too, for dunking!
Thanks again for your response.

Rose, this subject really gets to you. Regarding the "cooks all day" term , I should clarify, The process itself, frying the meatballs, making the brasciole , braising the meat started in the morning and then the sauce would cook for a while. Since Sunday dinner was no later then 3 the sauce didn't really cook all day. There was always extra meatballs, as sampling would take place throughout the day. Bread dunking was also a constant. Ahh the smell of garlic permeated the house!

I totally agree with the vote on the best answer by Klrcon !!

Great answer !!

My husband's family is 1/2 Italian 1/2 Irish , ( his mother was full Italian)
They all call it gravy and after 30 years of marriage , I also call it gravy too ! ( I'm Irish, lol)
Being in an Italian family, it's definitely gravy! Haha!!
I love it though and my mother in law made some of the best gravy I've ever put in my mouth! Her ravioli was quite awesome too!! Everything, including the pasta was from scratch !

I think it is a Neapolitan thing especially in NY- NJ area. We call it gravy too although the term seems to be fading out. Also it usually specifically refers to the Sunday "gravy" which is with various meats and cooks all day.

Never heard it called gravy always sauce...first heard it called gravy at an Italian restaurant on the west coast owned by soneone from the east coast who insisted east coasters call it gravy. Really?

I heave lived in Italy half my life... as a true Italian, no none there refers to it as gravy... the Italian American's are the only ones..

Sugo is gravy, spaghetti sauce is spaghetti sauce or marinara. Calling a sauce gravy is just an immigrant english misnomer.

In all the years I have spent in Italy, I have never heard "ragu" or tomato sauce referred to as gravy. In addition, my grandmother, born and raised in Italy never called any kind of sauce that went with pasta gravy.

I always think of gravy as something started with a roux. A sauce, to me, is thickened by reduction. Well...that's the way I think of it!

PazzoNico, not to worry. (And who knows where that phrase came from!) These threads are always great, reading everyone's responses. How we learn.

ALL of my Italian friends call it gravy and now that I have to think about it, they're all from southern Italy or Sicily. And they all know that calling tomato sauce "gravy" makes me crazy, because in my background and family, gravy means a lot of work based on beef, pork or lamb drippings, onions, a roux, etc. quite a bit of tending.

It makes a lot of sense that it was an Americanization by Italian immigrants to call sauce "gravy" ... maybe it started when Italian immigrants began to open restaurants and wanted to make menus familiar to other groups.

...Frig that was long and kind of jumbled..sorry folks.

In Italian, it is called 'ragu' or 'sugo' ('o rau' in Neapolitan dialect). Sugo came from the word 'succo', which means juice, implying the sauce is flavored with the juices (drippings) of meat (the base of any ragu, sugo, sauce, gravy, etc.) This holds true with any ragu from any region of Italy. My guess is that 'gravy' came into play because it is the closest English word with the same meaning (as it is known in America; i.e. 'biscuits and gravy' - where the gravy is made from the pork drippings). Keep in mind, many of the immigrants were from Southern regions of Italy (Calabria, Sicilia, Naples, etc.) where they speak a very different dialect from proper Italian (spoken mostly in the North). That's the main reason for all these Italian-American terms (gravy, gabagool, fazool, etc.); they're mostly just mispronunciations of how they heard it from their grandparents because, as mentioned, most of them were not taught Italian as kids (they just heard it spoken among the adults). So, it's pretty much "slang" that comes from "slang" (it's all screwed up. lol.).
And 'salsa' is a word used in Italian that can refer to (literally) ANY sauce, tomato-based or not. It's a very generic term.
So to answer your question, there's no 'right' or 'wrong' answer. But that doesn't mean you can't tell all your friends you asked a bunch of people over the internet and they ALL agreed with YOU...white lies right?

If either the sauce, or the gravy, is very good and tasty - then I call it a "beverage" !

Gravy probably happened when they wanted to sound more American. My generation of Italian Americans were never taught to speak Italian, even though their grandparents spoke no English. They were fiercely proud of being American. (at least in Marin County in the 50's).

There's a wonderful cookbook by Nancy Verde Barr called We Called it Macaroni: An American Heritage of Southern Italian Cooking. She grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, where many Italian-Americans called south Italian ragu "gravy" and all their pasta "macaroni." I think ragu is sugo with meat, is that right pierino?

I completely agree with kircon's answer. This is a case of Old World meets the New World. And unless you live in New Jersey or Queens it's not "gravy". The generic term in Italian would be sugo or salsa. How "gravy" entered into it, I don't know. But it is an interesting piece of food history.

Both are fine - it's English, not Italian! The "true" Italian name of whatever version you're talking about will vary depending on the region of Italy it comes from and the type of sauce/gravy you're making. And there are a million versions because Italian cooking is so regional and so diverse. So it's kind of a silly debate among Italian-Americans. In general I've noticed that northern Italians like my family call it sauce while southern Italians call it gravy so there may be some regional difference that started the debate but I really don't think that makes anyone less truly Italian.
Call it whatever your grandmother called it and don't sweat it.

I believe both are correct, but if you are a true Italian you will call it gravy.