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 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’ve now reached my goal to combine my love of Italian cuisine and teaching so that I could teach you and 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 from the natural beauty of gardens overflowing with fresh herbs, veggies, and flowers. This obsession of mine also includes art (including fashion design) and architecture. When I travel, I share these with you beyond recipes. 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! His honesty is indispensable for results that I know that you’ll love.
They say to “do what you love”!
After 34 years as a university professor of marketing, I am now RETIRED. But once you find the love of learning in your soul, you’ll always teach!
. . . and so I continue to “teach” through sharing and teaching you, my friend, through this blog until the wee hours of the night!
After all the years in any classroom, from my parents’ and Nonnas’ kitchen ‘classrooms’, 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
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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 use in recipes at the perfect point of ripeness or use for canning and freezing. 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!
From the December, 2024 issue, one of my recipes is on page 17.
“FROM ROZ’s CUCINA”
My famous Minestrone recipe was selected to publish in BuzzFeed and thus far has become a favorite for numerous home cooks!
Here’s the link to this amazing minestrone recipe: Classic Italian Minestrone
While it was in circulation I was featured with host Paul Petitte with Roz on Festa Italiana at 6:00 – 7:00 PM EST. Recipes and great conversations about Italian and American-Italian cultures were shared in the program.
Listen to Festa Italiana on the SPOONY channel through iHeart Radio.
Click on this link to listen to the show
6:00 PM EST: SPOONY
Featured Radio & TV Interviews:
Festa Italiana on iHeartRadio and Spoony.com
- Minestrone, Roz’s Italian Food 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
NPR National Public Radio
- Marketing Strategies for the Etsy Handcraftsperon
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.
Packing For Rome, Italy – Great Tips on How To Pack for The Eternal City is a very popular post full of tidbits of wisdom that I learned the hard way through experience.
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 eat 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 simply not shared on the blog. 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 asked me for more recipes. From the start, I truly had no idea how much everyone would want more of my recipes 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 Nonnas 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 that have been 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 on this country acreage, the blog naturally morphed to focusing on what readers said they enjoyed most: what comes out of my kitchen . . . delicious recipes!
As a retired educator teacher, I discovered that through this blog I could continue to help 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 one 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!
My husband and I would love to have you as part of our community! If I can help you in any way regarding cooking, gardening, and even marketing, please let me know. I welcome you to subscribe to receive new recipes, travel tips, and gardening ideas straight into your inbox! And it’s FREE!
