News flash: there’s a lot more to a country’s cuisine than its dishes, even a food capital like Italy. I can talk about timpano or risotto until I’m blue in the face, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m honoring Italian culture. The pacing of a meal, pairing of ingredients, and even the time of day all play a role in the actual Italian diet. Gaining a better understanding of the heart of an Italian kitchen is why I started this blog in the first place.

For this experiment, I stuck to what I know best - Northern Italy; specifically, the regions of Lombardy and Piedmont. With my experience living about fifteen minutes from the border of Lombardy, plus some help from cousins and my Turin-based friend, Viola, I put together a menu for our Italian Sunday. I aimed not only to incorporate legitimate regional meals but also to take inspiration from the basic tenets of Italian food culture. Some rules to live by:

1. Simplicity. Any good Italian meal can be as simple as a light tomato sauce, fresh basil, and pasta.

2. Slow Food. Italy is the home of the slow food movement. Ingredients should be locally-sourced (if possible) and also in-season.

3. Use what you have. Italian culture, like many others, seeks to avoid waste. It’s important to use the ingredients in your fridge - resourcefulness and improvisation are the names of the game.

Breakfast

I’ve said it before: big breakfasts are not a thing in Italy. In the cafes of Milan, the usual morning fare consists of a brioche/cornetto/croissant (the difference still confuses me - here’s a helpful guide) and a cappuccino or espresso. Though I’m accustomed to starting my day with a sunny plate of eggs and toast or an English muffin with peanut butter, I ignored my hunger and ate a plain croissant while sipping black espresso. You may already know that I prefer my caffeine after noon, but I sacrificed my daily routine for the sake of journalistic integrity. Surprisingly, I lasted until lunch without hearing my stomach growl. Still, it’s safe to say I’ll be adopting many other Italian customs before ditching morning protein.

Lunch

General rules dictate that Italians eat later than Americans. Lunch is typically eaten around 1 or 2 pm and dinner around 8. At 2, my husband, Matt, and I sat down for a lunch of fresh pasta with Cremini mushrooms and walnuts. Northern Italians usually eat a midday meal of pasta with veggies. I used this recipe as a baseline as it didn’t require out-of-season vegetables, and I also had walnuts in my pantry. However, I did make a few adjustments per the aforementioned “rules” of Italian cuisine. First, my pasta maker isn’t fitted for tagliatelle, so we used homemade fettuccine. Instead of buying Grana Padano, I used the Pecorino Romano from my fridge (Pecorino is made of sheep’s milk and thus is saltier and less creamy). Since Trader Joe’s, my market of choice, didn’t have Porcini mushrooms, we made do with Cremini, the universal fungi.

After one bite, I’d forgotten about my lackluster breakfast. The dish was bright, zesty, and rustic all at once. I love that the Italian lifestyle calls for homemade, hot lunches. Fortunately, remote work has gifted Matt and me with many hot midday meals at our dining table, but the concept is foreign to many Americans. The thought of eating a bowl of carbs may also be off-putting to some, but I’m a staunch carb advocate, and I felt nourished after sitting down to a hearty (yet light) plate of vegetarian pasta. While enjoying my lunch, I recalled an anecdote from Taste, Stanley Tucci’s recent memoir. One of the best meals he ever had was a ten-minute dish prepared in an Italian office building during lunch hour. Goes to show that a little pasta, olive oil, garlic, pepperoncini, and zucchini can go a long way.

Dinner

With the obsession around Italian food, it can be tough to remember that Italians are - gasp! - just like you and me. That is, at the end of the day, Italians aren’t chained to pizza or pasta, they eat whatever they want. When I asked Viola what Torinesi usually eat for dinner, she suggested anything from soup to sushi. Northern Italy is particularly modernized and diverse, with restaurants offering every type of cuisine. Matt and I essentially could have ordered in Japanese for dinner, but I wanted to stick with tradition. Therefore, I would be remiss not to cook a classic meat Milanese (basically Italian schnitzel).

Veal Milanese is the go-to, but I avoid veal when possible. Instead, I whipped up a batch of pork Milanese with lemon and a side of sautéed spinach (in-season!). It’s a simple, hearty meal that represents German/Austrian influence in the North. Giada has a delicious, easy-to-follow recipe that turned out wonderfully, despite the fact that I completely forgot to pound the meat, thus needing to finish it in the oven.

In conclusion…

Will I be eating croissants for breakfast on a daily basis? No. Will I spend an extra twenty minutes making fresh pasta and sitting down to lunch with my husband? Absolutely. The afternoon pause for a hot, flavorful meal satisfied every craving and the carbo-load fueled the rest of my Sunday afternoon. Dinner offered a welcome change from our regular fare, as I rarely cook neither pork nor Austrian-inspired food. As I sit down to write this post, my stomach is happily full and I’m already dreaming of the next region to explore.

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