Featured Community Member: Eleonora

Written Monday, September 21st, 2009 by Anne Coleman

Recently I had the chance to chat with Half Hour Meals Community Member, Eleonora. She is a wonderfully diverse and very talented woman with a love for all things Italian. Her blog showcases this very well and captivates the reader, taking one on an armchair journey through Italy with stunning photographs and engaging commentary. We are very lucky to have Eleonora as a member here, read on and find out why.

Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino is 8 months old and doing very well. What is the inspiration behind it?

I wanted to share my love for Italian food, the wonderful fresh ingredients available that make the Italian cookery art what it is, and my desire to tell a little about authentic Italian cooking from "the inside," the history behind it and all the fun trivia and lore that come with our wonderful and diverse regional cuisine.

So many recipes across the internet are written with Americans in mind using ingredients that can often times be difficult to find in other parts of the world. Living in Italy, do you need to adapt for that? If so, how do you manage?

I cook with seasons, local produce and wholesome goods as my parameters. Whenever I share a recipe on my blog, I try to keep in mind that some of my readers may live in places where the ingredients necessary for that recipe are hard or impossible to find. I always include valid substitutes, or ask my readers to experiment with similar local products. I also sometimes mention websites and online stores where Italian products can be found overseas. Another thing I greatly encourage is cultivating fruits and vegetables in your own back yard. I can give you the address of a very good seed dealer in your area, and you can harvest your own zucchini flowers or Treviso-native radicchio!

Is Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino your first blog? If not, what else have you written?

Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino is my first blog, soon followed byForchettine, which is a restaurant review blog (written in Italian) where I showcase restaurant facilities, regional specialties, a great cheese or a favorite wine, etc. just for the fun of it, no commerical agenda in mind!
I have also written an Italian food/lifestyle manuscript, which I am editing at the moment. It contains a little bit of everything, recipes, stories about food, Italian daily life snippets; and a lot about how we forage, shop, cook, eat, praise and appreciate food here in the Boot.

Are you married? Do you have a family? If so, in what ways does that change the way you blog?

I am a single mother of a 4 year-old Roman rascal, so time management is key. I occasionally work as a script supervisor in the film industry, write as freelance contributor, manage a household and blog every other day. While I was researching/writing my book, I'd use my son's precious nap/bedtime hours to write the first draft, I'd sleep 4 hours and then get up and go to work. Now I do the same for blogging, I post at night and follow up on my blogroll, reading commenting and replying for an average of 3 hours a day, when my boy scampers off to the park with his nanny. I am presently embarking on a new feature film, shot entirely on location in Abruzzo. The need to spend more quality time with my growing child clashes with my obtrusive hours on the film set, so I'm shifting my professional interest towards intensively pursuing freelance writing, designing custom tours and cooking classes/wine tastings for Anglophone travelers visiting Italy. While of course trying to get my book published. It should be fun to re-invent myself at this point in life!

Your recipe for Zuppetta Fredda is very intriguing, is it your own, or an adaptation of one? Tell us what inspired it.

It's my own recipe, but it obviously is based on creamed summer soups. I am a huge fan of soup. I make it all year round in bulk quantities, and freeze whatever is leftover. In the hotter months I make lots of chilled bisques, veloutées and vichyssoise-type soups. They are wonderfully refreshing comfort food. Rome is fearfully hot, and a bowlful of cold vegetable cream is not only healthy, it's a very tasty alternative to salad or steamed greens. Zuppetta Fredda was a summer creation I made with what I had in the pantry/fridge that day!

Name a handful of ingredients that you couldn't live without.

Extra virgin olive oil, garlic, heirloom tomatoes, basil, pasta, bread...

Where does inspiration in your home kitchen come from?

The stalls in the farmer's market. I allow the colorful gifts of Mother Nature to inspire my palate! I learned to cook from my mother who hardly ever planned menus, she and I would stroll to the market and buy whatever intrigued us, the recipes came later.

When and why did you join Half Hour Meals?

I wished to share my recipes and connect with other food-lovers. I believe the Internet is the new frontier of community-oriented interaction. The modern-day hub where folks can meet and discuss everything, from the day's events to the contents of their shopping basket.

What's your favorite thing about the site?

The (loose) requirement of quick preparation dishes. This does not mean escape routes for the lazy cook, rather a compendium of delectable solutions for people who have full lives and don't want to give up on quality cuisine. The directory is one of my favorite places, where I see what people are preparing, their progress, their taste. I love to observe how blogs reflect their author's personalities, how the inner chef expresses his/her creativity.

Have you tried others' recipes from Half Hour Meals?

Yes, I made Banana Nut Muffins, they are warming on a rack as I write this. They look (and smell) delicious. I have a hard tome discarding overripe fruit, so these were perfect for the blemished bananas I had sitting in my fruit bowl. I am an advocate of frugality and I hate to see food go to waste.

If others were to ask you about Half Hour Meals, how would you describe the site to them?

A busy piazza, one different from other recipe websites, where friendly fellow-food lovers and cooks can hook up and share stories, recipes and enjoy the rest of the day too. Cuisine is not all about toiling away at the stove!

Thank you, Eleonora, for sharing a bit about your life with us!

Tags: community member, cooking, food blogging

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 08:00 am and is filed under Community Discussions. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.