All About Italian Cooking In Italy

My mother was a very good cook. She did not make fancy meals, but everything she made was flavorful and made with high quality ingredients. We lived on a dairy farm so there were always fresh dairy products and meats. We also had huge vegetable gardens, a strawberry patch and apple orchard. My mother would can and freeze all the fresh fruits and vegetables. I was in college before I ate store bought bread. I am from German heritage so it is surprising that my passion is Italian cooking.

I began helping my mother prepare food when I was five years old. I always loved watching her in the kitchen. My father is a meat and potatoes man. He never liked sauces of any kind. When I went off to college I shared a house with six other college students. Two of the other women were from Italian heritage. They taught me about the wonders of Italian cooking. When we all moved in together we agreed that on Sunday evenings we would have a house meal. We would change off cooking the meal. This would be our chance to catch up on what everyone did over the weekend and what everyone had going for the coming week. The rules for the meals were that everyone would sit at the table together, no one would take phone calls, and the food had to be home made, no ordering pizza.

These Sunday evening dinners are my favorite memory from college. We would spend a couple of hours eating and drinking wine and sharing stories of our lives. Also having authentic Italian cooking was an added bonus. The two Italian girls were quite competitive when it came to putting together a meal. The result or this was that the rest of us were treated to outstanding dishes. One of the girls offered to teach me some of the techniques and recipes of Italian cooking. The thing that I like best about this cooking is that the ingredients are always fresh and simple. It is combining quality ingredients and cooking them properly that create the wonderful tastes.

It has been many years since I was in college. I have married and have raised three children. I have kept the tradition of Sunday dinners. No matter what else was going on in everyone’s life, they were expected to be at the dinner table on Sunday evenings. We spent the time catching up with each other and sharing our plans for the up coming week. The same rules applied, no phone calls and the meals had to be homemade. The kids and my husband help with the preparations. It is everyone’s favorite when they know that I am doing Italian cooking.