Saturday Story: Cozze of My Heart

Sep 19, 2020

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Saturday Story: Cozze of My Heart
What’s your favorite meal? That one that brings you “home”. The one that makes you think: childhood, teenager years, adulthood, and beyond. It can be homemade or from a restaurant. It describes your food-love story in some way. Almost like your food trademark. You know…Do you have one?

I love most all food and have 100 favorites. But, if we are talking a classic meal that my family sees on the menu and they look directly to me- it’s “cozze”, or mussels. I like them best traditional “a la marinara”or white wine, parsley, and salty garlic broth. Always served with a giant crusty slice of bread to slam dunk in that special broth.It all started one Italian summer when I was a young girl- a girl who ate everything. My zio Alberto brought freshly caught mussels to the beach house. We walked to the beach together to grab a bucket full of sea water to wash them before cooking. We washed them and he taught me about the process. We cooked them in that delicious broth I described and I was forever sold, the “cozze of my heart”…

Maybe if that day never occurred I wouldn’t love them this much? Did my love for them start by my admiration for my zio Alby, or was it just the meal? I suppose I’ll never know.I do know that I can’t let go of this special dish. I genuinely love it. I try it whenever I see it on the menu and cook it myself when home in Sardegna. My family (Chiara, Fla, Zia Rossi, Peppo…) in Italy will often send me photos when they eat it and say “per te”, for you.This summer my sister told me she ordered them for herself just to pretend like I was eating at our favorite Italian restaurant with her.

That’s “my meal”.

Do you have one?

What’s yours? Tell us…