I was born and raised in Verbicaro, a small town in Calabria, on a mountainous
peninsula flanked by the Mediterranean at the “toe" of Italy’s boot. Cooking in
Calabria is simple, but the flavors are immense. Specialties include cured meats
such as salsiccia calabrese and sopressata, the spicy peperoncino, and some of
the most delicious eggplant dishes you will ever taste.
My father was a master cheesemaker and winemaker, and tended our family’s
olive groves, vineyards and farm where we also kept goats and sheep. Almost all
of our food came from our land or the nearby Mediterranean, and my mother and
grandmothers prepared the dishes with great care. As a child, I took wheat to the
mill (returning home coated from head to toe in white flour!), watched olives
pressed into oil, and loved cooking as far back as I can remember.
Our family moved to the Bay Area in California when I was 14 years old. We
quickly settled into the fast pace of life here but always kept our slow-cooking
traditions of old – we grow our own produce, make our own ricotta and cure our
own salsiccia calabrese with peperoncino from our garden. Cooking remained a
large part of my life through high school, a chemical-engineering degree at the
University of California Berkeley and a successful career in Silicon Valley.
In 2001, when I became a stay-at-home mom, I returned to my roots in the
kitchen, honing skills learned from my mother and grandmothers. A San
Francisco Chronicle story in 2004 on my family, “Calabria from Scratch – Foods
of Calabria,” inspired me to venture into teaching the cooking of my native land.
The article produced such an overwhelming response that I realized there is a
great interest in the foods of our region and that I must share what I was so lucky
to have grown up with, lest the dishes and recipes be lost forever.
Calabrian cooking is yet unexplored. The region is off the beaten path and the
best foods are found in farmers’ homes, not fancy restaurants. My goal is to
introduce students to dishes that would be served when invited to a home in
Southern Italy…and to the Calabrian ways of turning fresh, simple fare into dishes
fit for a king.
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