Blog of the Week April 16, 2006

Ilva is a Swedish woman, married to an Italian living in Tuscany with her two daughters and one son. I was searching italian food blogs one day in a quest to find a recipe for a sauce my father would make every Christmas Eve, that neither my mother nor I learned from him (stupid! stupid!). In my search I found Ilva's Lucullian Delights and I was totally blown away. The photography on this site is absolutely amazing. She has the supreme gift of capturing nature or architecture in a most sublime, almost ethereal way. Her photos are nothing less than breath taking. There are a lot of people who take great photos out there.. but none have made me feel as if I could smell the sweet scent of the flower or feel the misty morning dew on the leaves. And the Tuscan architecture.. something that I've always adored, but I've never felt my heart skip a beat when looking at other pictures before. It sounds corny, I know, but this is my first experience with really being taken by someone's photographs. Just... amazing. I've also learned so much about the way Italians eat in Italy. I don't know if her creations are the "norm" over there, but I suspect they are. They cook with ingredients that my family doesn't. Although I know my Italian heritage has been "americanized" through the years, I still found it shocking to realize just how much. Her sauces are light and flavored throughout with fresh herbs.. Her deserts are rarely rich and full of sugar. Her entrees combine flavors that I've never thought of combining. Simple and fresh are the two words that come to mind. Earthy is another word. Delicious is yet another =) I admit, I can't quite yet, get my mind to wrap around creating a dish with the ingredients she uses for myself and Hubbs.. but reading and seeing what she posts on her blog feeds my passion for understanding where I come from.