Every January, Italian American families in Westerly, Rhode Island gather together to start making soupy, a dry-cured pork sausage that’s specific to the town. A new film called “Westerly’s Gold: Sweet, Spicy, and Full of Tradition” documents the process and stories of the families who’ve been making the local delicacy for decades.
Morning host Luis Hernandez talked with filmmakers Chris Walsh and Betty-Jo Cugini.
Transcript:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: Why did you want to make this documentary, Chris?
Chris Walsh: Well, I mean, I’ve just seen this in my town for so long. Everybody does it, and I’ve noticed that everybody claims that theirs is the best. Everybody thinks they make the best soupy. There are, there are better soupies than others. but, our town just was overboard with their obsession with soupy. And I found out it wasn’t about just the flavor. It was about the, I think Richard Siciliani, who was one of the guys in the movie, said it the best. He goes, this is when they get together, it’s like an extra holiday for them. They’re together, they’re making it. Everybody has a job. One person is stuffing the meat into the casing, another person is doing the tying. Another person’s hanging. Everyone’s got a job. and they make it a holiday gathering. It’s amazing to watch.
Hernandez: By the way, are you both from Westerly?
Betty-Jo Cugini: We are. We actually went to high school together. Chris is a year older. I like to tell people
Walsh: Thank you
Hernandez: So I mean, so then soupy is just, it’s been a part of your lives. Yeah, pretty much. It’s been a part of your lives? All your lives, right?
Cugini: Yeah. There’s a certain area in Italy, Calabria. So there are many Calabrese people who live in the Westerly area, really from the Acri area. So that’s why they came to Westerly, many of them, because of the granite industry. In fact, my family, they were stone masons. They owned a quarry in Italy, outside of Rome. They’re more northern, and they came to Westerly because of the granite. So many, many Italian families are in that area because of the granite industry and because of the mills. So, they could find work easily. So they brought this with them and that’s why it seems to be not that there are not Calabrese people throughout New England, but it just seems that many have settled in that area.
Hernandez: Let’s start by explaining the process of how people make it.
Cugini: Each family has a recipe that has been passed down and they will go to different stores, and butcher shops in Westerly, they have their own favorite shops because there are probably four or five of them, and they will go in a couple of weeks before around Christmas time, hand that recipe over and say, I need a hundred pounds of this meat. They set a date to pick it up, and then they go to this place in January and pick up these huge boxes of hundreds of pounds of meat that they then bring to their home. So each family’s recipe, they always call it, you know, somebody has a secret. And really we find that the secret is the size of the hand of the person who has made it. That’s what they use is their measuring stick. So, you know, it’s really as important to have that recipe made and that meat ground for the beginning as it is for that end product.
Walsh: Each family does it a little bit differently. Some people put a little bit more hot pepper in. Some people put pepper flakes. Some people put whole peppercorns in. But they, they’ll, they’ll mix it that way and then they’ll try it. They fry it up and it’s amazing. I never had soupy that way before and it’s so good.
Hernandez: Is this made at a specific time of the year?
Cugini: It is made traditionally in January. And the reason being is that they need it to be cold outside because once it is made, it is then hung in people’s basements or attics. And if it gets warm in the winter then they, then most of them have a soupy cellar and they will open the window to let the cold air in. So that’s why it’s traditionally made that Martin Luther King Day weekend seems to be a family time for people. It used to be made over the Christmas break because families worked traditionally in the mills in the area, so they would be off because the mills would close down for those two weeks between Christmas and New Year. So it’s always been a winter delicacy that is made.
Hernandez: Betty-Jo you talked about, you said it’s like a wine cellar. It’s a soupy cellar. I was picturing a wine cellar, but people actually build their cellars out or their basements out specifically for this?
Cugini: Absolutely, because it has to be dry and because many of them are stone basements, then they put a window in so that they can open that window to make sure that the cold air comes in. And I have a friend who said that she was looking at houses and the clause in the contract in one of them was, you can move in in January, but we get to leave our soupy and we get to come back and get it in April.
Hernandez: How do people eat soupy? What are the different ways to eat it?
Cugini: It’s fried. On Easter, we said that’s traditionally where people take it out. You cut it up, you put it on a plate with cheese, usually, provolone cheese or a sharp cheese goes with it and people have a piece of Italian bread, soupy and cheese and eat it that way. But they also will cut it, as you mentioned, to fry it up, some of that soupy meat and then they’ll put it in eggs. For fritat they call it, or with green beans. There are different delicacy dishes.
Hernandez: Chris, how did you go about making this film? Because when you’re making a story like this, you wanna find a certain style, you wanna do what, what were you thinking about?
Walsh: I was thinking about doing a how-to film on making soupy, it basically was gonna be something as simple as that. And then when Betty-Jo came on board, she said she would do the interviews for me. We picked a select, few people to do some interviews with. And when I heard the answers, she brought out like the best out of everybody. It was amazing. And I’m listening to these answers while she’s asking and I’m going, we have something way bigger than just, how to make soupy. These people were really. So proud of what they do. And they explained in the movie, just about, like I said, it’s just about tradition. It’s about family, it’s about love, and they really, really mean it. They really do. And it was just amazing to hear this from them.
