Lindsay Marie Morris

2024 was a busy year for Rita Prisco, and for once, it wasn't just because of family life for the Queens, New York-based mom of 22-year-old triplets. Somehow, between serving up regular (and frequently viral) TikTok videos to her nearly 500,000 @cucinapalermo fans, she managed to publish not one but two cookbooks—Cucina Palermo: My Homemade Cookbook and Cucina Palermo: Savoring Sicily—and Piccola Francesca, which she envisions as the start of a children's book series.

It all began with a simple spaghetti recipe and a desire to present Sicilian cuisine authentically. She never imagined she'd be competing with professional chefs and cookbook authors. And that homemade approach has proved to be a winning formula. 

Rita shared with me her connection to Sicily, how her incredible journey started, what makes a viral recipe, her future plans, what's been most rewarding, and more. 

  

 

What is your connection to Sicily?

Both my parents are from Sicily. My father grew up in the city of Palermo. He passed away, but I have family in Balestrate, which is more of a beach area, so we would go there when I would go to Sicily. My mother's from a small town called Bisacquino, which is a couple of hours from Palermo. I also have family there still. 

Can you share more about your journey?

Like any other kids, my kids were obsessed with TikTok, but it was more of them doing the dances and all that stuff. And I saw that they were obsessed with it, and it annoyed me that every time I looked for my kids or needed them for anything, what were they doing? They were on TikTok. So I would be upset about it a bit, like, "What the hell? What's going on? You just got to get off of TikTok."

 

And they were like, "Ma, you should watch it. It's not just dancing." They were like, "There's so many other things on TikTok. There are cleaning hacks, and there's cooking."

 

So I started watching the cooking because I am obsessed with cooking, and I noticed that there was no Sicilian food. It was all the food you would see at restaurants on the Italian American menu.

 

I was telling my kids, "Girls, this is not how I ate growing up." And they're like, "Well, why don't you post a video?" I was like, "No. Mommy doesn't do that."

 

It took them months and months of encouraging me that I could do it. So, I just did one to see what would happen and make my kids happy. Literally overnight, it went viral, and it was the foundation recipe, like a staple in my house that I cooked.

 

In a week, I had a hundred thousand followers, and I said, "You know what? Obviously, there's a want for this."

 

People enjoyed it. It was a refreshing thing to them, something that is easy, we could all make, and it looks delicious. It was like people were thirsty for food that actually was real.

So I did another one, and that went viral. Then, another one went viral, and from then on, most of my videos went viral.

 

Rita Prisco with her first cookbook

 

You're now also a published author. Tell us about that experience.

It took a year of people telling me, "You should have a cookbook." And that was another thing that was out of my league mentally. Never in a million years did I think that I would be able to do that! 

I spoke to publishers who were reaching out to me, and it was very intimidating. I didn't want the whole process of writing the cookbook with a publisher. I didn't want any part of it. It was too professional. That's not me. I'm not a chef. I'm not a writer. I'm just a wife and a mom who learned how to cook from her mom and her grandmother. I'm just doing those recipes and having a professional cookbook with professional photos and writers and bloggers, and all that was not a representation of who I am. 

So I said to myself, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it my way. I called my first cookbook My Homemade Cookbook because I didn't want to compete with professionals and be criticized. So, I just laid it out there from the beginning.

 

I did it at home with my daughter, and I warned everybody that that's what they were going to get. So if they were looking for anything different, look someplace else, not in my book. And that's another thing that people enjoyed and were drawn to. They were like, "Wow, that's what we want. We don't want a professional cookbook."

 

How many cookbooks do we have in our house that we never use? Because the minute you open them, they're so intimidating, like, "Oh my God, is this the Bible? What are we doing here?" It's like too much. 

I did my second cookbook because there are so many recipes. I do 50 at a time; it's what I can handle.

 

Then, when I saw the response that I had from people, the connection… I always dreamed of writing a children's book about my childhood and growing up with Sicilian parents in America. But obviously, that couldn't have been done because without a following, without people knowing who you are, it's hard to start writing a book, and then who will buy it if you don't have the exposure.

 

Once I had the exposure, I saw I could do it. So that's where Piccola Francesca came in, and I'm so proud. I feel like I'm more proud of it than I am of my cookbooks because Piccola Francesca is a story of my life. And it's going to continue. That was the first of many to come.

 

It's been amazing with that book because so many people also related to it. And you don't only have to be Italian or Sicilian to relate to it. It's something that other cultures could relate to. 

So many schools are calling me; they want me to come read. And I've been doing that.  

 

How has your Sicilian heritage influenced your cooking and the recipes you share?

