When you’re making pasta… please, please, please make sure to mix your pasta sauce (not gravy… you turkey) with your pasta before serving it!  Don’t serve pasta with sauce just plopped on top.

Italians don't do this... mix your sauce with your pasta!

If you grew up Italian, you probably have a relative that forages for wild plants and mushrooms.  I was lucky enough to tag along with my father, uncles and nonno when I was a kid to learn from them and to this day, heading into the woods has remained one of my favorite pastimes.  So yesterday I headed out to a favorite spot of mine in search for some wild edible plants.

My targets were 2: asparagus and morel mushrooms.  I know where to find the first but the second has managed to eluded me once again (stupid Morels!)

The Asparagus are ready! As you can tell from the photo, these asparagus at one time were farmed. They are much different than the ones we found in Calabria.

read how we came across this wonderful field of asparagus last year.

When we got the asparagus home, we cooked them up and wrapped them in prosciutto!  (of course we did… it makes them more Italian.)

The morels are still a mystery… but I will find them someday.  Here are a few other wild things I came across.

Wild Onions (I think they are officially wild garlic… but they look and smell a lot more like onions to me)

Wild Onions were everywhere!

Wild Mustard Greens … little late when they’ve flowered.

Wild Carrot

Wild Strawberries will be ready soon!

Orpine – The leaves are great raw or in salads.

It’s true: Italians like foraging for wild things.

]]> http://italyville.com/2010/05/stuff-italians-like-wild-edibles/feed/ 13 http://italyville.com/2010/03/learning-italian-italian-language-vacation/ http://italyville.com/2010/03/learning-italian-italian-language-vacation/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:22:34 +0000 Joe http://italyville.com/?p=1340 Thanks to all my readers and friends for helping me reach 50 Comments on my post, Q&A with ABC Italiano author Sonya Caruso! I ordered the 50 books Tuesday and they arrived today.  With the help of Linda, Claudia, Marie and Barbara, I hope to get these books in the right hands and help [...]]]>

Thanks to all my readers and friends for helping me reach 50 Comments on my post, Q&A with ABC Italiano author Sonya Caruso! I ordered the 50 books Tuesday and they arrived today.  With the help of Linda, Claudia, Marie and Barbara, I hope to get these books in the right hands and help some children take their first steps in learning Italian.

I decided to give away 3 books to those of you who were kind enough to leave a comment.  I removed any double comments and pushed everyone up and then used a random number generator:  Congratulations to Gabriele, Girasoli and Pete Maserati! (I will contact you all soon for mailing addresses.) If you still want a book, make sure to head over to Sonya’s website www.italianbabybooks.com/italyville and use promo code: Italyvilleamici for 20% off!

A very special thanks goes out to Mr. James Brady for contacting me to let me know that he was purchasing 10 books from Sonya and working with a local Italian restaurant in his area to distribute them as well.  Thanks for making a difference James!

Are you serious about teaching your child Italian?

If you are, or you want to take a few classes yourself and you live in the Yonkers, NY area: Make sure to check out La Piazza di Carolina. Carolina Gengo Di Domenico has a wonderful school with classes for children starting as young as 6-13 months and working up to adult classes as well.  Carolina takes it a step further however…. how about Italian Language Camp in Italy!  She’s offering Italian classes June 26th – July 17th in Lido di Camaiore, Toscana.  Go to Carolina’s website to see more details on the summer programs for children and adults along with the classes offered at her school in Yonkers.  Brava Carolina!

**There’s still time to participate in the Olive Oil Shop Giveaway (see below.)  You have until 11:59pm tomorrow.

My friends often ask me to teach them “cool Italian words” or “romantic Italian phrases” that usually get them or me in trouble (but could also cause some unsuspecting victim to fall in love with you… so be careful!)  I enjoy just hearing them give it a try… it reminds me of my Italian-American “friend” Joey Tribbiani’s experience trying to learn French (Joey gave me the inspiration to submit my entry to World Nutella Day this year) check it out.

So, if you’re looking for a few romantic Italian phrases here are few easy and tame ones to help you get started.  (I’m not a certified translator, so this is “more or less”)

• Sei una ragazza/donna fantastica = you’re a fantastic women
• Stiamo bene insiemi = we’re good together
• ti voglio un mondo di bene = You mean the world to me/ I care about you a great deal
• Quanto sei figa! = You’re a hotty (using the word “figa” could get you in trouble as it has several meanings, which I won’t explain here.)
• ti amo = I love you (this one is world renown but it never gets old!)
• mi fido di te = I trust you

What are some of your favorite romantic Italian phrases?

The question is, what is Italian food?  I continuously see commercials for large chain restaurants that promote their pizza or pasta or panini or whatever “they think” Italian food is and how they have conquered it… finally!! The ones that irk me the most recently are from Pizza Hut.   One commercial shows how they go to Italy and serve unsuspecting Italians Lasagna and how they all rant and rave about how good it is and how similar it is to their mother’s recipe.  Really? Then the chef comes out and announces to everyone that he didn’t really cook the lasagna but it was actually from Pizza Hut and they give the delivery guys a standing ovation.  {If you know Italians at all, you know that NOTHING is as good as their mother’s food (unless it’s their grandmother’s.)}

A recent commercial shows a family that is blindfolded as they drive off to dinner but are actually brought back to their own house… walk up the same 10 steps to their front door but after tasting the pasta they think they’re at an Italian restaurant (if that’s true, they could be the dumbest family in America.)  Pizza Hut’s claim is “Restaurant Quality Pasta”… which goes to show that they don’t even consider themselves a restaurant (neither do I by the way.) In my opinion, restaurants should be shooting for “Home Quality Pasta.”

