Adventures of an Italian Food Lover

Penne with Fish Sauce

Adventures of an Italian Food Lover

Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice and Catherine of A Blithe Palate joined together to host a food blogging event in celebration of the release of cookbook/travelogue, Adventures of an Italian Food Lover by Faith Heller Willinger.  The rules for this event were simple:  Instead of writing a review, participants were asked to choose and prepare a recipe from the book and share a story about a friend or family member with whom they’d share the dish.  Or the participants could share a story  about a friend or family member who inspired them to prepare the dish.   

Many recipes, from this book with beautiful watercolor illustrations that took me to Italy, caught my eye.  I decided to make the Penne with Fish Sauce.  Penne is one of my favorite pasta types and I was intrigued with the idea of the fish sauce. 

My friend Francine inspired me to make this dish.  A wonderful cook, I think it’s something that she’d like.  She’s one of  my best friends from my college days.  I still remember the times when we  suffered breezed through our Classical Latin classes together, trying to remember those damned challenging declensions and conjugations.   We studied very hard and prayed (very hard) that our translations of the authors and poets’ works, like Virgil, were correct.  We prayed that our professors wouldn’t pick on us.  *Sigh* Those were the days.  Thankfully, we passed our Latin classes with good marks. 

For many years when I didn’t cook, my friend would invite me over her place and prepare meals for me.  She’d encourage me to cook and give me simple recipes with which to start. 

The recipe calls for fish to be cut in small strips.  I cut the fish in strips but as it cooked and I stirred the pot, it crumbled.  Probably it was because of the type of fish that I used — blue fish (one of my favorites).  However that didn’t detract from the taste.  The combination of the fish sauce, lemon zest, parsley and penne make the meal delicious.

I think that if Francine tasted this meal I prepared , she’d like it alot and I hope think hope that she’d say I did a good job. 

Paz