Joanne Fisher

Oltre 2000 anni fa, gli antichi romani inventarono i torchi per formaggio per pressare la cagliata e trasformarla in formaggio. Sono stati anche i primi a sperimentare il processo di stagionatura del formaggio in condizioni diverse per produrre sapori, consistenze e aromi diversi. I Romani crearono persino una cucina casearia separata chiamata Caseale e alcune aree furono dedicate all’affumicatura del formaggio fatto in casa. L’Impero Romano continuò ad affinare il processo di produzione del formaggio disperdendo e assimilando le loro tecniche in tutto l’Impero che copriva anche una vasta parte dell’Europa.

Dopo la caduta dell’Impero Romano, molte di queste tecniche furono in gran parte abbandonate, per sopravvivere in zone isolate come in montagna o nei monasteri, dove i monaci creavano formaggi basati sulle innovazioni romane. Dopodiche, ogni stato italiano ha sviluppato le proprie identità e tradizioni che hanno portato a formaggi unici per ogni regione d’Italia. Gl’ingredienti e le usanze locali hanno giocato un ruolo importante nei tipi di formaggi italiani prodotti in tutta la penisola.

Ci sono centinaia le varietà di formaggi italiani che vengono prodotte in ogni regione. Di seguito tratteremo i più popolari. Ci sono molti consorzi o organizzazioni di controllo della qualità creati per proteggere e controllare la produzione di formaggi italiani protetti in Italia. Molti formaggi italiani hanno ottenuto lo status di DOP (denominazione di origine protetta). Lo stato della DOP stabilisce i metodi tradizionali per la produzione di un formaggio italiano e garantisce che sia prodotto con ingredienti locali solo nelle regioni italiane originali.

Mozzarella di Bufala – leggendario formaggio fatto con il latte di bufala.
Parmiggiano Reggiano – formaggio a pasta dura più popolare premiato con lo status di DOP dall’UE.
Pecorino – formaggio stagionato a pasta dura prodotto con latte di pecora. Quasi ogni regione d’Italia ha la sua variazione di Pecorino e ognuna è più squisita dell’altra.
Provolone – viene appeso nelle grotte e stagionato dai 3 ai 12 mesi. A volte è affumicato. Ottima scelta per panini.
Ricotta – significa “ri-cotta” è un formaggio fresco, morbido, spalmabile, dolce e cremoso. Viene utilizzato in dolci e primi piatti.
Asiago – un formaggio veneto DOP che si presenta in formati morbidi e duri. È ideale per panini caldi e salse.

Questi sono di gran lunga i più popolari, ma se scavi a fondo la sezione dei formaggi italiani del tuo supermercato; rimarrai stupito da quello che troverai per le tue delizie culinarie.

Written by: GiovannaNicole Lacerra, School of the Holy Child. Rye, NY
7th grade student

I am a first generation Italian-American, and my heritage is very important to me. My Nonna, on my mother’s side, came to America when she was just twenty four years old. Her husband was in Venezuela, so she was all alone except for her two children. A son who was seven and a daughter who was four. She was also pregnant with her third child. It was ten long days of rough waters and seasickness. When she did reach America it was very hard for her. She was too old to go to school and she could not find a job. Eventually, she found a sweatshop that hired her. They did not pay well, but most of her coworkers spoke Italian so it was easier for her to communicate. Finally, it is time for her to give birth to her third and final child. It was November 24, 1963 and it was 2 days after President John F. Kennedy’s assasination. So the day after my Nonna gave birth to her child was the funeral, but she did not know this and she was very confused when everyone was talking about it. My Nonna did the best she could to make everything as easy as possible for her and her family.

My family has a lot of traditions that have been passed down for generations. For example, for Christmas we make fried dough balls with honey and sprinkles on top. They are called struffoli. My Nonna has been doing it the longest so of course she is the boss. All of the women will come together and spend about 2 hours making these delicious treats. The men don’t like to make them, they only like to eat them. Another example is pasta a mano, or homemade pasta. My Nonna has taught everyone how to make it, and it is way better than store bought. We also have some Italian nursery rhymes that we always sing to the kids. I love to sing them to my niece and nephew, even though sometimes I don’t know what I’m saying. We also make fresh homemade tomato sauce every September. We make 300 jars of sauce for 6 different families. Last but not least, my favorite tradition is the tarantella. The town from where my mother is from is very small so they use the tarantella from the town next to them, Montemarano. La Tarantella Montemaranese is 15 minutes long. Every party that we go to my Great Uncle Salvatore brings a CD of the tarantella so he can give it to the DJ and we can dance the night away. We rarely ever do the full 15 minutes because most of the people dancing are older and don’t have enough stamina. My family and I still keep these traditions going no matter what.

