Buongiorno March! 🍃

And the comfort of cooking side by side with someone you love

Artichokes in the market in Montalcino

Buongiorno glorious Spring! 🌱 Marzo pazzerello (crazy March) is here with all her crazy weather and beautiful beginnings. It feels as if the earth is vibrating around us - ready to unfold into a new season of life and all the bounty it brings - artichokes and peas, ramps and favas, strawberries and cherries. An entirely new vibrant palette with which to cook 🥳 Gone soon will be the beiges and browns of the winter season; bring on the colors of spring!! Here at Our Italian Table (OIT), Joey and I are busy discussing what to cook with all the beautiful spring veggies …..stay tuned as we welcome beautiful Spring with new recipes in the months ahead.

A shout out to my brother Joe(y)! #SoProudOfThisGuy❤️

Jay and I just returned from visiting Joey and Mark in Los Angeles. It has been a visit long overdue. Although the chilly weather didn’t cooperate, we dashed and dined across LA from Koreatown to Chinatown; from the gorgeous LA Farmers Markets to an entire store dedicated to cookbooks and -zines, and perhaps most special to me, we got to spend some quality time in the kitchen cooking together.

• In case you missed Joey’s roundup of all the fun delicious places we visited in LA, you can read more in his post from last week here ✨

If you have been following us for a while, you will know that Joey and I dreamt up our blog while on a family reunion trip to Florence way back in 2006. One rainy afternoon while we sat on the veranda of the agriturismo we had rented, someone suggested that we start a food blog (yes, lots of vino involved) to share our love of Italian cooking. A photo that I took that day of a lemon tree in the rain became the inspiration for our logo. After searching for a name, we landed on Our Italian Table and in 2008, our food blog was born.

At the time, both of us had jobs in the corporate world but it was our blog that fueled us - a space to share our passion for cooking, and our love of all things Italian. Today, from opposite coasts (Joey in Los Angeles, CA; and me in New Hope, PA), we call each other to plan our posts; we write our recipes and ask each other to test them, we send our photos back and forth for input. And to me, one of the greatest unexpected joys that has sprung from our blog is the joy of realizing that it has brought us closer as brother and sister; a silver thread that has united us across the miles. Nothing makes me happier than standing next to my brother in the same kitchen cooking together.

I so infrequently have the opportunity to spend time with Joey in his happy place-in his kitchen and town. It is such a joy to cook alongside him and watch his quiet confidence as he effortlessly turns out a repertoire of recipes from Italian to a delicious Japanese hot pot, or to see his enthusiasm over local ingredients at the LA farmer’s market or over menus and cuisines that we rarely get to taste here in PA. And it is always such a joy to sit for a meal that we have cooked together around the very same table. It makes my heart sing. So, Joey, nothing makes me prouder than being your little sis. Here is to more frequent visits to LA and sharing the dance in the kitchen together. ❤️

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“Like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.”

-S. Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun

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And now for some big news for OIT! 🥳

Fireworks over Montalcino

In January of this year, we moved our newsletter over to this platform, Substack. Substack provides a place for us to write and share our recipes and newsletter without having to write for the tiring world of algorithms or likes; a place where it feels like the days of food blogging of old; where we can write from the heart; not to worry about ranking in searches. We have been so happy and grateful 🙏 to see the number of new subscribers since we first launched on this wonderful platform just a few short months ago. We are also so very grateful for our loyal readers who have been with us for so many years. We are now over 3300 strong as a community!

And it is on that notion - community - that we are announcing that in April we will launch a paid version of our newsletter!

So what exactly does a ‘paid version’ mean!?!? 🤨

Firstly and MOST IMPORTANTLY, nothing changes for you, our readers who prefer to stay with the free version. We started our blog over 15 years ago and it has always been our intent to share our love of Italian food and bring you approachable Italian recipes for free and that will not change! We will continue to publish our two free recipes a month as we do now; as well as our monthly newsletter with the latest happenings from Joey and me. (We are being hypersensitive to filling up your inboxes with more emails!)

Building a community together ❤️

For those who want more; those who want to come together to build a community around Our Italian Table - there will be an opportunity to join as a paid subscriber to receive additional posts and bonus recipes. We want to bring you closer to the places where our ancestors were born - Sicily, Marche, and Naples; we want to share more of our travels in Italy such as the family wedding in Sicily that we will attend in the fall. I am aching to bring you more about the beauty of life amongst the vines in my beloved Montalcino. It will be a place for me to share the amazing beauty of Italy through my photography. And there will be early access and free downloads of our magazines; and discounts for our artisan products in our shop. But perhaps the part that we are so excited about is that it will be a place for us to grow as a community and come together through discussion threads and conversation.

So please stay tuned as we put the finishing touches on our launch in mid-April. We are working on the specifics and cannot wait to bring you all the details. #SOEXCITED🥳

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To brighten up your world for spring: kitchen towels that make you smile

We first spotted these brightly colored linens from Simple Day in our friend Donatella’s shop in Montalcino, La Sfinge (definitely worth a visit when you are in Montalcino!!) The bright cheery colors instantly put a smile on our faces and I am obsessed with these linens. They not only wash up beautifully but brighten my mood as I dry that pile of dishes 😊

Our new kitchen linens from Simple Day

The linens are designed in Italy and made from the softest Baltic stonewashed linen. And they have one of our favorite features - a little loop in the corner to hang your towels. 🥳 We also love the passion behind the company, Simple Day. Their goal is to design products that help transform the home into a place to escape the stress of everyday life; a place to enjoy life’s simple everyday moments - like drying those dishes with a smile. 😊

Tanti baci a tutti,

Wishing everyone a glorious spring,

Michele (and Joey too!)