As most of us know, Italians don’t take cooking lightly. It’s practically sacred. No Lean Cuisines or Tater tots will suffice for a meal over here. Though you’ll come across a few McDonald’s, they are only found in the most touristy of places, because really it’s all about slow food in this country. The kitchen is more like an art studio, and there’s a right way to do everything. Don’t forget to salt the water when you make the pasta, oh and al dente per favore.
To know the secrets, it’s best to learn from a real Italian, rather than the menu at Olive Garden (eww.) The other night, we had the opportunity to do just that. Our marvelous Student Service Assistant Simona paid us a visit in our apartment at Piazza Navona to help us make a real Roman meal.
A handful of us went to the supermercato earlier in the day to collect the items we needed for the following menu: Pasta alla Carbonara, Insalata con pere, noci, e Parmigiano (pears, walnuts and parmesan) and Tiramisu. Though at first we had some difficulty locating the ladyfingers for the Tiramisu, we managed to purchase everything we needed with each participant’s contribution of 5 Euro, and we even grabbed a couple bottles of vino! Success.
The night began with the preparation of Tiramisu, so that it could spend some time in the fridge before we devoured it. It was a bit of a process, and everyone took a turn at doing things like making the caffe’, whipping the egg whites, folding the mixture, dipping the lady fingers, and slowly building the masterpiece.
Then, on to the salad. We carefully chopped the pears, sliced the cheese, cleaned the lettuce, and cracked the walnuts, mixing it all together into two huge bowls of green goodness.
And finally, la pasta alla carbonara, a Roman specialty consisting of rigatoni, egg, black pepper, pecorino, and pancetta (or zucchini and onion for us vegetarians.) Back to the cutting board to chop the zucchini and onion. The tiny cubes of pancetta were thrown on the fire, followed by the veggies. So close we could taste it! While we waited for the pasta to cook, we opened the first bottle of vino and made a little toast to our evening. Luckily we had our Italian friends around to make certain that we had achieved true al dente perfection. Finally we mixed in the egg and Voila!
Thank goodness for our common area with its long table to seat all of us, which we adorned with candles to set the mood. With a hearty Buon Appetito our meal began and we gladly enjoyed the fruits of our labor in the company of friends.
I remember that the first thing I did after waking up, was jumping off the bed and running to the window to see if the snow we had so long expected, had arrived. And my astonishment in front of such an unusual show was great, of course! 
