Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Crossing Borders with Culinary Skills

LAURA WAGNER/THE HOYA A traditional cannoli.
LAURA WAGNER/THE HOYA
A traditional cannoli.

When I smell butter simmering in a skillet or hear chicken popping in a pan, I think of chicken potpie, my favorite dish from home. But I also think of my parents’ kitchen with the wooden table that’s since been replaced, the overflowing spice rack and the stack of newspapers cluttering the corner. This is because food is more than just sustenance; it’s an experience, a tangible link to the past and to other people.

Food is a way to connect with others, to step out of your comfort zone, to express love, to discover new cultures and share your own. Never have I found this to be more true than during my time in Italy.

Before arriving in Marsala, I had, perhaps unwisely, notched my expectations for Sicilian food impossibly high thanks to the many meals and discussions that I shared with my Italian friends during my study abroad semester in Seville. But after six weeks of eating everything placed in front of me, I can say that those expectations have not only been met, but also wildly exceeded.

Cannoli (the famous ricotta-filled Sicilian dessert), pesce spada (swordfish), pasta ai ricci di mare (pasta with sea urchins), caponata (eggplant, zucchini and capers in a sweet and sour sauce), gelato in brioche, arancini (fried rice balls filled with tomatoes and beef), cous cous with seafood, ’nduja (a spicy, spreadable salami from Calabria) and pizza, of course, are some of the typical dishes I’ve had the chance to sample — or rather, devour — during my time in Italy, and each one is more delicious than the next.

In Sicily, the freshness and selection of the produce is unrivaled and the sheer diversity of products, from veal to mussels, is incredible. Not to mention Italian coffee, small shots of strong, rich espresso, the likes of which I’ve never found in the United States, and which has ruined American coffee for me forever.

But even more extraordinary than the actual food is the Italian approach to it. Like an extended scene from a sun-drenched, antique painting, lunches and dinners routinely last hours, from the antipasti (appetizers) to the dulci (desserts). Served in between is pasta, meat, salads, fruit and always, wine, wine and more wine. It’s like stepping into the past, complete with a red-and-white checkered tablecloth.

Food facilitates conversation; that’s a fact. Add a few Italian words and the invaluable hand gesture that means “tasty” (resting the tip of your pointer finger against your cheek and rotating your hand) and the door to friendship swings wide open. And friendship is a two-way street.

Eager to reciprocate, I’ve cheerfully cooked many an “American breakfast” of pancakes, bacon, eggs, orange juice and even real maple syrup. Though the pancakes were met with mixed reviews from my Italian family (the parents raved, the kids not so much) and I overcooked the bacon a couple times (I call it extra crispy), it is a pleasure to share a little bit of home with them.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to make a dinner of barbeque chicken on the grill, broccoli salad, corn on the cob and my mother’s blueberry cake and apple pie. It’s easily the most ambitious meal I’ve ever undertaken, but I’m optimistic. After all, it’s just as much about the experience as the food.

I bought my parents a beautiful Sicilian cookbook as a souvenir. It’s the fancy, hardcover kind, filled with artsy pictures of food and landscapes that could just as easily decorate a coffee table as sit on a shelf in the kitchen. It’s a present for me too, so that when I go home we can cook the recipes together, and I can remember not only the food, but also the people and the conversations and the experiences that went with it.

And I’ll leave the pancake recipe with my Italian family, in the hopes that they can do the same.

Laura Wagner is a rising senior in the College and a former sports editor of The Hoya. The Au Pair Diaries appears every other Monday at thehoya.com.

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