Author of over thirty traditionally-published books for young readers, Margo Sorenson spent the first seven years of her life in Spain and Italy, devouring books and Italian food and still speaks (or tries!) her childhood languages. Her most recent Adult/Young Adult novel, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION (Fitzroy Books, October 2018), takes place in Positano, with heroine Alessandra, whose being able to speak Italian helps her to feel at home in Italy, once again. For more information on ordering these and Margo’s other books, please visit www.margosorenson.com

Since early childhood, I’ve been awed by the power of words and languages to connect people and cultures. I was fortunate to grow up speaking three languages—that scenario isn’t that unusual today in our globally-connected world—and, if you happen to be a Diplomatic Service kid, as I was, it’s a given. Because I lived in Spain and Italy for seven years as a child, my early immersion in Spanish and Italian made it normal to think of different words to use for the same concept or object. One of the reasons I became a writer is because of this early fascination with words and their powerful ability to help people communicate and relate to each other, which I experienced every day as a child. Reading my childhood books in Italian and Spanish prompted me to broaden my horizons and to enjoy imaginary worlds; wanting to try to create for young readers what those authors had created for me was another motive for my becoming a writer. Because my early years in Italy left an indelible—and precious—mark on me, it was only natural to incorporate la bella Italia, its culture, and its cuisine in some of my books. It’s been a special way of “coming home.”

For example, in my middle grade novel, FUNNY MAN, high school football player/comedian-wannabe Derrick needs to pay for football camp, so he gets a job at the Taste of Italy. Derrick figures out a creative way to help owner Joe bring more customers into the restaurant, a win-win for everyone, and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to use Italian words and write about Italian cuisine in the story.

In my picture book, SPAGHETTI SMILES, Jake must find a new neighbor for his Uncle Rocco’s crazy, mixed-up Italian restaurant, but it won’t be easy! Being able to write whimsically about Italian food and family was a lots of fun, and young readers giggle at illustrator David Harrington’s flying lasagne squares and tomato sauce being pumped into cars.

My Adult/Young Adult novel set in Positano, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION, asks this question: “What seventeen-year old girl wouldn’t want to return to Italy and meet a handsome, young, Italian university student? For Alessandra, the answer is more complicated—and dangerous.” While I was writing the novel, I loved “transporting” myself back to Italy and being able to use the Italian language and customs I had grown up with. It is the “book of my heart.” Our Italian friends were a great help in writing this book.

My love of words also prompted me to write my picture book, CALVIN GETS THE LAST WORD, in which Calvin tries to find the perfect word to describe his super-annoying older brother, and illustrator Mike Deas creates hilarity on every page with his wonderful illustrations. The words are all in English, but, Calvin could be Italian.

Il cuore é italiano—and yours could be, too, as you connect with others through Italian language study. I encourage everyone to keep up language studies—you never know what the future could bring!

SELECTED PRAISE FOR BOOKS:
FUNNY MAN (ages 7-12):
2003 Minnesota Young Adult Book Award finalist
Nominated for YALSA’s 2003 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
Recommended in Multicultural Review, Editor’s Shelf

SPAGHETTI SMILES (ages 4-8):
“This humorous children’s adventure stars Jake, a boy who loves hanging out at Rocco’s Italian
Restaurant after school. And it’s a sweet story, too, with some good lessons about business and
family.”—Don Oldenburg, The Ambassador, (National Italian American Foundation’s official
magazine)
“Could reading and Italian food be a match made in heaven? Exuberant, playful illustrations
perfectly set the mood of this boisteriously funny picturebook.”–Midwest Book Review

SECRETS IN TRANSLATION (ages 12-adult):
“Utterly charming!”– Allison K. Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association
“SECRETS IN TRANSLATION is a perfect mix of travel, culture, romance and mystery!”– Anita
Celucci, Past President Massachusetts Library Association
“A delightful armchair excursion to the romantic heart of southern Italy! Brava!”– Dianne
Hales, Honorary Knight of Italy and author of  La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World

CALVIN GETS THE LAST WORD (ages 4-8):
“A featured pick for “picture books about words.” The New York Times Children’s Book Review
“A fun story that promotes vocabulary development and dictionary use. (Picture book. 5-8)”
—Kirkus Reviews