Hernandez: Chris, you went to Providence. Yeah. And you found Italians, Italian Americans who didn’t know about Soupy.
Walsh: Yeah, we did. We went to a place called Venda Ravioli and the manager, Mike Costantino, let us in and he showed his soppressata, his Italian soppressata and then he tasted some of the Westerly soppressata. And then he said, you can interview some people. And I wanted to see if they heard of Westerly soupy. Nobody heard of Westerly soupy. Probably 15, 16 people we talked to until one guy heard us doing the interview came by, said, I know what Westerly soupy is. And I said, you do. Oh, I want to interview you. And then he told [me] he makes it in Westerly once a year. He has been doing it for like 10 years now, and he’s got some out in the car. And I go, let me, I want to, and I follow him up with the car, the camera, the camera’s shaking. He opens the door, reaches into the car. There’s a Victoria’s Secret bag. He takes out junk and gloves off the top of the bag. And in the bottom of the Victoria’s Secret bag is shrink-wrapped, soupy. He picks it up, looks into the camera and starts laughing. He starts laughing like a mad scientist. And it was just, it was all real. And while I’m filming this, I’m going, I can’t believe what I’m getting right now. I can’t believe what I just got. And I wasn’t sure whether the trip going to Providence was gonna be worth it, and it was worth every second.
Hernandez: What did you learn about the families involved in the production?
Cugini: We say in Westerly, we either live next door to each other, or we’re related, or both. And this truly is intertwined families where they compete with each other. What I really learned was how important it was to everyone. And I learned that it’s a lot more than just making this delicacy.
It’s about the generations that get together. My husband’s family uses a hand meat grinder, and when they made it this year, that is over 130 years old. So just think of your hand on that grinder as you move it around. That’s another generation. And that to me is what brought this whole great idea to life is that generations of people will now see this. And this is a gift that Chris has given the community.
Hernandez: Betty-Jo, the premier of the documentary sold out on March 15, the first showing this past weekend also sold out. Why do you think the film is resonating with people so much?
Cugini: I think we’re at a time in this country and in this world where we’re all seeking community. We’re seeking something common, and we’re seeking traditions. And I think especially this time of year when it’s winter and it gets dark early, right? You’re looking for something to bring people together, and I think that was part of it. The United Theater was very good to us in allowing us to show this film. And we thank them for that. But that evening became a living room and everybody got together, and people continue to talk about it. It was crazy. I mean, people were sobbing as they left the theater that night. And the woman who’s the executive director, she pulled me over. She goes, “People are sobbing. They’re crying when they leave.” I said, “Carly, that’s not a good thing.” And she said, “No, you have touched them because you’ve shown people that are no longer with us. You’ve shown people photos of family generations. You’ve really given them a gift because you’ve preserved something that means so much to them.” Chris and I, each day, we text or we talk because we’re amazed at how many people continue to talk about it to us. But they say that they felt a sense of pride, a pride in being Italian, a pride in tradition, and so many families invite outsiders in. So even those people who are not Italian, become Italian for the day.
Hernandez: Well, and you talk about outsiders. I’m wondering like, yeah, what kind of, what are you hearing from people, watching the film? Are you getting a lot of folks outside of Westerly?
Walsh: We are just starting to explore that right now. We were hoping that, you know, after this airs at the United Theater, that we kind of branch out and maybe, you know, spread the word elsewhere or we’re talking about that right now. It’s gonna air on PBS soon and we’re looking forward to that. And that might help us get, you know, maybe we’ll do some more theaters in Providence or something like that, because we do feature Providence in this.
Hernandez: Yeah. You have, the showings are scheduled at the United Theater, on April 7 and 11. I’m wondering, are you able, do you know if you’re gonna be able to get it into other places?
Walsh: We don’t know that yet, but it’s still, it’s still early. And we were talking about also, when I was making the film, when editing early on, We had some aerial video that I was using of Calabria and I went onto a Calabrian website because I wasn’t sure what part of Calabria this was. I was looking for Acri specifically, and they told me, no, that’s not Acri, that’s another section. But, so I found a guy that made, that had an aerial of Acri and it started a chain on a Calabrian website, and everyone’s very interested in our movie out there, so we’re hoping that maybe we can bring the Calabrian and Westerly people and that connection together. Maybe show it out in Calabria sometime.
Hernandez: What do you hope people take away from this film?
Walsh: Well, I mean, I hope that they take away that, you know, family is really, really important and doing things with your family is really important. And like I say, it’s not just about the taste of the delicious and the soupy is delicious. I mean, whether it’s sweet or it’s hot, it’s great, but it’s just, it’s the tradition. It’s the family. That’s the biggest takeaway.
Hernandez: Betty-Jo, what do you want people to take away from this film?
Cugini: I think one of the important things about doing this was that we are celebrating the traditions. We are celebrating the families, but we are also, or Chris, really his gift to the community is he’s encapsulated what this is all about. And everybody now looks at everything on a screen, right? So if this next generation looks at it and sees how important it is through a screen and through that lens. Hopefully, they’ll continue it.
“Westerly’s Gold: Sweet, Spicy, and Full of Tradition” has showings at the United Theatre in Westerly April 7 and 11. You can find more information here.
