Dear Blog Readers – I am on a train headed back to Rome after a busy weekend bouncing around the Piedmont region of Italy with Italy’s Foreign Press Association’s “Gruppo Del Gusto” a sort of Culinary Club of journalists who travel around Italy visiting towns looking at local foods and food production, eating a lot …
The tragic fate of America’s beloved Twinkie has even made the pages of Italian newspapers. Italians, who pride themselves on their healthy Mediterranean diet, are fascinated by the eating habits of Americans. Italians generally eat pasta at lunch, fruit for dessert and perhaps dip some bread in olive oil, or have a small scoop of …
Drinking coffee is a unique experience in Italy and it is nothing like drinking coffee in the United States. An Italian caffe’, or espresso, comes in a tiny white cup and it is a deep brown syrupy-looking liquid at the bottom with a few little lighter brown bubbles around the edges. Italians stand at the …
It didn’t take long living in Rome for me to develop a giant cooking complex. Cooking is not my forte and I soon realized that every time I cooked Italian food for a dinner party I got something terribly wrong (see post Amatriciana in the Blender). Italians love Italian food and are not particularly adventurous …
For Christmas 2010, I decided to do an American Thanksgiving-style menu for the extended family. I ordered the turkey and went to the specialty store to get cranberry sauce and put together a menu. But, this being Italy, I wanted to be sure to serve a pasta course first. In Italy, you always need to …
As Christmas nears in Rome, I get antsy about holiday traditions. I become achingly nostalgic about the New England Christmases of my childhood. I miss the family outing to cut down the Christmas tree, and the project of putting it up and decorating it. I miss making, baking and decorating Christmas cookies with my mother …
One evening my husband Gustavo called me at 7 pm as I was getting ready to leave the office. “ARE YOU LEAVING?!!?” he demanded. “Yes, yes,” I replied, “I’m just running out the door. “ “OKAY, leave NOW, because sto buttando la pasta.” (I am throwing the pasta.) ‘Throwing the pasta’ is an important concept …
Food is nearly always top priority for Italians. A certain delicacy may even be worth physical risk. One example is the behavior of Roman cameraman Massimo Mariani. According to the story recounted to me by CBS producer/editor Jos Mason, Massimo was in the back of a jeep headed with a CBS crew down some rough …