As I have talked about her through this essay you have most likely come to notice that my greatest influence is my Nonna Anita. My Nonna is the one that has shown me every possible tradition and detail about my heritage there is to know. She taught me to be proud of my Italian roots and to showcase it. My Nonna Anita has made me realize how great it is to be Italian. It was October 2018 and I was getting ready for my Christmas concert. This year was especially exciting because the concert would be at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Columbus Circle, New York City. It was only a little more than a month away so it was time for me to pick a song. My mother really wanted me to do one song in English and one in Italian, but I didn’t want to do that. Even though I didn’t want to sing an Italian song my mother still made me. My Nonna Anita was very proud that I was going to sing in Italian so she helped us pick the song. She also helped me pick the American song which was The Little Drummer Boy, because that song is very important to my family and my ancestors. Eventually, we choose the Christmas song Gésu Bambino. At first I was frustrated that my family was making me sing this song, but once it was time to actually perform I was excited. I am not sure if you have ever been to Jazz at Lincoln Center but where I was performing the background of the stage was glass, so you could see all on Columbus Circle. It was so beautiful, and it just so happened that it started snowing. Before my performance I was so nervous, but when I got onto that stage and sang Gésu Bambino I did not care about all the people watching, I just wanted to make my family proud. It was as if I had my own personal spotlight shining just on my family, no one else mattered. I just looked at them and smiled. Afterwards everyone congratulated me and said I did a great job, but the best part was when my Nonna came up to me and gave me the greatest, biggest hug ever imaginable. When I realized how that song made my family feel I knew that singing an Italian song isn’t frustrating, it’s home.

This picture is from July 2019. In this picture, my family is dancing the tarantella. The family was at a restaurant at the top of the mountain for the Festa di Sant Antonio. In this picture dancing there is my Nonna Anita (of course), My Great Uncle Salvatore, my cousin Anthony, my mother’s cousin Teresa, and my mother’s cousin Daniel.

This picture is from December 2019. Here we are making struffoli for Christmas Eve. In the front to the right is me, then behind me is my sister Maria, next to her is my sister Daniela, then my cousin Deana, then my Nonna Anita, and lastly my mother’s cousin Maria.

This picture is from September 2020. In this picture we are sorting out the good tomatoes from the bad tomatoes. In the front is me, then behind me are some family friends that like to make the sauce with us.

This picture is from February 1990. This picture is from Carnivale. I was not born yet in 1990. To the right there is my Nonna Anita, then her mother my Great Nonna Teresa, then her sister my Great-Great Zia Filomena, and then my sister Maria. My mother is taking the picture, but including her that was 4 generations, hence the sign.

This picture is from May 1965. This is from right after my mother was born. To the right is my Nonna Anita holding my mother, then the little girl in the front is my Zia Luisa, then next to her is my Great Nonna Teresa, and all the way in the back is my Zio Mimmo.

This picture is from December 2018. This is me performing at Jazz at Lincoln Center when I sang Gésu Bambino. Next to me playing the piano is my piano and singing teacher Mr. John Senakwami.

June 2, 2021, New York, NY – The Italian Language Foundation continues its mission of supporting and sustaining the study of Italian language by offering its student members a robust offering of opportunities and workshops. ILF is partnering with several Italian entrepreneurs and companies, including law firms, restaurants and businesses, including Italian charcuterie business, Fratelli Beretta and global confectionery company, Ferrero to offer internships to member students.

Margaret I. Cuomo, M.D., President of ILF, emphasized the positive impact of having college-aged students working with Italian companies and brands early in their careers: “It is vital for the Italian Language Foundation to support our student members – intelligent and capable individuals who love the Italian language and can transfer their language skills into a real asset for global companies. By offering these young professionals the chance to see the inner workings of U.S.-based Italian companies, we are starting them on a career path that will lead to great success.”

Colin Grant, a graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington who started his internship in Ferrero’s Washington, D.C. office in May said, “This is such a great opportunity that ILF helped me secure. I am excited to intern with company that has a rich Italian heritage with brands like Nutella and Ferrero Rocher that are loved in the U.S. and around the world and hone my professional and language skills.”

Louis Tallarini, Chairman of the ILF, sees the ILF’s increased attention to internships as a significant step in supplementing the current support the Foundation offers to college age students of Italian language. “These recently secured internships are the perfect accompaniment to ILF’s Commitment 2 Excellence (C2E) program. C2E was created to help 11th & 12th grade high school students and college students of Italian, especially Latino students, become ready for a career in the global workforce. Only with mentors and internship can our ILF student members truly take flight.”

For companies in search of qualified interns with Italian language skills, the ILF is standing by to provide candidates of the highest skill and acumen. U.S. based Italian companies and entrepreneurs should contact ILF to take part in their internship program via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/italianlanguagefoundation.

