Today's Case:
Panizzi's Grocery Frussies
Re: Frussies
From: Ann
To: Phaedrus
Date: 1/6/2025, 8:56 AM
On 1/6/2025 6:36 AM, ann wrote:
Hello. Thank you for all your work through the years, especially for Sputniks.
We are looking for a recipe called Frussies, an Italian meatball about tennis-ball-sized.
We had it from Panizzi's Grocery butcher shop, Spring Valley, Illinois, a Northern Italian
Community, in the late 1960s to 1970s. Others remember it, and they didn't make up
their own food names, but made things commonly known then. It perhaps had ground
beef, liver, spices, and white "veins" running through it, which, as little kids, we carefully
picked out.
Thank you for any help.
Ann
Hello Ann,
Sadly, I had no success with this. I cannot find any recipe for an Italian meatball called either "frussies" or "fressies." I did find two mentions of these on the "Spring Valley, Illinois, My Home Town" Facebook Page at: Spring Valley, Illinois, My Home Town.There is a photo there of the front of the Panizzi's grocery store, and a scan of a newspaper ad for Panizzi's. No recipes, just the same description that you give of the meatballs. I also found a couple of requests on Reddit for this recipe. Might be your requests - they are very similar to your email. I cannot find any Italian meatballs recipe with the names "frussies" or "fressies." I am seeing it on that Spring Valley site as "flossies." My thinking is that these meatballs and their recipe must have been local to the butcher in Panizzi's - either confined to his family or confined to the specific place in Italy where he lived.
The only suggestion that I can think of is to obtain that butcher's name or the owner of Panizzi's name and try to track down their living relatives. A good idea is to post a request on that "Spring Valley, Illinois, My Home Town" Facebook Page. If you get any additional information about them, let me know.
I'll post this for reader input.
Phaed
Thank you. Yes, those are my requests, smile...Just started inquiring in earnest
last week. Thank you for responding and for putting it out there.
