New country, same food: expat Italians on the dishes they can’t live without | Barilla pasta and culture

New country, same food: expat Italians on the dishes they can’t live without | Barilla pasta and culture

‘Your roots survive’
Simone Nicotra, 52, moved to Madrid in the early 1990s. A former fashion magazine art director, he is the founder of Very Wood Ideas, a contemporary furniture brand

I came to Madrid with a Spanish girlfriend, planning to stay a while. Nearly 30 years later, I am still here.

I still miss Italy, especially my mother, brothers, old friends and my home town of Milan. I love my trips home. I feel totally comfortable there. Your roots survive.

I have Italian connections here too. My two daughters, 14 and 9, are both Italian and Spanish. They go to the Italian school and we enjoy the lovely Italian restaurants and shops which have sprung up.

Living abroad widens your horizons. I have Italian friends of course, and Spanish, but also English, Lebanese and others. They understand what it is to have left places behind.

My life here is good. Magazines were great but now I am truly following my passion. I always made things for friends â€" chopping boards, beds, whatever came to mind â€" and my business grew organically from that.

I often cook for friends. Thirty years ago, my food was a novelty. “Let’s go to Simone’s for some really good pasta, a great risotto.” They were dishes we Italians take for granted.

I learnt from my parents. Italians aren’t all amazing chefs, but they grow up with a culture of food. I share that with my daughters.

I am happy in the kitchen with my apron on. We sit around the table eating together whenever we can. It is a ritual of family life.

Our favourite is pasta tossed with anchovies â€" cooked until they almost melt into the olive oil â€" and toasted breadcrumbs. The girls love to eat that, and chat and joke.

Italians talk a lot. I think that is why we are well received. We know how to communicate. Enjoying food together is a way to learn that.

Rebecca Agnes: ‘My dishes are a mix of cultures â€" a reinvention.’ Photograph: Anne Schoenharting

‘Berlin is my city too now’
Artist Rebecca Agnes, 39, moved from Milan to Berlin in 2006. She now divides her time between the two cities.

I was working with a gallery in Berlin so I came to check it out and ended up staying. The international art market here is very strong. You meet so many people with different stories. There are exhibitions, festivals, conferences, debates.

There is so much to see and talk about. As an artist, you can always find inspiration. Recently I have been doing work around the idea of places that disappear, thinking about why that happens, recreating images from memories.

Often when I meet people here we find some connection from Italy. I joined a non-profit cultural organisation, which is mainly Italian artists. It was set up a couple of years ago and grew by word of mouth.

Living abroad today does not feel too far from home. I am back in Italy so regularly that I never need to miss it. And this is such an international city, partly because it used to be so affordable, although that is changing.

I cook a lot, generally vegan food. My dishes are a mix of cultures â€" a reinvention. My partner is German and we have friends from many places, so there are new influences and new ingredients. I make pasta with pumpkin, for instance, but I cook it with ginger.

Cooking is a way to wind down from work. The processes â€" chopping up vegetables â€" free my mind.

There are two dishes I would love to taste again. One of my grandmothers made an amazing risotto with beans â€" a typical dish from my home city of Pavia in Lombardy â€" and the other made a savoury vegetable pie. They never really explained the recipes â€" it was a bit of this, a bit of that â€" and my cousins and I have tried so many times to recreate them.

For friends, I make pasta alla norma, a delicious Sicilian dish with aubergine and salted ricotta I discovered on an artist residency there. It isn’t so well known outside Italy, so it is nice to share, but I can’t get salted ricotta in Berlin, so I have to make a variation.

I am Italian. That does not change, but I have become an Italian living abroad. Berlin is my city too now.

Mario Dorissi: ‘At home we eat a funny mix of very Italian and very British: pizza and pasta or fish pie and roast chicken.’ Photograph: Laura Lewis for the Guardian

‘It is important my children are bilingual’
Mario Dorissi, 38, from Novara in Piedmont, spent two years in Dublin before moving to London in 2008. He is senior operations officer at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

I met my British wife through a London friend and apart from a 10-month stay in Italy â€" when we missed London terribly â€" we have been settled here ever since. Our ideal is living in London, holidaying in Italy.

I have never spoken a word of English to our three children â€" Alice, 5, Luca, 3, and Giacomo, eight months. It is important that they are bilingual, that they have a strong connection to their Italian identity and family. We try to visit three times a year and my family enjoys trips here.

My English friends say I am very Italian, and my friends in Italy think I am very English. I am neither fish nor fowl.

Since having children, I have become more Italian in many ways. The things I miss most are those institutions of childhood, like the long summer holiday at my grandparents’ house by Lake Maggiore, family all around. I hope to recreate that for my children.

I have some Italian colleagues and a few local Italian friends here. My daughter has a school friend who is also half-Italian, which is great. Generally, though, I have always wanted to meet people from different places. That was one of the reasons for going abroad.

We love to go out for Italian food â€" we have found excellent pizza â€" but I also enjoy being able to eat Indian, Japanese, Turkish, US and other cuisines.

At home we eat a funny mix of very Italian and very British: pizza and pasta or fish pie and roast chicken. I would never eat a pizza with chicken, though, and I don’t even consider “spag bol” Italian.

Luca’s absolute favourite is a childhood classic, pastina in brodo, tiny pasta shapes in fresh chicken broth. Pasta is a staple for us, both dried pasta with various sauces â€" a way of hiding vegetables for Alice â€" and also fresh pasta, which we enjoy making together.

Once a week, we make pizza too. It is great fun and it tastes really good. Most of all, I think the children love the mess. Food is so important. It is about enjoying it together.

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