Food!

My housemates and I sitting down to a delicious family dinner! (notice the olive oil in the center of the table!)

A lot of Italian life, or at least my life in Italy, revolves around food...

Going out for aperitivo - pre-dinner drinks with light food like bruschetta included, getting together with a bunch of friends to cook big dinners (I've somehow become something like the head chef in my apartment, which is fine by me! - even though most of the time I'm totally wingin' it), or going out to a real dinner on special occasions (like tomorrow night for my good friend, Abel's, birthday, where supposedly you can order blueberry-balsamic steak!) are a few examples.

Instead of going to a huge supermarket and buying enough for the next month, Italians go pick up a few things every few days. It's crazy because it feels like you're spending more money that way, but I think it pretty much evens out (that is, if the exchange rate wasn't so terrible...) I've learned to buy my fresh fruits and veggies from the Mercato Centrale - they're exceptionally more tasty, fresher, and cheaper than at grocery stores - and to buy my bread, meat, and cheese at regular grocery stores. However, I've bought parmesan and asiago (called parmigiano in Italian) from this really nice guy at Mercato Centrale, and, man, was that parmesan mind-blowing. Oh and by the way, I just ate an orange that I bought there the other day; it was the best orange I've ever had and was bigger than any grapefruit I've ever seen!

A lot of my hanging out with my housemates revolves around cooking together at night. Sometimes we're each making our own thing and sometimes we all contribute and make something together. I always knew that I liked to cook, but since being here I've realized that I loooooove to cook! Some of my favorite things we've made so far:

• Amazing variations of pizza - we buy the raw crust and then bake it with tons of stuff on it! Tonight Emily, Abel and I made one that had pesto, ricotta, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, my mind-blowing parmesan sprinkled over, chicken, sauteed garlic, prosciutto (which I realized that that I love), oregano, basil, garlic powder, and crushed pepper
• Amazing variations on pasta - I haven't bought tomato sauce since I've been here and instead make my own by sauteing tomatoes and spices, etc., but we've also made homemade gnocchi and other delicious versions of penne, spaghetti, and even a carbonara the other night where you crack the egg in the bowl and let if cook in the hot pasta
• Eggplant parmesan - I first tried to buy breadcrumbs and failed, but it's no big deal because I've made it twice just by frying it in egg in the pan, served with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella
• Artichoke with hollandaise sauce - a big achievement that I didn't ruin the sauce!
• Fried rice with broccoli, green beans, egg, and soy sauce
• Countless variations of sandwiches - often including pesto, ricotta, tomatoes, and prosciutto or salami
• Salad with chicken, tomatoes, onions, and a lemon garlic dressing
• Tiramisu! it. is. amazing. except that we've been whipping egg whites until they're stiff...with a fork...for a half hour (we don't have a egg beater nor a wisk! nor a spatula to flip anything for that matter...)

Anyway, that's all I can remember at the moment, but I'll keep you updated with my newest creations. Usually my day begins with an egg sunny side up, either a piece of bread grilled in the pan with ricotta cheese (my poor attempt to imitate the idea of a bagel...) or some cereal, and a piece of fruit. For lunch I often grab a panini in between classes or my internship (I just found this amaaaazing little place tucked in a back alley and I will dream about forever!), and then come home and cook something delicious for dinner.

Finally, while I'm on the subject of food, it is important to note that the biggest change in my diet hasn't been the abundant intake of carbs (let's face it, I did that before I got here too), or the amazingly fresh ingredients, but it has to do with one key factor in almost everything I eat here: olive oil. I wasn't that big of a fan before I came, only using it to sautee stuff in. But I am a serious convert. We don't even have butter in our house! I use olive oil in everything from frying my eggs in it, to grilling bread with it, to making all sauces, all stir fries, anything made in a pan or drizzling it over anything baked in the oven. It. is. so. good. With 6 people living here, we go through about a bottle every week. I'll never go back to butter again! Yum!