Author of over thirty traditionally-published books for young readers, Margo Sorenson spent the first seven years of her life in Spain and Italy, devouring books and Italian food and still speaks (or tries!) her childhood languages. Her most recent Adult/YA novel, SECRETS IN TRANSLATION (Fitzroy Books, October 2018), (with research help from Gabriele) takes place in Positano, with many wonderful experiences shared together with Italians—as well as delicious meals. www.margosorenson.com

I was beyond thrilled to begin planning our first trip to Italy with our family. For me, it was a return trip, having spent my early childhood in Napoli and Bari, and I was nervous but excited. Would my Italian hold up? My parents had been right, as I discovered on an earlier trip to Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton, about my Southern Italian accent opening doors, but, this was going to be two entire weeks in Italy, and I was the only (hopeful) Italian speaker.

We’d gotten some wonderful recommendations from our Italian friends for places to stay and sights to see. All I had to do was go on the internet and book everything. Luckily, I could always find the “English/Italian” button on each website, just in case my Italian failed me—I had no illusions about my language competence.

I had told our family about the accent issue, so they could be prepared for whatever might happen—a flood of welcoming, rapid Italian, much of which would go right over my head until I spoke the magic words, “Mi dispiace—il mio italiano non é buono—parli lentamente, per piacere.” I’m sorry, my Italian isn’t good—please speak slowly.

Sure enough, right away, my Italian was put to the test, when we picked up our two rented vehicles at Fiumicino, the Rome airport. Luckily, I had my well-thumbed Italian-English dictionary with me. On our trip north to la Toscana, our daughters’ car had a flat tire, and our air conditioning didn’t work. This began the fabled “Mom-drop”—meaning, my family would find the place we could get help, or directions, and “drop me off” to ask my questions in Italian, and, if there was no parking, they would circle back to pick me up once I had the answers.

Our first stay, highly recommended by our American friend who’d lived in Italy for thirty years, was at Agriturismo Buondonno, a fabulous agriturismo in la Toscana, halfway between Siena and Firenze, with a drop-dead gorgeous view of the countryside, in Castellina in Chianti.
https://www.buondonno.com/agriturismo Our friend told us, “It’s not turistico at all—it’s the real Italia, and very comfortable.” She was so right. Because I didn’t trust my Italian for arranging tours and so on, I’d made sure that our host, the owner-winemaker Gabriele Buondonno, spoke excellent English, so my husband and family could communicate with him, as well. (We call that “sharing the burden.”) Naturally, when we checked in, Gabriele heard my accent when I said, “Buon giorno, signore,” and he raised his eyebrows and grinned. That was the end of my being able to speak English with him—he’d speak English willingly with our family, but with me, he said, grinning ear-to-ear, he would speak only Italian! He’d grown up in Napoli, as well, so it was very heartwarming.

This was the absolutely perfect place for our family to become acquainted with the Italy I’d grown up in and loved. Michaelangelo had once stayed there (yes, it is that old!), and, with multiple-foot-thick walls and vines growing on them, surrounded by vineyards and other farms and wineries, and a salumeria down the road, it was a welcoming venue. We had a separate house on the grounds, as well as an apartment, which was part of the main house, Casavecchia. Gabriele, our gracious host, being the wine-maker and vintner of choice for many of the restaurants in the surrounding countryside, offered to make dinner reservations for us, procured tickets for us to see David in Firenze, made sure we could find the Duomo in Siena, and generally made life easy and delightful.

One evening, we hired “lo chef” through him—a local, well-known cook, named Maria—to come in and cook the specialties of the region for us. She ran cooking classes in the Chianti region, and she was not only an incredible cook, (grew all her own herbs and greens and vegetables and made her own pasta) but she was also from Napoli and my age, exactly. While she was concocting our fabulous dinner, I asked her (in Italian, of course) if she knew a song whose chorus was “Lo sai che i papaveri son’alti, alti, alti,” and, oh, my goodness—you would have thought she’d won la lotteria! She beamed and began to continue singing the song, so we did a duet, much to the delight and amazement of my family. (What is Mom doing, for heaven’s sake, singing a kids’ song in Italian with our chef?) She was so delighted that she had to call some of her friends right on the spot! (“I’m singing ‘I papaveri’ with an American tourist!”) To be able to sing that song once again for the first time in decades was a precious moment I will always remember. Here is as much of her wonderful menu as I can remember (Gabriele and she worked out the pairings of the wine from his winery and her food, so we didn’t go thirsty, shall I say): antipasto: fresh greens, homemade Tuscan-style salame and prosciutto, crostini with chicken liver pate, crostini with marinated mushrooms and artichokes, bruschetta and roasted peppers, first course: pappardelle with wild boar sauce and rolled baked eggplant with fresh tomatoes, main course: herb-roasted pork shoulder baked in a cornmeal/rosemary crust and fresh vegetables; dessert: torta with tiny grapes and figs. Oh, my goodness what a feast! And she did the dishes, too, smiling and conversing with us about the countryside and Italy!

