Soul Feeding Food

Something I learned right away at IIN (where I’m completing my certificate) is that the culture of our ancestors plays a role in health. There is food that is thought of as traditionally healthy and then there is food that is there to feed the body and soul. 

Each person has a predisposition to eat, enjoy and appreciate the foods from where his or her ancestors are from. For me, this is Greece and Southern Italy. I am drawn to Mediterranean food. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Greece and Italy many times in my life and the food there is not something I’ve ever taken for granted. Being able to taste the Mediterranean Sea and eat the freshest seafood is unlike anything I’ve eaten in the U.S. I prefer the flavors of this area of the world because it feeds my body and soul. I really do believe I would still have a love for it even if my cultural connection didn’t feel so strong. 

When learning this idea of food that feeds our souls, we were asked to write down a few foods that make us feel safe. For me, this was an easy answer. Avgolemono soup, focaccia bread (but only my nonna’s), and pastina soup. These are the foods I ate when I was sick growing up. These are the foods my mom would make for me and my dad would bring home after work when I had a fever. They actually made me feel safe and cared for. I feel love, protection and warmth when I have these foods even to this day.

Nonna’s focaccia is the food of love in my family. She makes it all the time and I swear nothing compares to it. It’s shared at every single family gathering and just your average Sunday. My nonna is the one who has instilled a love for cooking in me and many people in my family. She’s from a small town near Bari, Italy and since her grandchildren were very young, we’ve always helped her cook. Cooking is how we expressed love. 

Growing up, at the end of the summer, we’d make homemade tomato sauce from the tomatoes she’d grow in her garden and jar it for the year. It was a team effort. A long day, but something that was just a part of my childhood. Cooking with nonna, although much of the time is not the “healthiest”, it is so worth it to spend time with family and learn the art of cooking together. This is the food that fuels my soul.