The holidays can be a stressful time, full of demands and expectations — especially when you’re known for being a good cook, so much so that you make a living off of it.
The sisters who run Tre Sorelle know the feeling.
Lisa Particelli and Gina White have operated the Italian eatery in downtown Orillia for 17 years. They’re known for serving up some of the best comfort food around, from lasagna and soup to paninis and veal parmigiana.
They strive to satisfy their customers and, during Christmas, their family.
When they were kids, their grandparents and parents ran the show. Christmas dinner always began with antipasto, followed by soup, and then a pasta dish. The fourth course was turkey.
“We’re Italian, so we never really did gravy and we never did mashed potatoes. It was always roasted potatoes with multiple vegetables,” White explained.
The feast was capped with coffee and dessert later in the evening.
“Food comas, for sure.”
Things have changed a bit over the years, with non-Italians joining the family and looking forward to the elusive mashed potatoes and gravy, but also with the loss of some of their talented loved ones.
“Our Italian traditions, unfortunately, have kind of dwindled with our family members being gone. A lot of the traditions that my grandmother and my great-aunt did are hard to replicate now,” White said.
They still incorporate Italian food in their holiday meals, but what’s most important is getting together with family. Again.
White and Particelli work together, cook together, and then do it all over again during the holidays. How do they survive Christmas?
“Lot’s of Baileys, wine, beer,” White said jokingly.
Jokingly? Yeah, let’s go with that.
Each year, one family member hosts Christmas dinner. The main course is that person’s responsibility, while everyone else brings another dish.
White has some advice for those who are hosting.
“I always do things ahead of time,” she said.
“What?” Particelli said incredulously. “What about when it was two hours before Christmas dinner and you didn’t even have everything done?”
“OK, that’s different. I was waiting for the troops to come and help me,” White responded.
Their sister, Carla, had asked that year why White wasn’t cooking when dinner time was so near.
“That’s when we all pitched in,” Particelli said with a laugh.
“I don’t know what happened that year to me,” White said.
This is also her year to host, and she has assured her sister she will be prepared.
A family that works together bickers together, but that’s part of the fun, and Christmas is a different vibe for them. There can be pressure when feeding family, though not as much as running a business.
Not everyone is talented in the kitchen, but they might still feel a demand to cook something impressive for their families. The best way to make food stand out, according to Particelli: “Use quality ingredients.”
The Tre Sorelle tomato sauce is a good example. People often ask for the recipe.
“It’s so easy, but the main thing is using really good tomatoes,” she said.
“Keep it simple,” White added.
That might be a case of do as she says, not as she does.
When they were preparing to be a food vendor at the Mariposa Folk Festival, they had planned on only offering pasta with three sauces and garlic bread. White then suggested adding meatballs to the mix.
Concerned that some wouldn’t want to eat pasta outside in the summer heat, they added salad and arancini and paninis to the menu.
“I sometimes can’t keep it simple,” White admitted, “but I make sure that everything tastes the way it’s supposed to. As my mom used to say, it’s got to be saporito (tasty).”
That’s what you’ll find at Tre Sorelle, where the sign says, “Italian food made simple.”
There is nothing too elaborate about the offerings, but the sisters pride themselves on using fresh, quality ingredients to make something as seemingly simple as a tomato sauce pop.
Customers have appreciated their food for 17 years and are still showing their loyalty.
“The community here is pretty solid,” White said.
For those looking to add a bit of Italian flair to their holiday gatherings this year, Tre Sorelle has the perfect app: small antipasto boxes that include cured Italian meats, as well as cheeses and breadsticks, berries and olives.
White also plans to offer smaller trays of cherry cheesecake and cream puff squares.
In the retail freezer, customers can find cocktail meatballs and cocktail arancini, good for snacking with friends and family.
While some of their Italian family traditions aren’t present anymore during their Christmas meals, Particelli and White are passionate about using the generations of recipes and knowledge handed down to them to please their customers.
Stop in for the experience at 133 Mississaga St. E.
The good stuff
Most popular: pasta special (comes with two meatballs, sauce and garlic bread), meatball panini
Lisa Partcelli’s favourite: tomato and chive flatbread, goat cheese salad
Gina White’s favourite: caprese panini
My favourite: meatball panini, arancini and whatever soup they have on that day (especially Italian wedding)
Nathan Taylor’s local food and drink column appears every other Saturday.