All in all, it was a beautiful beginning to our Italian visit—and the melodic Italian language opened doors and welcomed me home, once again!

By Luigi Diotaiuti
Chef/Owner Al Tiramisu Restaurant – Washington, DC – Ambassador of Italian Cuisine & The Cuisine of Basilicata in the world- Founder: Basilicata: A Way of Living – Certified Italian Sommelier

June is National Dairy Month, and there is no other month that brings my beloved homeland of Basilicata to mind more than it does. When I think of dairy, my mind immediately drifts back to my childhood and our farm. My food education was especially rich when it came to cheese-making, due to the constant supply of fresh milk from our herds. As a boy, I watched in fascination as my mother and father turned milk into caciocavallo, mozzarella, ricotta, and scamorza. My father expertly worked with cow’s milk to make products like butter, caciocavallo, treccie calli (braided cheese), and mozzarella. He was a master at shaping the caciocavallo into delightful designs like roosters for us kids. My mother prepared goat’s milk cheeses, churning out more than a dozen round wicker baskets of ricotta every day.

For me, cheese was more than just an amazing culinary ingredient, it was also a main source of our livelihood and currency. I actually paid for my tuition to culinary school with my father’s cheese. Nowadays, as the fifth most expensive cheese in the world, caciocavallo padolico does a great deal to boost my home region’s economy. Making it in the same artisan way preserves, just as the Italian language and our dialects do, our culture.

For this reason, I decided to start a non-profit organization in Italy called Basilicata: A Way of Living. My mission is to maintain the local traditions of the region while creating jobs, supporting sustainable agriculture, and promoting tourism. Two of our organization’s main projects, Pasta Lab and Sirino in Transumanza have garnered national and international media attention.

La Transumanza

One of the activities that I enjoy most in life is to travel to Basilicata in June to take part in a 3,000 year-old tradition. It’s called la transumanza (“crossing the land”) and refers to the process of moving cattle from the lowlands to their summer pastures in the mountains, and then back again. I put on my cowboy hat, pack my back sack, and accompany my brother Antonio, as on foot we move nearly 120 cows through gorges, glens, rural villages, even across a few paved roads, until we finally arrive at the summer pastures in Monte Sirino, a popular ski resort in the winter with an altitude of more than 4,000 feet. The 75-mile trip takes us three to four days – depending upon how many calves are in the herd to slow us down.

I am thrilled to make the journey and not just for the pleasure of walking through breathtaking scenery accompanied by the ancient sound of cowbells. Participating in this ritual fills me with joy because I am able to help my brother Antonio carry on our family legacy. During the transumanza, I feel so deeply connected to the land, that it’s almost as if I never left. I also make the trip to help publicize a tradition that’s in danger of dying out. When I take part in the transumanza, word spreads, and I am able to voice the importance of this tradition through the Italian media. They ask me why a busy chef from Washington D.C. takes time to participate in the ancient tradition. My response is that everyone benefits from keeping the transumanza alive. Cows have access to good grazing pastures and therefore produce superior milk. Farmers use the milk to make top-quality cheeses, such as the famous local Caciocavallo Podolico, scamorza and ricotta. The high quality of these products makes them attractive on the world market, which ultimately gives a huge boost to the local economy of my native region.

We shouldn’t stop walking in the footsteps of our ancestors and by participating in the transumanza I am literally doing my part to perpetuate the tradition. It’s my declaration that ancient practices and harmony with our environment produce superior food and happier, healthier communities. I am honored to have so many residents and community leaders take part in this time-honored ritual and that Basilicata: A Way of Living is an official sponsor.

