I should start by stating that, although I am from northern New Jersey, I am not Italian. Not even a little. I am, proudly, a gloriously cool mixed bag of ethnicities and cultures, but Italian is definitely not one of them. However, growing up in a predominantly Italian American town, having an Italian American stepfather, and visiting Italy twice now makes me safely say that I am an Italophile. A lot of the food I cook is Italian. Up until a few years ago I even used my stepdad’s tried and true method for checking the doneness of spaghetti–throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks.

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