One of the cool things I was able to witness was a professional chef make a traditional Italian dish for a wedding. Now, the way people prepare a meal here seems to be different from the States. Here, you will add different ingredients until you decide it’s enough. Where in the States, you follow a recipe to the exact measurements. Don’t get confused, these recipes do have some measurements, but they are more like a suggestion and you decide what you would like to do instead.

Your first step is to mix olive oil and some chopped onions together. Once they heat up, you start to cook the pork chops in that mixture until it is semi-cooked. Once you semi cooked the amount of meat you desire to have, put it in a separate pot. *TIP: add the cow and pork fat in the oil as you cook the meat for taste, but do not put the fat into the big pot. You can if you want, but it is easier to serve if the fat does not get in the way* The more meat you put in the pot, the more flavor it will have. *TIP: you can also add veggies into the oil mix and put in the pot as well! The possibilities are endless! * Then you half cook ground beef in the left-over oil and put that also into the big pot.

Now that you have all the meat half cooked and put into the big pot, you can add the sauce! For the wedding, we used 10 liters of tomato sauce, but you can put as much or less as you would like. Gas stoves are best but don’t worry if you have electric. You are going to put it on high until you bring the dish to a boil. Then, switch it to low for 5 hours! Yes, that is correct, you will be cooking this traditional dish for 5 hours and stirring it regularly. Again, don’t worry about how long it will take. Think about the actual process and how well it will taste once it is complete!

I also learned about the importance of salt and how to properly add it to a dish! You never want to add salt towards the start of any dish; it’ll cook out all the delicious flavor! So, to get the most flavor, add it at the end. This will allow you to have the most flavor from the least amount of salt. After all, we’re all trying to watch our sodium intake, aren’t we? Just add a tad, taste, and serve! Don’t stress about the measurements and just have fun experimenting. Let loose and make your own little creation.