By Francesca Leggio

During my childhood I was always curious about food. I remember sitting in my old kitchen watching my father cook dinner, and pestering him with a thousand questions about what he was doing, “what is that?” “why are you cutting it that way?” “why do you have to sharpen your knives?”

My father comes from an Italian American family, and used to live in Long Island, New York so he grew up always having traditional Italian food. My grandparents were both amazing cooks, and took food very seriously. When my family would visit them in Florida -where they moved during retirement- we would always have a large family dinner every Sunday night. This was a classic stereotypical Italian meal-including spaghetti with homemade meatballs, garlic bread, and a variety of biscotti. My father carried on this traditional italian cooking back at our home in Medford, Massachusetts. He would teach us how to roll meatballs, properly bread chicken parmesan, and my favorite, how to make homemade pizza.

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Making pizza was one of my favorite things to do during my childhood, because we only did it for special occasions. On our birthdays my sister and I would get to choose what we wanted to have for dinner, and we could pick anything no matter how expensive or unusual. Instead of taking to opportunity to choose a unique and exquisite meal I would choose to make homemade pizzas with my family. We would start by going to the grocery store, picking out the ingredients; dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, mushrooms, and seasoning. Then we would spread flour over our kitchen counter, roll out the dough, spread tomato sauce, layer cheese, choose our additional toppings, and most importantly add seasoning. My dad always emphasized adding seasoning, and would always praise us when we added enough. Ordering pizza from restaurants was always problematic for my dad because he needed to add red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and sometimes oregano -a habit he has passed down to me. After we prepared the pizza we cooked it in our oven-placing a stone and a pizza tray in to cook it at the right angle. After the pizza was done cooking we would compare how they looked-who had the coolest looking pizza, who’s looked the most realistic, and of course who’s tasted the best.

Although I loved the food related experiences in my childhood I’ve changed my eating habits significantly. About two years ago I became a pescatarian, and started eating much healthier. I also developed many sensitivities and discovered I can not eat too much sugar, butter, salt, or dairy, and I have developed a garlic allergy. When I first discovered these changes I thought eating would be difficult because I could no longer eat many of my favorite foods, or meals from my childhood, but I’ve found that it has led me to try many different kinds of food.

From seitan burgers to chickpea fritters I’ve tried many different kinds of substitutes for the meals I used to eat. I’ve also become accustomed to cuisines I had never tried before such as ramen, buffalo cauliflower and poke. My favorite meal has now changed from homemade pizza to a much healthier option-cous cous with roasted vegetables and cous cous. This is a dish my mom made almost every week back at home, because it was one that myself and my stomach loved.

Here in Italy I’ve made the dish, and it is the only food that has ever made me feel homesick. Roasting the chickpeas coated with paprika, and the aroma of the vibrant mix of vegetables in the oven made me realize that I miss the comfort of my home. This was the first time I realized I could have a personal connection with food. It helped me appreciate the cooking my grandparents and father did in my childhood.

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Now that I’m in Italy-where food is locally sourced, organic, and made with precision and care- I want to try many different kinds of food. So far I’ve already stepped out of my comfort zone and tried a fried zucchini flower, and an eggplant pizza. Living with an array of dietary restrictions can be difficult (especially living with a garlic allergy while in Italy…) but I’ve learned that with care and attention, it’s easy to try different kinds of food.

With living on my own learning how to cook different kinds of food has become a new project. I want to be able to try at least one new recipe a week while I’m here, and learn how to cook something other than pasta. I’ve put the skills and lessons I’ve learned throughout my childhood to use, i.e. the importance of a sharp knife, and how to mince, and kept in mind how I should use the different kinds of food here in Italy. I believe that this coming year will be full of unique food experiences for me, and I can’t wait to learn more.