Let’s look at this from a marketing standpoint for a second…  In my opinion, Pizza Hut’s campaign revolves around the company’s ability to fool people.  So you go to Italy and fool Italians into eating your lasagna and go to New York to fool people into eating your pasta… you even go to someones house and fool them into thinking they’re somewhere else!  Why would you do that?  The obvious answer is to get people to try something that they would otherwise not try then create conclusions for your real target consumer.  I don’t believe Italians are a target consumer for Pizza Hut… but if their Pasta and Pizza is good enough for Italians then their target consumer will feel better about how authentic it is and buy it.  The contradictions are endless though.. authentically fooling people?  So this leads me to one of two conclusions:

1. Either they are incredibly naive (drinking from the company Kool-Aid) and think their Tuscani Pasta (which is what it’s called) is truly authentic Italian food or…
2. They have no intention of being authentic because that’s not what their target consumer wants.  If their target consumer wanted authentic Italian pasta then they wouldn’t be offering “Creamy Chicken Alfredo” or the ever popular and authentic Italian dish, “Premium Bacon Mac N’ Cheese” neither of which would be found a mile from an authentic Italian restaurant.

So why does this irk me?  To me as an Italian American, it’s insulting.  Food is a big part of our culture and not only do we as Italians and Italian Americans know this but the rest of the world knows it as well.  So if your plan is to capitalize on this fact (and many companies have) then try harder! otherwise don’t brand it as Italian.  There’s nothing wrong with creating a Pizza Hut line of pastas… great, maybe it even tastes good but once you call it “Tuscani Pasta” (which isn’t an Italian word that I know of but is meant to be in my opinion)  and then create a campaign on how Italians in Italy love it and people who eat it think they’re in an Italian restaurant, then it’s a different story.  If Pizza Hut really thinks they’re Tuscani line is authentic then maybe we should have a taste test… How about any of their Tuscani Pasta vs. my mother’s pasta.  We can get a whole restaurant full of Italians and see what they think.  I’ll even substitute my mother’s pasta for any Italian mother’s in the country.  Surely their “Restaurant Quality Pasta” is superior to Mom’s Pasta.  Or maybe they can open a Pizza Hut in Italy (surprisingly there are currently no Pizza Huts in Italy) and serve their pasta and Lasagna!  Their taste test obviously proved that Italians love it! What do you think Pizza Hut?  email me and we can make it happen.

So back to the question: What is Italian Food? Italian food to me is more than just ingredients… it’s an experience, it’s creativity, it’s simple and not overdone, it’s making the best out of what you have locally.  It’s creativity that created pizza when southern Italians had little and wanted to make something delicious with the little they had.  It’s not stuffed crust or extra cheese.

5 clues that your food is not authentic Italian

1. Your tractor trailer pulls up once a week and delivers pizza dough and other food made somewhere else that only needs to be cooked or warmed up at your restaurant.
2. Your menu is a never ending list of over-doing-it.  Super sized, stuffed crust, meat lovers supreme, butt buster specials that come in portions that could feed a large family… twice.
3. You need to try way too hard to get approval from Italians because they would never eat in your restaurant and/or have never heard of the dishes you’re claiming are Italian.
4. You use ingredients that can’t be pronounced in an effort to enhance taste and preserve “shelf-life”
5. Your recipes were developed in a laboratory by chefs with chemistry degrees.

So what is authentic Italian food to you?

In March I was in Calabria visiting my family and did a little wild asparagus hunting with my cousin… if you’ve read some of my posts, you know I like to forage for “wild things” so yesterday when E and I were out on a hike with Dexter (our Italian Labrador…. you mean you didn’t know about Italian Labradors??!) We decided to gather some dandelions for lunch and while I was picking and E was taking pictures, the conversation went something like this:

E: how about some asparagus?

Me: What?… did you say asparagus?  You must be mistaken.

E: No, these are asparagus.

Me: I don’t think so, there’s no asparagus around here.

E: I know what asparagus look like.

Me: HOLY S*&%!!

If you’ve seen the video and the photos of the wild asparagus we found in Calabria you can see the difference.  These asparagus look like the ones you would find in the supermarket.  I remember going asparagus hunting with my father when I was young.  He told me that there used to be an asparagus farm in the fields where we would find them, so the asparagus were thick.  There’s a neighborhood in that field now but I assume that there might be a similar story behind these since it was an old farm that has since been donated as a wilderness reserve…  whatever the story, it’s A-OK with E and me because we’re having asparagus for dinner!

First of all, I would like to thank Maryann from Finding la Dolce Vita for co-hosting the first “Seven Fishes Feast” along with Italyville.  I know I’m not the only one who thinks she has a GREAT blog and equally GREAT personality.  I would also like to thank the team at “Feast of the Seven Fishes” for the book and everyone who participated with these amazing fish dishes from all over the world.  Thank you, Grazie 1000!! Make sure you check out some of your favorite dishes and give them a try…. they’re not here just to look at!  Get in the kitchen and start cookin! We hope you’re able to enjoy some of your own holiday traditions and if you don’t have any, you can always adopt “Seven Fishes Feast” So without further anticipation…. the gift basket goes to: Susan from “Food Blogga” Congrats Susan! Please send your slow mail address when you get a chance.

The snow is starting to get heavy here in New England and it really is starting to look like Christmas…. I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and make sure to check in for some pictures of my family’s “Seven Fishes Feast” and other Italian Holiday Specialties.  Buone Feste e buon appetito!

I moved the Roundup to its own page, so to see it click on the link on the left or here.

It’s true, I want one.  Some people want a sports car or a motorcycle and of course the SMART car is the hottest trend here in the States but not for me… I want a Piaggio Ape.

Me in Zio Toni’s Ape circa 1997