Our “Sirino in Transumanza” project is already in its’ 6th edition and was adopted by students at George Washington University who helped me monitor the success of the project and transformed it into a global model to promote responsible agriculture, hospitality, and tourism in various locations in the world. I am proud to say that our event continues to grow in content, visibility, reach, and attendance each year. Its’ mission is to share the rich history of Basilicata while demonstrating how the local culture developed its daily living arts through sustainable methods which are perfectly suited for future generations. The organic reach of the events covered on Facebook was over 94,254 people, many of which were outside of the region and Italy – not bad for an area that is home to only 5,471 people! In 2020, we also created a Premio Sirino in Transumanza event which was a competition for all of the region’s culinary schools to highlight the best usage of local products and practices.

Pasta Lab

At Al Tiramisu, my team and I hand-make dozens of kinds of pasta for their dishes, and as an enthusiastic fan of pasta, I promote Pasta Lab which pairs professional chefs with talented home cooks, mainly grandmothers, who are often the custodians of cooking traditions. In accordance with Basilicata: A Way of Living’s philosophy, the mission of Pasta Lab is to help preserve the region’s distinctive pasta-making
customs. It provides the perfect platform for artisan pasta shapes such as orecchiette, tagliarine, strascinate, manate, raschiatelli, scorze di mandorle, fusilli al ferro, cavatelli, foglie d’olive, from Basilicata to be preserved. In DC, I teach the students in the culinary program at DC Central Kitchen to make the same time-honored recipes – creating a culinary bridge between the two cultures.

It is my hope that by adopting practices like these, all of Italy’s regions, and even the world will be able to keep their rich agricultural, linguistic, and culinary practices going strong into the future. In addition to preserving the legacy of our lineage, a commitment to this type of lifestyle is better for our environment, our health, and our economies as well. I wish everyone a wonderful month of June!

By Joanne Fisher exclusively for ILF

Joanne is a Canadian-Italian-American author who is renowned for her steamy romances, her historical fictions and her murder/mysteries. She loves writing Christmas novellas and she gives them an Italian flair since she has espresso running in her veins. She has also penned two non-fiction travel guides titled “Traveling Boomers” along with the corresponding website www.TheTravelingBoomers.com She has also participated various Space Coast Writers Guild anthologies and she’s written one of her own, “Baker’s Dozen Anthology” which is free on Kindle Unlimited. She is the President of the Space Coast Writers’ Guild and she lives in Central Florida with her hubby, Dan and two Dachshunds, Wally and Madison.

Over 2000 years ago, the Ancient Romans invented cheese presses to press cheese curds and transform them into cheese. They were also the first to experiment the process of aging cheese under different conditions in order to produce diverse flavors, textures and aromas. The Romans even created separate cheese kitchen called Caseale and some areas were dedicated to smoking home-made cheese. The Roman Empire continued to refine the cheese making process while dispersing and assimilating their techniques throughout the Empire which covered a vast amount of Europe as well.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, many of these techniques were largely abandoned, only to survive in isolated areas such as in the mountains or monasteries, where monks created monastery cheeses based on the Roman innovations. Individual Italian states developed their own identities and traditions which resulted in cheeses unique to each region of Italy. Local ingredients and customs would play a large role in the types of Italian Cheeses produced throughout the Italian peninsula.

There are hundreds of varieties of Italian cheeses that are produced in each region. We are going to cover the most popular ones below. There are many consortiums or quality control organizations created to protect and oversee production of protected Italian cheese types in Italy. Many Italian cheese types have been awarded PDO (protected designation of origin) status. PDO status establishes traditional methods for the production of an Italian cheese and ensures that it is made with local ingredients within only proscribed regions of Italy.

• Mozzarella di Bufala – legendary cheese made from the milk of the water buffalo.
• Parmiggiano Reggiano – most popular hard aged cheese awarded PDO status by the EU.
• Pecorino – hardened aged cheese made from sheep’s milk. Almost every region of Italy has its own version of Pecorino and each one is more exquisite than the other.
• Provolone – is hung in caves and aged from 3 to 12 months. It is sometimes smoked. Excellent choice for sandwiches or panini.
• Ricotta – means “re-cooked” is a fresh, soft, spreadable cheese which is mild and creamy. It is used in sweets and main course dishes.
• Asiago – a Venetian PDO cheese that comes in soft and hard formats. It is ideal for hot panini and sauces.

These are by far the most popular but dig deeper into the Italian cheese section of your supermarket; you’ll be amazed at what you find for your culinary delights.