They're the recipes that my mom made growing up: peasant food. My mom grew up during the Depression, when there was no steak. It had to be a holiday to have meat. So there was a lot of pasta and potatoes; everything was made with homemade flour. They would turn a piece of old bread into a dessert. (I have one recipe in my cookbook where you take stale bread and turn it into a cookie.)

 

When I was growing up, my parents weren't poor the way they were when they grew up. They had money, but it didn't matter because even though it was peasant food, per se, it was food that we loved that was delicious, like beans, lentils, and split peas.

 

And the same thing with my kids. If you introduce these foods to your children from when they're born, they grow accustomed to them. So that's what happened to me. 

 

Which of your recipes has received the most attention, and why?

There are a few recipes that have exploded. My first one has over 5 million views. That's my spagetata. People were shocked that you can make delicious pasta like that with just a few ingredients. It costs almost nothing to make. Every region makes it its own way. They put a little twist to it, and it's theirs. So, that is a staple in all of Italy.

 

Another one of my recipes that just blew up with millions and millions of views was my chicken cutlets. I think that those weren't as traditional. What happened is that I have a different way of cutting a chicken cutlet, which is fork tender because you're cutting against the grain. And nobody ever saw that in their life. 

You would think a butcher would know this. I actually now have a butcher in my town who takes orders of chicken cutlets "Rita's way," cut the way I cut them because when you cut a chicken cutlet my way, it becomes so tender, and it's so much better. And now they know and say, "We would never cut chicken cutlets the way we used to."

 

People also love my pasta dishes. My pasta dishes all go viral because there are only three or four ingredients. And people like simplicity. They're tired. They work very hard. And if you can make their life easier, they could feed their family without the extra work. That's what they're looking for. 

That's what I focus on every day. When I know I'm going to show somebody a recipe, I ask, "Is this going to make their life better and easier?" And that's all I'm going to do. Can I make complicated stuff? Of course. But I don't even show that to people.

 

My mom's fig cookies for Christmas take hours and hours of work, but I made a recipe that tastes just like my mom's fig cookies, and it's done in a half hour. That's what I look for when I'm looking for a recipe. I'm looking for something simple with a few ingredients that's going to taste good. It has to have those three components. And I feel like once you have those three components, you have a winner. 

 

What are your plans for future projects?

I'm going to continue putting out a new children's book, always with the same character. I'm going to focus on Francesca. I want to introduce other stories of growing up with immigrant Sicilian parents and the differences between that and being an American child with American parents and grandparents. So many things make us different, including our traditions. And I have a lot of stories from my childhood. 

 

What has been the most rewarding part of your journey?

I think the most rewarding part for me is the people who reach out to me. I try my best to read as many comments and emails as I possibly can. I have people who are in hospice. I have people fighting fourth-stage cancer that I communicate with often who tell me that while they're doing their chemo, they watch me, and it brings a smile to their faces. The fact that I could distract somebody a little from their suffering, even for those few minutes, is all worth it to me.

 

So many people lost their moms or their grandparents at a younger age. They miss their grandmothers or their moms who used to cook for them like this, but they never thought of writing things down. I'm giving them recipes for food they never thought they would make, and they're so happy because I remind them; I bring them memories of their childhood. That is the most rewarding thing in the world.

 

@cucinapalermo Make spagetata with me!🇮🇹 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #cooking #italiancooking #pasta #goodeats ♬ original sound - Rita

 

 

 

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Sicily is steeped in multicultural heritage, and navigating the island's complex history can be challenging. Thanks to historians like Palermo-based Louis Mendola, we have several comprehensive yet approachable books to serve as a road map. A leading medievalist, Louis leads his readers through the island's layered past, challenging stereotypes, unearthing hidden and forgotten histories, and giving voice to descendants. 

I recently reached out to Louis after reading The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy, which he co-authored with Jacqueline Alio. The book serves as an essential starting point for exploring the region's roots, highlighting the many conquerors, wayfarers, and rulers who left their mark on its food, architecture, and language. Louis, who grew up in Upstate New York, has called Sicily home for the past 30 years. It's a return to the place of his ancestors and a base for first-hand research. He shared with me how he got his start, surprising discoveries, his favorite historical period, challenges, future projects, and his hopes for his readership.

 

What led you to specialize in Sicilian history?

Mostly because I'm Sicilian. I've been reading a lot of these things since I was a teenager. So, in my case, I like to say that I didn't look to join the field, but the field kind of sought me. It makes sense that somebody would study a field of history that pertains to their own ancestry instead of, let's say, just choosing someplace else. 

 

What are some of the most surprising discoveries you've made in your research?

It's the holy grail for historians to find original stuff that nobody else has published. In my case, some of the original things I've found have been slightly arcane. For example, I found a reference in the Vatican Library in an uncataloged manuscript to the Assizes of Ariano of 1140. We have two manuscripts of that, two codices that were discovered after 1700: one at Monte Casino, the other at the Vatican. And I actually found a reference to them. It was written about four or five years after that, which was rather interesting. So, it wasn't an earth-shattering discovery, but it reinforced the dating of the documents. 

