‘Alle gioie della vita’ (to the joys of life) 🧡
Benvenuto, New Year ✨
New year, new newsletter!
Buon anno, everyone! From Joey and I, we wish you the most beautiful of new years. May this year bring you much love, happiness and good health. Borrowing a toast from a friend in Montalcino, here is to ‘alle gioie della vita’ (all the joys of life) 🧡
A new year, a new blank canvas. Even though we are not big on resolutions, the new year does always feel like we have opened a big fresh new notebook, and have taken a big ‘ole sigh, allowing us the grace to reflect on the year past and a few moments to whisper and write our wishes for the year ahead. I read this line in Peggy Markel's newsletter in December and it gave me pause: ‘Time to tend to our inner landscape and prepare the ground for a new season and listen carefully as we ask ourselves, “What is mine to do? Where is mine to go?”’ Love those questions ✨
The year ahead for OIT
Firstly, we are so excited for the year ahead - having pulled the plug from corporate America back in July 2022, this is my first full year focused on Our Italian Table. I cannot tell you how giddy I am when I wake up - this is SO MUCH FUN! Joey and I have been busy plotting what’s to come in 2023 and it excites me so. (He also just gave our blog a bright and modern new look which you can check out here. ) Promise to tell you more about some fun new projects and expanded projects soon but know that we are so very committed to continuing to bring you approachable Italian recipes that share our passion for cooking and our love of all things Italian.
Connection 💫
If you have followed us for a bit, you will know I love selecting a word to guide me through the year. My word this year is ‘connection’. It feels that life is finally unfolding again after the crazy times of the pandemic. My heart is craving a renewal of connections. Connection at the table with those we love, connection in our communities, both in the US and Italy and connection with friends, both new and old. And as part of this, we have moved our newsletter to a new platform - Substack. We believe this awesome platform enables us to return to a more ‘organic’ format, a place that feels like the blogging of old (before the craziness of SEO and social), and is a place where we can share more recipes. It is also a place where I can scratch my itch to write more, share more of my photos, and tell more stories about the beautiful world of Italy. And it is a place where we can connect around a community. Many of our fellow food bloggers have already moved here and we so look forward to watching this unfold. (We also promise to not bombard your inbox! We will still be doing our monthly newsletter along with our recipes and maybe an announcement from time to time for new free downloads or items in our shop.)
Meet the family of Our Italian Table
We have some fun new sections that will be added to the newsletter (1. what we have been up to whether cooking or reading, eating or planning, or people and things inspiring us; 2. follow along with me on my continued quest to become fluent in Italian - my favorite new words or expressions; 3. recipes from our archives). But for our first issue, this newsletter will be long enough as we wanted to take a moment to re-introduce you to us at Our Italian Table (OIT for short), especially for all the new followers that have joined us over the past year. Over the next few newsletters, we will take a (brief) journey through our heritage - our grandparents’ villages in Sicily and le Marche and Naples….but first we start with us.
We are two siblings who grew up as second-generation Italian Americans in the small town of Phillipsburg, NJ; a town that saw a large influx of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century.
Our love of cooking began with helping our mother in our little kitchen on Green Street - a small modest home that our father built with our grandfather, Giuseppe, a stonemason. Standing on chairs, we would help our mom roll pasta dough, using our tiny thumbs to shape gnocchi, or gently (!) stir the simmering pot of passatelli. Together, we rolled meatballs, kneaded dough, fried eggplant. She was forever sharing her specialties with family and neighbors near and far. And thankfully, she passed on her passion for cooking to us.
Our blog was launched on a rainy afternoon while on a family reunion trip near Florence back in 2006. One afternoon, while watching the rain gently fall as we sat on the veranda of the agriturismo we had rented, someone suggested that we start an Italian food blog (yes, lots of vino involved) to share our love of cooking.
In 2008, we turned that idea into a reality. After searching for a name, we landed on Our Italian Table and our blog was born. At the time, both of us had jobs in the corporate world. This space fueled our passion for cooking, and our love of all things Italian. From opposite coasts (Joey in Los Angeles, CA; and me in New Hope, PA), our blog continues to bring us great joy in its ability to allow us to share our passion with you, our readers. I also am tremendously lucky to have a little slice of heaven in Montalcino, Tuscany, and I am grateful to be able to share recipes and stories from this beloved village.
And last but certainly not least, another family member has been my partner in crime for the last few years in launching and helping me fulfill a lifelong dream of bringing the story and products from Italian artisans to life with our online shop, Our Italian Table A Casa (at home). My cousin, Mia, with whom I grew up up playing under that grapevine pic above, has been like my sister for most of my life. And together, we launched our little online shop in the middle of the pandemic - and what fun it has been! As we watch our little shop gain steam, we are having great fun planning for new artisan products and figuring out the crazy world of importing goods from Italy. (What do you mean my boxes are still in customs 😠? So what if the address it was shipped to is off by a digit 😩? Wait, I need FDA approval for that first press olive oil I just shipped! (email me if you want some 😂!))
All for now as we don’t want this newsletter to be crazy long - look for a short note from us next week with our next almost-ready free download, Zuppa! (a few of our fave soup recipes from childhood) and a new colorful line of kitchen linens coming to our shop! 🥰🥰🥰
And to you, our precious readers, grazie di cuore (thank you from the heart) for your support, for your comments, and for your love. If you have a moment, please send us a ciao ciao! and let us know how you are - we love having you at our table.
Tanti baci, xx
Michele and Joe(y)
Have passed your info and wonderful blog along to many! Best wishes on the new platform! Love it!
Looking forward to the new press!
I have followed your newsletter for a few years. Congrats on leaving the corporate world and following your passion!