Join me as I share my recipes, family gardening secrets, travel tips to Calabria, and all the best this Southern Italian region has to offer.
You’ll probably have questions, such as those my cooking students always ask: How do you cure your olives? How do you produce so much food in such a small garden? When is the right time to forage for wild fennel? Where do you find authentic Calabrian products? What are the best hotels in La Sila? Where are the good places to shop?
Calabria is still off the beaten path for tourists, and the best dishes are found in farmers’ homes, not fancy restaurants. As a cooking teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, I introduce students to dishes served in homes in Southern Italy and I show Calabrian ways of turning fresh, simple fare into dishes fit for a king. As a good Calabrian mother, I pass on these secrets to my kids the way my grandparents passed them on to my parents, and my parents to me. With this blog I can share them with the rest of the world, too, lest they be lost forever.
I hope you enjoy what I post here and learn more about my cooking, my garden, and this wonderful unspoiled region of Italy, my Calabria.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Rosetta…
Your tour sounds terriffic and the fact that you have vegetable plants in the groung year-round makes me jealous. My plot in Chicago was just turned over and the manure isn’t warn enough to even smell because it is still in low 30′s at night and not yer 70 during the day! Keep blogging because I live vicariously through your journeys! PS: Can’t wait to see the book and trust the family is well! Bob
My first “blog” and am thrilled that it’s yours!!! I am drooling just thinking about joining you in Calabria….I love the photos of your garden and can’t wait until the San Marzano’s are reading for planting…..see you in class!!! Joyce
Love the photos, love your folks, and love living near you. I just invited people for dinner, and the first thing I did was go to your recipes in order to “impress.” Everything I have learned to make from you (and my kids, too) is delicious and impressive. The best thing is learning to integrate another culture into our cooking repetoires.
Hope to be with you in Calabria. Can hardly wait to plant some San Marzano’s –building cages this weekend. And love the new website.
My Dad (from Calabria) had the best garden. He had goats, and of course the manure. My favorite dishes were zuccinni flower fritters* (picked in the morning and served at breakfast), and zipple (a potato dough with an anchovy rolled in the middle and then deep fried. Serve only on Christmas eve, something my Irish husband could not understand.
* Chopped zuccinni flowers, cheese, egg, flour, and herbs