For Italian immigrants, food was about more than simply filling your belly. The bread and peppers purchased from the padrone provided one less jarring adjustment to be made and a source of familiarity and security in an uncertain environment. The Italian saloon allowed men to congregate among others who shared their circumstances, their language and their tastes. Traditional foods served in Italian boarding houses lent hominess to new surroundings and helped combat feelings of loneliness in the strange new city. The smells and tastes of home elicited a sense of family among men whose relatives were often miles away.

Scholars generally agree that the central institution in Italian life, or as Lydio Tomasi says, "the only Italian institution", was the family. In the 1950s, sociologist Edward C. Banfield coined the term "amoral familism" to describe the Italian peasant value system in which the welfare of the family guided all actions and decisions. From the family, individuals gained their role in life, their social and economic status, and their values and convictions. While Oscar Handlin believed the strain of immigration disrupted the organization of the Italian family, historians, such as Virginia Yans-McLaughlin have recently argued the contrary. The Italian family, according to Yans-McLaughlin not only survived migration but aided in the adjustment of Italians to their new homes. The consumption and preparation of food were important elements in family life. Food brought the family together, delineated the roles of its members, and marked important events in the life of the family and its individuals. As family life stabilized in the city, the recreation of traditional foods was a decision to retain the central role of food and the family in Italian life.

In her comparison of Sicilian and New York housing, Donna Gabaccia theorized that Italians considered the home a family refuge from the competition, gossip and closeness of village life. Although other meals might be eaten in the fields, the family preferred to retreat behind closed doors for the evening meal. Among Chicago Italians, the evening meal was an opportunity to bring the family together and reinforce its solidarity, continuity, and family hierarchy. Prompt gathering for dinner reinforced the precedence of family demands above all other activities. Missing a family dinner was inexcusable. Outsiders were often drawn to these aspects of Italian life:

I wonder if there is as much happiness on the Gold Coast as over in these basement rooms. When the father comes home at night, six or seven children run to meet him, and a warm supper is always ready...

The one-pot or one-dish meals placed in the center of the table, common among Italian families, bolstered the sense of togetherness shared at dinner. Joseph and Cecilia LoDolce even ate their dinner from the same platter, an "Italian-ness" which shocked their young children, born in America.

For the earliest migrants, especially single males, regular weekly meal patterns reflected both economizing and time-saving. As families stabilized, they continued to employ set patterns from week to week. Mary Argenzio's family's meal plan was so invariable that she remembered its details years later. Monday was soup, either bean or chicken; Tuesday was cabbage; Wednesday was potatoes cooked in the oven with meat; Thursday was spaghetti; Friday, fish; Saturday fried pork chops with potatoes and Sunday, homemade macaroni with veal pocket. The LoDolce family ate lentils every Tuesday night for twenty-two years until the father, Joseph LoDolce, broke the tradition by announcing that he actually did not like lentils.

Many immigrants recalled these patterns as shared throughout the community. "Course like everybody else you know," reported Louis Panico, "it was never Sunday without spaghetti. Naturally." Thursdays were a day for macaroni "like everyone else," according to Panico. Fridays were religious fast days and fish was invariably served in all Italian households. The Castaldo family on West Polk Street ate pasta in the soup they prepared every Monday, they ate spaghetti on Tuesday with meatballs or sausage, and they ate it again on Thursday.

On Sunday the spaghetti sauce was more elaborate, cooked with beef or pork, and roast chicken and cake were also on the menu. Like their neighbors, the Castaldos ate bacala, or dried codfish on Fridays, cooked with tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and potatoes. For many families the recipes were those remembered from home and their routine never changed. They gave continuity within the family and a sense of shared culture among neighbors. The invariability of meals was a signal that one was "at home."