At first I thought antipasto meant before the pasta because I always thought of Italian cooking as all about pasta. But I was wrong! Dead wrong! Antipasto means before the entire meal- but if I had it my way I say antipasto means before the feast because Italian cooking is way more than just pasta. So, to start off I will introduce you with some of the antipasto that I have prepared over the last few months.

What I like most about antipasto is how it titillates your pallet and gets you ready for the rest of the meal. This is the purpose that it has to serve -nothing more and nothing less. An antipasto fails if it creates too much contrast to the entire meal. I say this because I believe there should be harmony in your dinner table all the time- you should not end your evening saying I liked the chicken but I hate the pork or leaving the table asking what you had for antipasto. The antipasto is like the setting of a play or the introduction in a novel. It will set the mood for the entire meal but not overpower the other dishes. It should leave you eager, but not hungry, for the next dish.

In Italy the antipasto can be made from fresh veggies tossed in olive oil. It can also be composed of cured meat with a complimenting cheese. Its range of flavor is endless- from salty, sour, savoury, meaty, fishy, sweet...etc. The most important thing to remember about preparing antipasto is to use only fresh ingredients. Although this is true for any part of the meal it is most important to antipasto because most of these dishes require very little to sometimes no cooking at all. This means that the range of flavour I mentioned above comes from the natural flavor of the ingredients and not some clever "french-inspired" manipulation of the dish to create some out of this world flavor.

The English have their pan-cakes, the french have their crepes, and the Italians have their Crespelle- I have tried all of them and I am hands down to Crespelle. Yes I am biased but for a good reason- pan-cakes are boring: spread the butter on top, pour your favorite syrup and eat. Crepes are good but its what's inside it that makes it good and it is too thin. Crespelle is like a cross-over between the two- it is like pan-cake in texture and it is like Crepe in flexibility. Like all breakfast dishes Crespelle is easy to make.

This version of Crespelle utilizes two of my most favorite Italian ingredient, Parmesan and tomato. I made the Crespelle sheets the night before and since I always have tomato sauce in stand by this dish did not require that much preparation- except for making the bechamel sauce. This Crespelle variation is a three layer sheet lined with tomato sauce and bechamel sauce with ham strips. After they were layered I baked them in the oven for about 5-10 mins just to allow the tomato and bechamel to be absorbed by the crespelle sheets. The result was this dish- a full breakfast meal that perks you up just right. The taste reminds you of something like lasagna because of the tomato and bechamel sauce combo. Aside from being a powerful breakfast item crespelle has other uses like Crepes, but for now it played its role as breakfast of champions.

This is my motto in life it means: "Live, See, Eat and Love"- the Italian way. I am a full blooded Filipino and proud of it, but deep inside me I feel a strong attraction to anything Italian.

This small boot-like peninsula in the Mediterranean is full of so many things good and beautiful. It is no surprise that over its long and rugged history it has been invaded and ruled and owned by different foreign powers. It has a long and very brutal history of struggle, grandeur and then down-fall. Some say it has been owned and ruled for so many years by different races but its own people. This is why the contrast between Italy's 5 major regions is so stark that they would not be able to converse using their own dialects- although they say this contrast is much less now after World War II.

The geography of Italy is also very diverse- from the Alpine north, the Central valleys and the coastal shores of the Mediterranean. This creates a wonderful contrast in gastronomic experience as you hop from one region to the other. Like one of my office-mates (who is Italian) told me- people in the Northern part of Italy eat Polenta a lot and use it in so many different ways, but serve that to people in the South and they will tell you they do not it Polenta because to them it is food for the pigs.

This contrast is like heaven to a globe-trotting gastronome and is like a gold mine of knowledge for an aspiring cook like myself. This is why I love Italian cooking- it has so much to offer in such a simple way.

In this blog I will show you some of the Italian dishes that I have already prepared and will prepare in the future- consider this a window into an aspiring cook's life. Cooking is a passion for me, not just a hobby. It relaxes me, it keeps my mind away from the "serious" stuff in life because I am a man who believes that we Live to see, eat and love. This is my attempt at living that motto- hopefully soon I will be able to see Italy, to taste the Olive oil in Verona, the Parmigiano-Reggiano in Emilia-Romagna, the Risotto in Venice and Lombardy, the Bottarga in Sardinia, the white truffles in Alba, the Pane carasau in Sardinia with Su zurette, and the desserts in Venice.

I could go on and on and on about what I want to eat- but lets set that aside for another day, as for now lets get on with the cooking. I hope you will enjoy this blog and hopefully you also get inspired to take on the challenge of the kitchen.