I'm Cooking My Way Through Italy In 2021

Oh boy. I sit here taking a deep, deep breath before I press “publish” on this bad boy. In relaunching my blog over a week ago, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was about adding food to my travel blog made me feel this way… but I knew intuitively that it would guide me towards a grand idea of *something* big.

New Year’s Eve seems to be the appropriate time for me to share my biggest ambition for 2021... so here goes. I’m cooking my way through Italy in 2021. In lieu of travel restrictions and closed borders, my kitchen will become my sanctuary and my playground for exploration. The idea of “cooking through" something isn’t new (one viewing of “Julie and Julia” will show you that!) … but it means a hell of a lot to me.

I’m an Italophile through and through. I’m an Italian-American. Italy was the crown jewel, the “homeland” for my late-grandfather. Italy is the country I’ve visited the most outside of my home country. I’ve eaten my way through Rome’s best cacio e pepe, I’ve sought out slow, languid trips in the high hills of the Dolomites, I’ve sweated my way through a massive heat waves in Milan and gotten far too lost in Venice. In a way, this quest is my great experiment and most open love letter to Italy.

In the isolated climate we are currently in, I have very little hope that my feet will touch down on Italian soil any time soon. And that breaks my heart. As I’m sure it does for many of you reading this! My goal is to revel in and savor that deep connection I personally feel with bella Italia. I want to learn. I want to feel that kinship I always feel when I’m in the midst of Italy’s beauty first-hand.

They say that taste and smell are the closest senses to memory. Could this quest make me relive those moments? Could a dish I make at home make me feel transported? Will this journey make me long for Italy even more than I do right now? Maybe. I intend to find out, either way.

Now - the details! There are 20 regions of Italy. I will be cooking at least one dish from each region by the end of 2021, with the hope of doing much more if I can muster the time. Here’s hoping!

I’ll be following this iconic Italian cookbook primarily, but I’ll also be supplementing recipes with other authentic cookbooks. Please send your favorites my way if you have any. (I mean it!)

My goal is not only to cook a dish, but also to fill my brain with knowledge and a deeper understanding of regional histories, cultural nuances and more from each one of these regions. And, of course, documenting and sharing it with you all!

I’ll be posting everything here, as well as more fun stuff on Instagram and TikTok too. I would love to have you follow along.

Thank you, as always for supporting this little blog of mine… this project is a little dream that I know will teach me and guide me, thanks to your love.