A Crash Course in Cooking for Yourself While Abroad

Studying away from home brings a plethora of new experiences. You’ll learn so much about yourself and how to adapt to the world around you. But for some of us, an unforeseen new experience might be learning how to grocery shop/cook for yourself, and do it for every meal. 

I go to a liberal arts college, where almost all students are required to be on an unlimited meal plan (with the exception of upperclassmen who live in spaces with kitchens, but those are few and far between). Back at home, I live with both of my parents and two younger siblings, and my family is very big on eating together. Because of this, prior to this semester, I had never been in the habit of grocery shopping and cooking only for myself, and for every meal at that. When I first arrived in Italy, I’ll admit there was a bit of a learning curve, but after three months, I can happily say I’ve mastered shopping and cooking for one in Milan. But living abroad for a semester raises some unique challenges. Here are some of the questions that I had to figure out during my first few weeks. 

• What can I cook that doesn’t require me to buy a million spices that I’ll use a few times, and then never again?
• What recipes save well, so that I don’t have to spend an hour cooking and doing the dishes every night?
• Why are there so few spices in Italy? Are there substitutes for the ones I use at home?
• Unfortunately, most student accommodations lack an oven, which limits our options for cooking, so what recipes can I make using only an induction stove? 

In this blog, I’ll be sharing two of my favorite recipes from this semester, that save well and are made with commonly used ingredients (so you don’t need to buy flour or spices that you’ll use once and then never again). In addition, I’ll give you some of my tips for shopping and cooking alone in Italy, which will hopefully make the adjustment easier. 

Recipe 1: “Marry Me” Chicken Orzo

– This recipe serves four, so it’s good for meal prepping, but if you want only a single serving, then you can divide each of the ingredients by four. 

Ingredients: Sun dried tomatoes, 2 tbsp of oil (best to use the oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes, but olive oil also works!), a whole white or yellow onion, 2 cloves of fresh garlic that’s been grated, frozen peas (measure with your heart, also these are optional), 500 grams of orzo pasta (around ⅔ of the box), paprika (somewhere in the realm of a teaspoon, to be so honest I never measure my spices I mostly eyeball it), garlic salt, oregano (probably 2 tbsp or so), chicken breasts/cutlets, cream, chicken broth (as much as you need to cook the orzo), parmesan cheese, tomato paste, and salt and red pepper flakes to taste

Instructions:

• 1- Pour some oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes into a pan, and cook your chicken.
• 2- While they cook, dice your onion, grate the garlic, and cut up 5 sun-dried tomatoes.
• 3- Remove the chicken from the pan when it’s cooked, and add in the onion. Let it cook a little bit, then add in the garlic and sundried tomatoes, and then your seasonings. Let it all cook until it’s fragrant.
• 4- Add in your tomato paste, and add the chicken back into the pot. Mix it all together.
• 5- Add in your orzo, cover with chicken broth. Add more as necessary to cook the orzo fully.
• 6- Add in a splash of heavy cream when it’s almost finished. If you want peas, add those in there about five minutes before the orzo is finished, to cook everything together.
• 7- Top with cheese and salt, or more red pepper flakes, if you wish!

Recipe 2: White Chicken Chili

– Okay to be honest, I almost never measure things when I cook, if I know the recipe. This is one that my mom makes, so I have absolutely zero clue what the specific measurements for this require, but I’ll do my best to guess. 

Ingredients: two green peppers, jalapenos (however many you want, depending on how spicy you like your chili), one white onion, chicken breasts/cutlets, white chili or navy beans (I usually will use 1-2 cans or so depending on how many servings I’m making), cilantro, cumin, chili powder, oregano, paprika, garlic salt, cheese (I like white cheddar!), sour cream (I have yet to see sour cream in Italy, but Greek yogurt is literally the same thing), chicken broth, cherry tomatoes

Instructions: 

• Cook your chicken breasts with your seasonings in some olive oil. Remove from the pot when finished.
• Dice up your onion and peppers, jalapenos, and cilantro. Throw them in the pot to soften for a few minutes.
• Add your chicken/seasonings back into the pot, add your beans, and cover it all with chicken broth.
• Let everything simmer together for 45 minutes
• Add Greek yogurt/sour cream, cheese, and tomatoes on top when it’s finished. 

Tips, tricks, and helpful information:

• Italian grocery stores have a different produce situation than we have in America. You find the produce you need, put it in a little plastic bag, then go to one of the scales and weigh it. On the screen, you’ll need to select the type of produce you have, and then it’ll print you a little sticker to put on the outside of your produce plastic bag. Bring that to checkout, and there should be a barcode on there for you to scan.
• Some Italian supermarkets have a self-checkout section. This is easy to use, but make sure you keep your receipt. At the top there will be a barcode that you’ll need to scan in order to leave the self-checkout section.
• Do yourself a favor and buy at least one or two plastic tupperware containers when you arrive, assuming your housing doesn’t provide them. I’m not joking when I say I am CONSTANTLY using mine. I like to batch make my meals for a few days, and these are perfect for that, or for storing ingredients that I don’t use all of.
• Get a moka pot! These are little Italian espresso machines. They’re super easy to use once you know how to do it, and you’ll save a lot of money on coffee. I got mine at a Kasanova for ten euros. Here is a link to a super short YouTube video that explains how to use a moka pot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA2dBog-8Dg
• This is very random, but the yogurt in Italy is SO fire. It’s addictive. Every single yogurt I’ve tried here was insanely good.
• Download the NYT cooking app: it’s full of recipes, and you can sort/filter them by the time it takes to make them, or by ingredients, etc. Very useful when you’re brainstorming!
• Buy foods/snacks that you can take with you. At IES Milan, most students live a solid commute away from the study center, so it’s common to be away from your residence for lunch and/or breakfast. Buy foods that are easy to pack or take with you. I like to cut up apples and put them in a Tupperware, or to get granola/protein bars. Some of my friends like sandwiches, so they have plastic bags or a Tupperware container, and they regularly pack sandwiches with them.
• KEEP YOUR COINS! A lot of vending machines (super randomly) only accept payment via coins, or from downloading a specific app. I recommend keeping a few coins on you in the event that you need to buy water or something. 
• Frozen veggies! Peas are a favorite of mine, and I want to say that I eat at least one or two bags of them a week (I usually eat them everyday). They’re easy to add to most dishes, and super quick to make. Plus, if I’m traveling, I don’t have to worry about them going bad.
• Risotto is a super-easy meal. You can get it for cheap at any market, and you can add protein/vegetables if you wish. I’ll usually have it alongside chicken and peas (seriously guys, I eat chicken and peas EVERYDAY. Not even joking, someone should stop me). Milanese risotto in particular (of course) is super popular here.
• When you get here, try saving some recipes that you like, and see which ones have similar seasonings. I try to find recipes that only use the spices I already have/use frequently.
• Here is the link to a blog that has the translation of common spices/seasonings into Italian. https://blogs.transparent.com/italian/italian-herbs-and-spices/