Italian Food and Love

Over 35 years ago, while in the Navy, I had my first taste of “real” Italian cooking. My ship, the USS Brownson, an old WWII-vintage destroyer, had sailed into the harbor in Naples. There were many other ships docked along the wharves. In the distance, smoke or steam was rising from Mount Vesuvius.

When I had a chance to spend my first afternoon on shore, I happened to be with some American- Italian shipmates. After a couple of weeks of shipboard food, the only thing on their minds was a good Italian meal. It didn’t take us long to find a great little restaurant in that ancient port city.

As a farm boy from Idaho, Chef Boyardee home-made pizza in a box was about all I knew about Italian cuisine. I asked one of my Italian navy buddies to order my meal. He chose cannelloni, served bubbly hot from the oven with lots of creamy béchamel sauce. With chewy Italian bread and a glass of wine, it was a meal I will never forget. Back in the USA, I had to describe the meal to various waiters in Italian restaurants before I re-learned the name—cannelloni—of this wonderful Italian specialty.

I suppose that Italian foods are my favorite. I had to marry my girlfriend after she stole my heart by cooking Zucchini Rapieni. If she could cook a meal like that, I had to stay close by. She found the Rapieni recipe in the then-new Time-Life Italian Cookbook. It’s a treasured recipe for which we always grow zucchini in our summer garden.

The Library has a large collection of cookbooks which are arranged by country or by specialties such as buffet, crockpot cooking, cakes, cookies, etc. The Italian section contains about 30 books, some older but mostly all new. “Everyday Italian, 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes” by Giada De Laurentiis, a cook on the “Food Network” tells how to make fresh and delicious Italian meals using pantry ingredients and the imagination.

“Cooking With Grace” by Grace Pilato is a beautifully-printed book with a section of colored pictures of the foods she has prepared. The book is arranged from the simple recipes to the more complex. Her cannelloni rapieni recipe isn’t quite the one I love as she uses a fontina cheese sauce rather than a béchamel sauce. But, I am adventurous enough to try it, if I can get my wife to make it.

In her book, “Rustico, Regional Italian Country Cooking”, Micol Negrin offers the reader---and there are people who read cookbooks---ten authentic recipes from each of the twenty regions of Italy. For each region, there is an overview of the region and its history, the culinary influences, the most commonly eaten foods, and the most representative recipes. Also included for each region is a list of the favorite restaurants. For the Sardinia region, a recipe that reads deliciously is one for an eggplant-walnut ravioli in a tomato sauce.

The Williams-Sonoma“Savoring Italy” by Michele Scicolone is yet another new and beautiful cookbook. I’ll forgive the author for not including a cannelloni recipe as there are many other dishes I would love to taste. Her recipe of pasta with tuna and bread crumbs uses spaghetti, canned tuna and lots of butter, garlic, and fresh parsley to make a great tasting tuna and noodles dish.

The reader is advised to include a new cookbook when checking out at the Library. Sometimes the recipes in that book will be more imaginative than the latest romance or western.

For a fun evening of food and poetry, the Friends of the Library and the members of the Izaak Walton League will be hosting Darrel Draper, a poet and humanist from Bellevue. Mr. Draper will be reciting poetry from his book, “A Prairie Sailor”. Many will remember Draper as the re-enactor of George Droulliard of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Izaaks will provide a meal of mostly wild game and Dutch oven dishes. Seating is limited. This event will be held at the Izaak Walton League Lodge just south of Columbus. Tickets are available at the Library for $7.00 for “Friends” or $10.00 general admission.