This week on the Joe Feed Yourself Podcast, Joe is joined by Calabrese-American author Rosetta Costantino. The two discuss how she became a culinary educator, tour guide and cookbook author as a way to preserve the culinary traditions of her native Calabria in southern Italy. Rosetta shares her passion and knowledge of the ingredients, techniques and dishes that make her home region unique.
The episode begins with some backstory as to how Rosetta transition from a lucrative career as a chemical engineer in Silicon Valley to the author of My Calabria. She discusses what her family's immigration to the US was like in 1974 and how they brought sourdough starters, seeds, gardening tools and more with them to start a new life while holding on to the food of the old world. Rosetta describes the key ingredients in Calabrese cooking - peppers and tomatoes - and how she's almost developed Oakland heirloom versions of her favorite Calabrese vegetables. She discusses her culinary tours of southern Italy as well as her cooking classes. Joe and Rosetta talk about Calabrese pasta - notoriously made with just flour and water - and how for years she had to fight back against students in her classes who wanted to know "Where's the egg?". Rosetta describes Il Cenone, the traditional Christmas Eve thirteen-course meal, and its differences from the Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes. The show ends with a discussion of what makes Calabrese food unique.
Rosetta Costantino is the author of My Calabria and Southern Italian Desserts. She teaches cooking classes out of her home in Oakland, CA and leads culinary tours to Calabria, Sicily and Puglia. You can learn more at her website: https://www.cookingwithrosetta.com/ and follow her on Instagram @rosettacostantino
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