Salve, I'm Alessandra
I was born in Italy 41 years ago on a warm day in July. I believe on that particular day, the sun was high in the sky, big and full of flour, eggs, tomatoes and olives. The air had the aroma of basil, rosemary, garlic and, I suspect, that my mum took me on her arms, went out on the sun, breathed deeply this air and then she kissed me. I'm sure about all that because since that moment I had the curiosity, the passion and the infinite love to cook.
Now life took me to the wonderful city of Des Moines, my cooking luggage is much bigger. I have with me the taste of the great French cheeses, the firm meat of Irish salmon, the hot Mozambican Piri-piri chicken, the soft toughness of Nigerian jam bread, and the colorful Mexican chilies, tacos and tamales.
What will I put next in my infinite luggage?
June 4th 2010
Salve a tutti!
The time of the year has arrived for me to go and water my roots!
This year’s motto was, is and will be: “Die hard, live FREE!”
Yes! This summer for me will be a special, busy, wonderfully long work-vacation in Italy!
In the month of June I’ll have the infinite pleasure to receive two groups of people from Des Moines and host my first cooking tours of Italy! We will explore the tastes and beauties of the Lazio region, and have a lot of fun together in my home town of Viterbo.
Then during the first half of July I’ll go on a gastronomic tour with few of my Italian friends, that are passionate of the sun, sea, bread, olive oil and pasta, around Puglia where will stay at the beach (which I really miss immensely) and will try to find the best Orecchiette in the region. Then we’ll go to Abruzzo and visit the beautiful Parco Nazionale! In those couple of weeks I’ll learn and appreciate a lot of new flavors that I’ll share with you once I am back in Des Moines!
The reminder of July and till half of August, my beautiful daughter Elena will join me in Italy and….I cannot say what we’ll do because this will be a surprise for her! She deserves the best!
Well then, and most of all, I’ll enjoy every single minute in my own town, with my family: my parents my brother, my neice and all my aunties and uncles and cousins! We’ll sit together and visit for hours, talking about all the things that happened in the year we were apart, recalling also all the common friends from Iowa and how wonderfully they treated me and Elena during this last year!
I’ll be back…I’ll be back! With new energy, inspiration and good spirit to cook with all of you and have more fun than ever!
Un bacio a tutti e buone vacanze!
Alessandra
Come to cook in Italy!
Cooking with Alessandra is happy to announce our first overseas cooking class... in my beautiful Italian region: Lazio! Read More...