Chef Libs

Word of the Post: Cucinare (To Cook)

My friends, my housemates from school, my apartmentmates in Rome, my brother, and my parents can all attest that I am no cook. When I came home from home ec class in 6th grade, I told my family all about the mini pizzas we had made that day. I was so excited that I told them I was going to make the mini pizzas for them. It ended up being a tragedy. I burned the mini pizzas. I never really tried to cook again after that. I can do soup on the stove and in the microwave. I can make macaroni and cheese. I can throw Ellios into the toaster oven. And I can make a grilled cheese sandwich.

At school, my housmates would cook the dinner and I would do the dishes, except for the nights when we just wanted soup and sandwiches. Then I had it covered.

So when I got to Rome one of my goals was to learn to cook. None-the-less the first week I found myself doing dishes and my roommates cooking dinner all over again.

That was until last night when Nino and I went to the grocery store and picked up pasta, onions, garlic, bread, parsley, pie, gelato, canned tomatos, cheese, basil, and several other items. Last night, Nino and I cooked a feast.

We made meatballs by rolling meat into egg, cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper.

We then made sauce by using the canned tomatos, onions, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper.

We also topped the baguette of bread with oil and parm cheese so that we could have a break from the usual garlic bread that people make with their dinners.

We mixed up a salad with oil and vinegar.

We put together an appetizer tray of artichoke, mozzerella, prosciutto, and bread.

And then we boiled water for 20 minutes before cooking pasta for the final piece to our meal.

We cooked a feast for four of us, and no one was dissappointed, just full.

For dessert we had blueberry pie with nocciola gelato.

I joked that I slaved all day trying to bake the blueberry pie, and I got a chorus of laughs--maybe next time Libs. I told Nino that it was hard to be Italian. They need hours to start dinner! We began making dinner at 5 and we didn't eat until 8! Patience is a virtue I had to remind myself.

So, now I am basically the next Rachel Ray.