BUONGIORNO, FROM AN ITALIAN CITIZEN🇮🇹
We're celebrating all things Italy in honor of getting our Italian Passports
WE ARE OFFICIALLY ITALIAN CITIZENS!
Well, my Mom and I are :) (Nat had to apply through a much busier and slower Miami Consulate). Getting our Italian citizenship was a years-long process that started during COVID quarantine at the urging of our friend Jon, who insisted we go on this journey and helped us immensely along the way. Visit his website alreadyitalian.com if you’re interested in seeing if you qualify for Italian citizenship! Grazie Tante Jon!
So now, with our passports finally in hand, we want to take this week to celebrate Italy with our favorite Italian dishes and destinations. We also want to give an honorable mention to Alcamo, Sicily where our great-grandfather was born, and, as Nat put it upon seeing all the little old Italians, “where old men go to die.” Salute Alcamo.
Okay, Alcamo, and perhaps Sicily in general, is not our favorite place in Italy, but we’re Sicilian and the food is 10/10. So we’re starting our journey on this southern Italian island with two classic dishes and making our way north through Amalfi, Tuscany, Cinque Terra and ending in our favorite place of all, Lake Como. Andiamo!
SICILY
Sicilian cooking is probably what most people imagine when they think of Italian American food and Carmela Soprano’s baked ziti. When we visited in 2012, we stayed in a villa with my mom’s cousin and were very fortunate to have a local chef cook dinner for us. Her food was to die for, and so after our meal, we put our adulation into Google Translate and played it to her delight.
One of our favorite dishes, a Sicilian staple, is caponata. This roasted eggplant and vegetable side is flavorful, filling, and a great way to boost your veggie intake. I also love eating caponata on a piece of toasted bread with burrata and arugula and making it a full-blown meal 🤤
Honestly, we can’t get enough of this stuff. And it’s very easy to make.
Our second Sicilian feature is a family recipe and probably the most famous thing to come out of Sicily…Cannolis. Our grandma used to make the shell using a broomstick eek 🤦♀️. But we recommend you hit up an Italian bakery or specialty store and buy their shells (most places that sell cannolis will also sell their shells). Once the shells are secured, you’re tasked with making the filling. Our recipe does not contain ricotta or mascarpone cheese, instead, the filling is a thickened milk custard with chocolate chunks and bits of pistachio. And it is delicious.
I made mini cannolis at Christmas last year, and they were a hit.
AMALFI COAST
Our next stop is one of the most popular destinations in Italy. The Amalfi coast is known for its luxurious and beautiful coast towns, lemons, and of course limoncello. A disclaimer for visiting the Amalfi Coast (and basically anywhere in Italy) is to avoid going during the peak tourist summer months of Mid-June through August, and plan your trip at the beginning or end of the season (mid-may through early June or mid-September through early October) for a less crowded vacation. Despite all of this, the Amalfi coast is very unique, very Italian, and very much worth the visit. I also highly recommend you have lunch at the Hotel Caesar Augustus in Anacapri on the island of Capri. It was one of the best and most beautiful lunches I have ever had in my life. 10/10. It’s even worth the potentially rough ferry ride to get there.
In honor of the lemon-obsessed Amalfi, here is a summery Italian Spritz recipe using none other than limoncello.
TUSCANY
Ahhh Tuscany, full of rolling hills, cozy medieval towns, and of course wine. It’s also home to Florence, which is by far our favorite Italian city. The best part is you can visit both the countryside and the city on one trip for two totally different experiences. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that Tuscany is the birthplace of bruschetta, a frequent craving of mine during these hot Chicago summer days. The key to making the best bruschetta is making sure you pick each ingredient carefully. I like to use smaller tomatoes because they tend to be sweeter and more flavorful. This is also the time to use your high-quality olive oil. When it comes to the bread invest in a fresh, chewy loaf, and you will turn even the bruschetta haters (like my sister) into a fan.
I recently picked up a delicious baguette along with some cherry tomatoes and garlic scapes from my farmers market and whipped up a delicious bruschetta appetizer.
CINQUE TERRA
Cinque Terra aka the Italian Riviera is famous for its beautiful vistas, hiking, and pesto. I’m not typically a big pesto girl in the States, as it tends to be too heavy on the garlic and lacks the herby freshness that I love in a pesto. The good news is pesto is very easy to make homemade. I love it on this light summer vegetable ravioli, but I also have been adding it to my sandwiches and it is delightful.
LAKE COMO
And finally, our favorite place in all of Italy… Lake Como. Lake Como is absolutely stunning, with breathtaking beauty everywhere you look. Bellagio is our favorite place to stay, the views are insane and the town is very walkable with cute restaurants and shops nestled on steep streets at the edge of the lake.
Because of its northern location, the food in Lake Como has its own unique cuisine (they love polenta). But we also enjoy some of their lighter Mediterranean fare, especially for lunch, with an Aperol spritz or a glass of cold Italian white wine. Our favorite is Insalata Nizzarda, basically the Italian version of a Nicoise Salad.
Affogatos are an Italian dessert made with a scoop of plain milk-flavored or vanilla gelato or ice cream topped with hot espresso. And while an Affogato was not invented in the lakes region of Italy, it is where we had our first one. And it was insanely delicious.
I recently made a no-churn ginger whisky caramel pecan ice cream and used that as a base for a boozy affogato dessert.
I used small coup glasses for our little sweet treat and because these were minis, I used just one shot of espresso and one shot of ginger whisky for two affogatos.
THANKS FOR READING!
Ciao! 🥂
Hil & Nat
Don’t forget you can access the entire recipe library with all your favs here.
Fabulous . I love your commentary of each area of Italy. I love your recipes & your photographs. Just beautiful!