Written by Margo Sorenson, 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, filled with vignettes of daily Italian life. www.margosorenson.com

Ah, the lilting, vibrant sounds of spoken Italian! After my U.S. Diplomatic Corps family moved from Napoli to Bari, when I was four, I was often awakened in the mornings by hearing the vendor ringing his bell outside in the street, chanting, “Pane, burro, e cioccolato!” I was so enchanted by the melodic cadence that I took to riding my two-wheeled bike, ringing its bell, and chanting the same refrain, over and over. Luckily, our neighbors never complained!

Our house was on the outskirts of Bari, sharing a driveway with two other families. We had a number of olive trees in the yard, and my Midwestern mother decided that she would learn to cure olives. She consulted with our neighbors and went at it, even burying the jars in our yard. The problem was—she couldn’t remember where she buried them!

At the time, there was no dairy in Bari, so getting fresh pasteurized milk was a problem. My parents adapted quickly, and we arranged with a neighbor’s cousin to have a liter of his cow’s milk (of course, first, my mother had us meet the cow “in person,”) delivered to us each morning, which my mother promptly boiled, in lieu of pasteurization. It was “rent-a-cow,” for sure.

In the winter, the coal chute into the basement clattered, and in the summer, the mosquitos buzzed. We slept under mosquito netting to save us, because there was no air conditioning, and we had to leave the windows open. The apricot-like fragrance of oleanders drifted in (I was horrified to learn the horse next door died from eating them!), as well as the pungent scent of our geraniums; we have geraniums on our present balcony as a remembrance.

My friends were Angelo, Aldo, Franco, Marisa, Carlo, and Enzo. We played kick-the-can (probably a San Marzano tomato can) down our long driveway. One day, I tried to talk Angelo into playing cowboys and Indians—I had just seen a Roy Rogers movie at the consulate. He wasn’t buying it! Aldo, the oldest at age ten, would sometimes lead us on bike rides down the main road almost to the Italian army barracks.

Our dog, Duke, became enamored with the Italian army men down the road, and he would frequently escape to play basketball with them. Because his collar read “American Consulate,” some of the soldiers would always bring him back, smiling, with profuse Italian apologies. Of course, they grinned when I answered them back in Italian.

When I’m lucky enough to hear spoken Italian, these are some of the precious childhood memories that come flooding back, and the refrain still plays in my mind: “Pane, burro, e cioccolato….”

Written by: Francesca Montillo, owner of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures, cookbook author and native Italian, in her kitchen for Italian cooking and baking classes hosted via Zoom! Join from the comforts of your home, and learn to prepare delicious dishes from her native land. Although cooking along is encouraged, the participation level is up to you, you can simply watch and learn, ask questions, while taking notes along the way, or you can cook and bake along during the class. Recipes will be straightforward so you can easily replicate the dishes in the future.

In 2015, a few years away from my 40 th birthday, I made a big life decision: to finally start my own business. The prospect of turning 40 is really what did it for me. I no longer wanted to live a life of “should I” and wanted to just do it. I had been dreaming of opening a food and travel business for a long time, and gave it a lot of thought as to what I wanted to include and what I wanted to offer my clients, and that’s how Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures was born.

I grew up in Italy and my fondest memories are around the kitchen with my mom. I didn’t know it as the time, but during those days is when my love for cooking began. I knew my tours would be food-based, because I wholeheartedly believe food is what we all have in common and what ties us all together. Sure, we all have preferences in what we eat, but we all must eat, no getting around it. And with that in mind, my business was born.

My business has grown and evolved since its inception back in 2015. The food and wine tours have been my favorite aspect of what I do. Bringing people to my native land is like entertaining people in my own home. I love treating my clients like family, showing off the best Italy has to offer. Like an eager child showing off its most prized toy, I show off our Italy, with pride, care and satisfaction. It never gets old, and even with my many returned trips, I always learn something new myself, discover a new spot, or try a new food.

My business, like so many others, was hit hard due to Covid. My 2020 + 2021 tours have been postponed to 2022, when we know with more certainty that travel will resume, and we will be able to better enjoy Italy. As such, my business has evolved to now include Zoom cooking classes.

As cookbook author, having published 2 cookbooks with Rockridge Press, and a third book on the way, offering Zoom classes wasn’t much of a leap. During a period where many folks are limiting many social gatherings, meeting over Zoom to cook some delicious Italian food has been the perfect way to bring a bit of Italy close to people, all from the comforts and safety of their own home. I’m most excited about my upcoming Mothers Day Cooking Class. Since my mom was such a culinary inspiration to me growing up, I’m looking forward to offering this class to mothers and daughters this year.

And until we can travel to Italy again, I look forward to serving my clients via Zoom! https://www.thelazyitalian.com/virtual-cooking-classes.html