"Giusi" wrote
> "cshenk" < ha scritto nel messaggio

>>> Amanda, here is some free advice from a cookery teacher. The first time
>>> you make something, follow the recipe. After that if you want to alter

>> Good advice. Eventually you get a feeling for a cuisine and can adapt at
>> will but not at the start so well.

>> ...trotting off in shame to have *my* version of what was listed as
>> italian > calamari..

> I cook fusion dishes for my own pleasure quite often. Pasta with chinese
> meatballs and spinach is a favorite of mine and several of my friends.

Oh I have one I made a bit ago. Swedish meatballs (premade frozen but quite
a tasty brand, now all 'et up), on a bed of steamed then buttered spinach
with shiitake mushrooms (I have a load of 20 lbs mentioned elsewhere). I
made up a fast brown gravy from a packet and used some of it over the
meatballs. Wierd but quite tasty for lunch a bit ago.

(snip but agree, try it once or twice as listed when a newish cook)

> That's the problem I have with so many of the Italian cooks/cookbooks in
> the US. They aren't trying to be genuine but they don't tell you 'this
> recipe is American'.

We here are *terrible* about this but we get it naturally. So many
immigrants have come here since before the revolution days, we are a true
melting pot. One of the best 2 expressions of that is Penn-Dutch and New
Orleans Cajun/Creole. I'm into the cajun/creole cookery and it's slipping
slowly back in as regular here now that I have easy access to the things
that make it so wonderful.

Amanda, you'd have heard of cajun/creole here but may not have looked into
the antecedents. It's a mix of french, African, Native American Indian, and
a small smattering of others (even a touch of Spain enters in).

> If you really wanted to make Italian food, you could lock away Asian
> sauces and spices and follow a recipe-- but first at least read what
> comprises an Italian meal so you don't throw a turkey on top of a platter
> of pasta.

Hehehehe!

I was one day out of 'stuff' of my normal type to make a stuffed squid
recipe and came up with a really neat but very *odd* sounding one. I
stuffed the squid with grits and other things vice rice or the occasional
bread crumb stuffing. I'll have to do that again!

A definate 'east meets west' recipe with the basic concept of a stuffed
squid being a greek based recipe I read one day, but 'made in Japan' with
fairly traditional japan/thai sorts of seasonings and stuffing plus black
olives. Here the cheap meat is battery chicken parts, but there it's whole
squid so we ate alot of it. Just like the cookbook '365 ways to make
chicken' I could probably write '365 ways to make squid' now!