Italy has Turned Me into a Food Snob
I think that I’m going to need a 2nd job to cover my new grocery budget.
Everyone has “a thing” that they do upon their return home from a vacation. Usually, this involves an immense amount of laundry and getting caught up on unread emails.
I similarly follow this trend, except this time. I just returned from Italy, and as soon as I got home, I threw away all of our boxed pasta, canned pasta sauces, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO).
Why?
Because I can clearly taste a difference between prepackaged pasta made with preservatives that I cannot pronounce. I also know that many Italian-sounding olive oils are misleading and not really from Italy at all. The ones I had stocked in my pantry were the kind that I got suckered into buying because it was on BOGO, and I will compare the consistency to motor oil now that I have had the real thing.
During my 10 days touring Italy, I tasted risottos, homemade bread, visited olive farms, gorged myself on homemade pasta, and I even had a four-course meal prepared by the well-known chef Maurizio Staiano of Salerno who has also worked with several Michelin Star Chefs.
