Partial proceeds from the sale of Maria’s Italian Cucina benefit cystic fibrosis research, according to author Maria Larosa.
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Maria’s Italian Cucina
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By Maria Larosa
The Self Publishing Agency | 183 pages | $43.99
Maria Larosa’s foray into food sharing began as it does for many others these days.
Posting her daily kitchen creations on her personal Instagram account, she found she enjoyed sharing a visual representation of the family recipes she was making at her Burnaby home.
Larosa had worked with her husband at their company Larosa Foods, but retired when the business was sold.
“I had so much time on my hands,” she says. “So, when he sold the business, this was a great way for me to remain entertained and busy, daily.”
Then, her nephew suggested she start posting her content for public consumption.
“I thought, well that kind of sounds like a good idea,” Larosa recalls.
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Maria’s Cucina, which she started around seven years ago, was the result. Today, on her food account @mariascucina , Larosa shares her latest kitchen creations for her more than 18,000 followers to devour.
Larosa says the online meal sharing has become a fun hobby for her.
“It just kept growing and growing,” she says.
And as her following grew, so too did the requests from followers asking for her to share step-by-step recipes that they could use to re-create her dishes in their own home kitchens.
That interest has evolved, seeing Larosa’s feed becoming a robust repository offering recipes, product recommendations, techniques, tips and more served up by the “home cook.”
“It’s kind of fun,” she says of the content creation and sharing. “It’s like my own little thing, for me.”
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Earlier this year, Larosa also launched her own cookbook called Maria’s Italian Cucina.
“I’ve been thinking of it for many years,” Larosa says of putting her recipes into book form. “Because of COVID, I figured I had so much time on my hands that it would be a perfect time to sit down and get to it. But it has been in my mind for many years. Even, actually, when I first started my Instagram account.”
Released through The Self Publishing Agency and available for purchase via her website, Mariasitaliancucina.com , partial book sales benefit cystic fibrosis research and support.
“My nephew has cystic fibrosis,” Larosa says. “And our whole family tries to raise as much money as we can. … And I figured this is a good way to give back too.”
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Maria’s Italian Cucina features 78 “authentic Southern Italian Calabrian recipes” ranging from appetizers, salads and soups, to pastas and risotto, pizza, desserts and more.
“Most of the recipes, the authentic, old-school recipes are how my mom cooked when I was a child,” Larosa says. “She’s an amazing cook and I really wanted to learn a lot of the dishes on my own.”
The recipes included in the hardcover release are both family oriented and “seasonal,” according to the author.
“Everything has a time and a place to make it,” she says. “My father had a huge garden, so we always had fresh produce — tomatoes, beans, lettuce. For instance, we would only eat the green beans with spaghetti in the summer. Or my zucchini fritters, those are also considered a summer dish. Whereas, when you see the salted cod fish, that resonates as Christmas for me, because we would have that on Christmas Eve.
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“So, they all have a meaning, sort of, behind the dish too.”
When asked to pick a favourite among the recipes included in the book, Larosa quickly pointed to her classic tomato sauce.
“My tomato sauce is a little bit different,” Larosa says. “I use lots of olive oil … and with my sauce, less is more. People think you need to add all these spices, but you don’t. You have to let that tomato shine.
“People who try my sauce say they could drink it.”
But creating a book centred around the beloved family dishes presented a bit of a problem for Larosa, she admits.
“Pretty much, I cook by eye. I don’t really follow a recipe. It’s a pinch of this and a pinch of that. And, so does my mom,” Larosa says with a laugh. “So, it was kind of a challenge for me to put it down into teaspoons and cups.”
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Through countless trial and error approaches, Larosa was able to piece together the recipes, which she summarizes as “simple cooking, but very delicious,” so that they could be recreated by herself — and others.
“I have two grown adult kids and I’m happy to have these recipes in a book so that they can refer to them one day, when I’m not around,” Larosa says. “They will have these to pass on from generation to generation.
“My heart is full.”
2 lbs (907 g) thick salted cod, cut into 3-inch pieces
2 bunches green scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup (250 mL) flour
Canola oil, for frying
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup (250 mL) Moroccan dry-cured olives
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6 dried whole red chili peppers (optional)
1/4 cup (60 mL) olive oil
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dry each piece of cod using paper towels.
In a shallow dish, add salt, fresh ground black pepper and flour. Dredge each piece of cod in the flour mixture, turning to coat evenly, and shake off any excess flower. Transfer the cod to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add a few pieces of cod and cook until golden. Transfer cod to a cooling rack.
Add olive oil to the bottom of a large baking dish and transfer each piece of cod into the dish. Add Moroccan olives, cut green scallions, and dried red chili peppers. Bake for 20 minutes.
Serves 6-8.
Source: vancouversun.com
