Italian Food and Food Culture – Types of Food

Italian Food and Food Culture – Types of Food

Growing up Italian-American, I though I knew Italian food pretty well, but each year that I live in Italy, I consider myself more and more “American”. The first thing to note about Italian food is how diverse it is. Some … (read more)

Posted on September 8, 2014 by kaitlyn - 32 Comments
Gathering Chestnuts

Gathering Chestnuts

Daniele’s family gathers chestnuts every fall to enjoy in winter. They go to a forest-like park where they know chestnut trees grow and gather garbage bags worth of them. This fall Daniele, his father Giulio, and I went to gather … (read more)

Posted on October 18, 2013 by kaitlyn - 24 Comments

Eggplant Preserving

I was recently having a conversation about preserving and prompted to write about how we preserve eggplant. There are two ways to do it, under oil and under vinegar. I prefer the under oil version (Melanzane Sott’olio), as the vinegar … (read more)

Posted on October 20, 2012 by kaitlyn - 36 Comments

Sauce versus Gravy

There are some Italian-American’s out there who have a thing for correcting people who say “sauce” and telling them it’s called “gravy”. It’s often accompanied by a (an even more grating) statement about how they say it that way because … (read more)

Posted on August 3, 2012 by kaitlyn - 42 Comments
Pinoli Nuts

Pinoli Nuts

Hearing Pinoli (or Pine) nuts came from trees that grow all over the place was almost like hearing there was a money tree. Or an avocado* tree. Pinoli nuts are so delicious, and versatile, and expensive– I can pick them … (read more)

Posted on August 20, 2011 by kaitlyn - 24 Comments
Pesto Day

Pesto Day

Daniele’s Mother makes pesto a few times each summer, when her and Daniele’s basil is growing. This time I helped. We harvested all our basil in the morning and brought it over. Then theirs. It was a lot. Antonietta determined … (read more)

Posted on June 22, 2011 by kaitlyn - 27 Comments