Italy is known for having amazing food like pizza, pasta, and of course, gelato! Since coming to Rome, I've been enjoying the cuisine so much, including trying new things like boiled artichokes and different cold cuts. In my family, we grew up eating lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, and we had occasional Friday night pizza dinners, but Italian food in Italy is very different! For example, even the way pasta is cooked is different. Many American families (mine included) like to boil the pasta until it is very soft, but in Italy the practice of cooking the pasta "al dente" leaves the pieces a bit chewy!
My first night in Italy, I had spagetti alla carbonara, which is often just called carbonara. Usually in the US, we have spaghetti with meatballs or a red sauce called marinara. Instead, this dish was very cheesy and had a thick coating on the pasta. In Italy, pasta is considered a primi piatti or first plate, sort of like an appetizer to the main meal. But for me, this dish was enough for dinner!
Since I was just getting to the city, I was really excited to be trying something new and I felt so lucky that I met some friends from my program who invited me to go out to dinner with them. I decided on the carbonara because my friend told me it was the dish of Rome!
