{"id":7765,"date":"2017-12-01T22:21:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T05:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marialiberati.com\/?p=7765"},"modified":"2017-12-01T22:21:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T05:21:08","slug":"stories-from-the-heart-and-a-holiday-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2017\/12\/01\/stories-from-the-heart-and-a-holiday-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories from the Heart | ft. Holiday Turdilli Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is another heart warming story of food and cooking Italian with The Basic Art of Italian Cooking from one of our readers. And if you have a story to share with our The Basic Art of Italian Cooking readers…. love to hear it… Send your story (500 words or less) to info@marialiberati.com<\/a>.
\n*Please note that emailing your story consents permission to reprint without monetary compensation and gives Art of Living PrimaMedia Inc permission to edit the story for publication as necessary,
\nThis story comes from Anna M. Aquino (www.annamaquino.com<\/a>) Thanks, Anna!
\nGuest Post by Anna M. Aquino<\/em>
\nI still remember the scene. My husband and I were newly married and I was trying to be a good wife by cooking what I thought would be a good meal. We were renting the back end of a house in downtown Pittsburgh, Pa. at the time and the floorboards of my kitchen were warped and uneven. The smell of bean soup flavored with a ham hock and cornbread had been a cultural staple of my childhood. I grew up with foods like mashed potato candy and corned beef and cabbage. I knew what was the American version of spaghetti, but that is as far as my Italian cooking went. Culturally I come from the most politically correct term of Appalachian, but with loving humor, I say I\u2019m an Ohio Redneck.<\/em>
\n 
\n\"pietra<\/a>(photo of Pietra Fietta from examiner.com)<\/em>
\n“What is that?” I could tell my husband was forcing a smile. It was a look that was painted on with humor and obligation. My husbands\u2019 family immigrated from a small village called Pietra Fietta Cosenza Italy in the 50\u2019s. While he has never set foot in his motherland he grew up in an oasis of Italian culture and life. He didn\u2019t speak English until he went to school. He had no need to.<\/em>
\nHe tried the meal, and if I remember correctly with a slight gagging reflex he managed to consume a bowl. I realized th<\/em>at night I would have to learn to cook Italian.
\nAs an outsider looking into my mother-in-law’s kitchen it can be a bit overwhelming. Italians celebrate food as one would examine a fine piece of art. My mother-in-law is a Rembrandt in the kitchen. When you ask her how to cook something she\u2019ll tell you by memory. There are no exact measurements and it\u2019s done all to taste. She wields her wooden spoon like a paintbrush wafting homegrown ingredients out of my father-in-law\u2019s backyard garden teasing the palate. Mouthwatering dishes, that until I married my husband, I had never heard of: Vitello, gnocchi, homemade tiramisu, and melanzana. The women come together for weeks before the holidays to make Turdilli,a traditional sweet from Cosenza… They still cure their own capicollo, prosciutto, and make their own sausages. It\u2019s as if they have an internal scale in their mind and it isn\u2019t okay to leave their home unless you have tasted everything. Family meals are seas of faces, copious amounts of wine, and people shouting Mangia Mangia !<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve been trying my Italian wings now for 12 years. I\u2019ve learned the family secret to the sauce, but don?t ask me what it is because I can?t tell you. My cooking still isn\u2019t as good as my mother-in-law\u2019s but I\u2019m working on it, and I understand my husbands need to have some kind of pasta on Sundays. I still make my Ohio foods, and my husband has learned to tolerate them. My tour through Italian cooking has been a journey but like any good wine, and it just keeps getting better!<\/em>
\n[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:24]
\n 
\nFor more Holiday recipes get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays and Special Occasions- 2nd edition\"\"<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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