Mangiamo Italiano

"We'll get a table near the street in our old familiar place."

I’ve officially been back from Italy for over a week and realize I’m well past the window to legitimately blame jet leg on my perpetual state of fogginess. Photographer Ed Anderson and I visited around 21 different cities in ten days on the ground and despite all the wonderful people, shared toasts, and great memories such an adventure can take a toll on a guy.

And in each of those towns and cities we had to eat and I wanted to share some of those dishes here. Most of our visits with producers began with a quick caffè as soon as we walked through the doors and then the second question posed was almost always: Can you stay for lunch? We had a lot of great lunches, which usually consisted of antipasti and primi (typically pasta or risotto), dolci, caffè, and then a digestivo (grappa, amaro, anisette). We obviously ate dinner (often nibbling our way through aperitivi spreads at bars), but with the late start time of most Italian meals several of these crept close to midnight when we should have been getting our beauty sleep before our five or six in the morning wake-up call.

I don’t think I’m generalizing too much when I say that Italians tend to eat quickly and eat everything on their plate. I was always the last person eating during each course and was politely scolded by our hosts whenever I left food on my plate. After dispatching a pork belly-wrapped rabbit loin, the man next to was aghast at the bits of broccolini and potatoes I left behind and grabbed piece of bread to school me on the art of scarpetta as we wiped my plate clean. This may just mean I’m a slow eater, was trying to pace myself, or that I was talking and asking too many questions in the name of research rather than enjoying my food with gusto.

Pizza