 

How has Sicilian history shaped the island's identity?

In my books, I make the point that by 1300, we had what I refer to as a monoculture. It was essentially Latin. It's what you see today.  

We have to consider that the Jews of Sicily were expelled or converted in 1493, a year after Spain. So from that point onward, we ended up with the monoculture, and you might even refer to it sometimes as an ethnocracy, which is a government or a place based on one ethnic group instead of many.

In some of my recent books, I discussed whether there's a philosophy to the study of Sicilian history. Many of us believe that there is, and part of it is the multicultural element. Sicily had all kinds of different ethnic cultures, and for some periods, you had them all at one time.

During the Norman period, up until about 1200, there were Muslims, Jews, Latin Christians, and Orthodox Greek Christians. So, there were four essential societies.

 

Which period is your favorite?

I would say the Norman-Swabian period. It was more interesting than a lot of other periods of Sicilian history. It also represented a period when the Kingdom of Sicily was actually independent because in 1266, with the Battle of Benevento, the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Frederick II was defeated. The capital was transferred under the Angevins to Naples from Palermo. And then a little bit after that, in 1282, with the War of the Vespers, it actually split. So, you ended up with the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily. That was true sovereignty and with kings in the case of Roger II, then Frederick II, his grandson, and all the others. These were people born in Southern Italy, even though their dynasties had come from elsewhere.

 

What challenges do you face researching and writing about Sicilian history?

Oddly enough, the greatest challenge is not the research or even the writing, which is very labor-intensive. That's not even it. The real issue is that you end up either debunking misconceptions to set the record straight, looking into things more profoundly, or expressing it in a cohesive way. Those are the real challenges. The work itself, a lot of people can do, and a lot of people do. It's a question of presenting the work in a cohesive, understandable way. That's the biggest challenge. 

 

Where is the biggest gap in understanding Sicilian history?

A few years back, there was a book that was written, and I remember verbatim the first lines in the prologue: "What's the first thing you think of when you think of Sicily? If you're like most people, you think of the mafia."

 

The mafia has only existed since about 1800, and it's evolved from that. So it was tantamount to somebody writing a book about Germany or the Germans and only talking about Hitler.

 

That's really rather recent, and for that matter, Fascism in Italy is frankly rather recent. So it's unfortunate that people look at this, and even a lot of Italian Americans, because there are people—screenwriters like David Chase writing The Sopranos and people on social media—who seem to promote this mafia-thug type of culture. It's not just professional actors and actresses. I could give them a pass because they have to work. But a lot of this ties in with the Guido macho, tough-guy mentality. I think it's just extremely unfortunate that in those circles, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, it has developed in that way. Because if you look at the diasporic Italians in places like Argentina or England—for example, I have cousins in England—it's nothing like that.

 

It's a very different view of the culture of Sicily or Southern Italy. So that's a matter of concern over time because some people in these other categories that seem to glorify that lifestyle or that limited view of Southern Italy can be very vociferous. They're adamant about their beliefs. They can even be obnoxious. And I've seen that on social media. That's extremely unfortunate because they've been sold a bill of goods and deceived. And it's not just the mafia stereotypes; it's even the idea that the unification of Italy saved Italy and that Garibaldi was greater than he really was and Meucci invented the telephone. These are ideas that, unfortunately, a lot of even Italian-American organizations support.

 

What's more, they have nothing to do with the people of Southern Italy. Southern Italy had a kingdom of its own until 1860. A lot of people who don't study history don't know that.

 

What future projects are you working on?

The first one is called Sicily by Sicilians. It's going to be 17 or 20 chapters, each written by a different person. And what they have in common is that they all have roots in Sicily or Southern Italy. So it's autohistory, which is what I promote in my other work. It's people writing about their own history and their own ancestors. The topics range from philology, which is a study of linguistic origins, to music, to the history of women, which doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. And it's a very interesting group of people, some of whom have not really written that much in these fields before, even though they're experts. And as it stands right now, three-quarters of the work is going to be written by women, which, again, is a little bit unusual.

 

Another project after that will be a general history of Sicily, which goes from pre-history up until the present. 

 

How do you hope your work influences the understanding of Sicilian history and culture?

The greatest impact of my work is in anglophone circles because I don't usually publish in Italian. My work until now—the books themselves—is in English. Most of the readers are not actually Italian descendants, but that is the growing percentage that we see—for example, Canadian Italians, Italian Americans, and Australian Italians. So there's certainly an interest there. And it's gratifying that, in some cases, we're setting the record straight about the history of Sicily because people don't always get that from other things that have been published in English. 

 

 

 

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