Three of my favorite things in life are Italy, Italian people and Italian food. In previous years, my husband and I traveled extensively throughout Italy. More recently, we had an opportunity to dine with two of our favorite cugine (female cousins) from Italy and also to see the queen of la cucina Italiana, Chef Lidia Bastianich.
My husband’s beautiful cousin, Emma, and her lovely daughter, Allegra, came to New York recently to allow Emma to take care of American business interests, and provide Allegra with some time to scope out the colleges that were of interest to her. The family managed to catch up with these two delightful ladies recently for an early Sunday dinner at Nona Carola in Mamaroneck, New York. We feasted on Calamari D’orati, Caprese, Octopus, Bronzino and, of course, Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay….one of my all-time favorites. This visit was particularly enjoyable for me because both women are fluent in English, while I struggle to both speak and understand Italian. We hope Emma and Allegra had a great time in the United States, and we promise to visit them on our next trip to Italy.
This past Saturday, I had an opportunity to see another lovely Italian (albeit at a distance), our favorite chef, Lidia Bastianich. Lidia came to DiCicco’s in Brewster, New York for a book signing event. Many years ago, my mother and I had the pleasure of meeting Lidia and her mother at Eataly in New York City. I was hoping to see her again and obtain a signed copy of her new cookbook, “From Our Family Table to Yours.” However, the turnout was tremendous and about a half hour after I arrived, the very long line was told by store employees that they had run out of books. Oh well, there is always Amazon, and at least I managed to snag the picture below!
