About

Ciao and Welcome to La Bella Vita Cucina!

Cooking is an expression of love,
Cooking is giving joy to others,
Cooking is communing with those you love, and
Cooking for others is a blessing!

Hi there! I’m Roz.

Welcome to my little corner of cyberspace where I share my voice as an author, recipe developer, “teacher”, gardener, and happy traveler. I’ve been cooking for over 50 years since my mother and my nonna taught me while standing by their sides. I also learned the best of cooking fine Italian cuisine in my parents’ super successful restaurants! What an invaluable classroom with two of the most extraordinary, yet humble Italian chefs. Through the culinary wisdom of my parents and my immigrant Italian Nonna, our family’s traditional recipes from Modena in northern Italy were passed down to me. And I also share and pass these on to the next generations!

After taking numerous cooking classes in both the U.S. and Italy and teaching at a local community college, I realized that I loved to learn more continually. I also realized that I wanted to know how I could be the best teacher! So during the ’70s, I earned a Master’s Degree in Education. I reached my goal to combine my love of Italian cuisine and teaching so that I could teach others about Italian cooking.

My young children were my first students and are now accomplished, gourmet cooks. That gives me such goose-bump good feelings!

I’m also obsessed with all things beautiful and delicious, from not just food, but also gardens of fresh herbs, veggies and flowers, art, and architecture. I hope that you’ll find inspiration for wonderful food recipes, garden, and travel tips from this blog. But as you’ll soon see, this space is mostly a journey of my cooking adventures in my little Italian cucina.

My husband is the ‘do-whatever-he-can-to-help’ sidekick, primarily in the ‘taste’ and ‘quality’ departments! Nice job!

They say to “do what you love”!
By day, I’m a college professor . . . I “teach”!
By night, I’m sharing and teaching through this blog until the wee hours of the night!

After all the years in any classroom, from my parents’ and Nonnas’ kitchens, and in my own kitchen, I still love teaching, sharing, and cooking, cooking, cooking.  I’m passionate about preparing only delicious and memorable recipes that my family, friends, and now you, can enjoy for a lifetime. 

In every post, I hope to inspire you in your kitchen!

Ciao!
Roz

Watch To Learn More About Roz and La Bella Vita Cucina

Can’t get enough of La Bella Vita Cucina? Stalk us on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Ever since we made the conscious decision to live a more quiet, down-to-earth rural life, we’ve been able to grow our own vegetables to cook right away or to can and freeze.  Farm-to-table living is extremely important to the quality of the recipes I prepare and to our lifestyle.

Press & Features

My post on The Top Secrets on How To Grow Tomatoes Successfully was picked up by ACREAGE LIFE magazine.  I’ve written a monthly recipe column “From Roz’s Cucina” in Acreage Life since 2016!

Featured Radio &  TV Interviews:

Festa Italiana on iHeartRadio and Spoony.com

• Minestrone, The LBVC Blog, Italian Family Food Traditions
• Italian Fish Recipes, Italian Family Food Traditions
• Regional Differences in Italian Cuisine, Quality of Italian Ingredients
• Chicago’s Italian Food Culture and Experience (coming in late October)

NPR National Public Radio

• Strategies for the Handcraftsperon, Etsy

WYFF (NBC) Ch. 13, Greenville, South Carolina

• Carolina Bloggers
• Social Media Marketing 

Can’t get enough of La Bella Vita Cucina? Stalk us on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. 

We travel quite a bit and also share those adventures. We help seasoned as well as new traveling souls with helpful advice for every destination that we visit.

More About La Bella Vita Cucina

The recipes offered on La Bella Vita Cucina are varied. Our Italian family recipes are shared here, but we also prepare recipes that aren’t Italian. After all, we may be Italian, but we’re Americans and we don’t dine on Italian cuisine every single day! So we mix it up just like any other American home cook.

You’ll find wonderful recipes for salads, main entrees, side dishes, and decadent desserts. And everything must be delicious! If a recipe doesn’t pass the family taste test of time, well, it’s just not shared on the blog. Although I’m a working professional, nowhere do I find more happiness than being in the kitchen creating and preparing something delicious AND beautiful to the eyes.

La Bella Vita Cucina began in 2008 when I was simply walking around the acreage on an absolutely gorgeous autumn day gazing at all of the flowers still in bloom. Something compelled me to run to my computer and start writing a ‘web log’ journal about life on a country acreage.

I decided to start including my family’s favorite recipes to have them in a place where my kids could easily find them. I knew nothing about food blogs! I was just doing my little old weblog journaling thing!

Suddenly people were writing to me to thank me for sharing yummy and easy recipes. They wanted more recipes. From the start, I truly had no idea how much everyone would ask for more and how the number of comments and email requests would increase!

So I hope that when you serve these recipes, you’ll bring smiles to the tummies of those that you love and care about!

After all, cooking is an act of love!

La Bella Vita Cucina evolved from my crazy passion for cooking and baking, especially authentic, time-honored, Italian recipes. For you, I share my family’s cultural traditions plus new versions of those classic recipes.

I have vivid memories of my mother and nonna preparing huge spreads of food for large numbers of family and friends who gathered for the simple act of enjoying good food, good company, and great conversation. From tortellini in brodo to ravioli in Bolognese sauce, to biscotti/contucci, risotto, and polenta . . . they’re all here. These recipes are traditional ‘cucina povera’ (food of the poor) from my family’s humble origins in the harsh northern mountains of Italy, passed down through generations.

So even though I was initially inspired to write about a graceful, laid-back lifestyle focused on living and savoring life surrounded by natural beauty, the blog naturally morphed to focusing on what readers said they enjoyed most: what comes out of my kitchen . . . delicious recipes!

As a full-time teacher, I discovered through this blog that I was helping others in a new way that was totally unexpected and unplanned. My goal is to continue my role as a teacher, providing you deliciousness each and every time along with giving you tips to help you in the kitchen.

I’m blessed to be a grandmother (‘Nonna’), to be married to my best friend and to be a mother of two amazing young adults . . . who have supported me for decades in my food journey, to publishing this blog, and more! The Lord has truly blessed me with my family, my career in serving and educating others, and with the skills and love of cooking and gardening. To Him, I give all the glory!

This is my blog that I started with the simple intention of snapping photos of living a beautiful life on a country acreage. I’m happy to welcome you to a growing number of over 60,000 like-minded global readers and FRIENDS . . . all who come together here to simply celebrate the deliciousness and beauty that surrounds each of us in our lives!

We’d love to have you as part of our community! If I can help you in any way regarding cooking, gardening, and marketing, please let me know. Subscribe to get new recipes, travel tips, and gardening ideas straight into your inbox! And it’s FREE!

You can also find my small handmade jewelry shop on Etsy, Amazon, and eBay:  Bella Bottega Designs

..