Have you ever had sweet Italian biscotti biscuits glazed with Canadian maple syrup? Or have you ever tried fettuccine alfredo pasta with Canadian bacon? I have tried these and more, right here in my own kitchen. I always knew my love for Italian food would never cease even after living in Canada for so long. But, I was slightly wrong. Now, I know my love for Italian-Canadian cuisine will never cease, even if I were to move back to Italy.
We could also go with the reverse and add Italian style to traditional Canadian food. Some example of this I’ve experimented with are poutine with diabla sauce instead of gravy, and nanaimo bars with layers of bruttiboni. But, being from Italy, I can’t help but prefer Italian food with Canadian style over the latter.
I love creating blends of traditional foods of many other cultures too, not just Canadian and Italian foods. My friends tell me my kitchen is like a science lab, as they see me combining foods that may have never been combined before. If only I had the determination to record every recipe, this blog might be covered in Italian-Canadian food recipes by now. All I can do is cook and take the time to blog about it briefly, but one day I will record everything into a book and post the recipes here.
Some other experiments I’m excited to try is using local Canadian dairy products from family farms and using them to make Italian pastas in the traditional ways done by my grandmother in the early 20th century. I’d love to compare the difference in flavor of a pasta dish – one dish with Canadian ingredients and the other with Italian ingredients but both cooked in the exact same way. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if there is even a difference in flavor? I assume there will be a slight difference. That’s why donuts taste different in different parts of the world, even though the recipes are the same. It’s the ingredients that really make a difference. And although the family farms here near me on Vancouver Island don’t have as long of a legacy and history as many of the ancient family farms in Italy, they are still held to an extremely high standard and produce dairy products of high quality. So I will have to keep you updated on how this experiment goes.
If you have any great, new, or interesting Italian-Canadian cuisine recipes you want me to try and review on the the Padoranviaggi Blog, please contact me by email to submit them and I’ll take a look.