Queens College Recipe Closeup
By Gabriella Torcise
The lunch event FUA is putting on at Queens College is dedicated to the support of the August 23rd, 2016 earthquake that happened in central Italy. The area most affected were small towns, like that of Amatrice, Accumoli, and Arquata del Tronto. The dishes that have been chosen are all celebrating and raising awareness of the areas most affected by this natural disaster- Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo and Umbria.
The menu we selected uses locally used ingredients and recipes for all plates to highlight what this amazing area has to offer. Chickpeas from Spello for the antipasto, a locally made pasta, and a secondo dish of chicken “in porchetta” using all the locally used herbs and spices in the area. During this devastating time, Italians banded together to raise money to send these small towns to rebuild themselves through the “amatriciana pasta” Red Cross event- those restaurants around Italy who offered the amatriciana pasta, which was founded in the town of Amatrice, would donate €2 to the relief efforts. We wanted to take part in that notion, and bring awareness to a place we have all come to call home, so we wanted to highlight this hand-rolled pasta dish as our primo.
This is a co-university effort where students from Queens College and FUA are coming together and working as a cohesive team, everyone is working together harmoniously towards a great cause. The entire team is made up of students from Queens College’s Meal Planning and Management course and FUA’s TuttoToscana brigade for both front of house and back of house service. All of the students are excited and glad to put on an event in which they feel closer to Italy as well as support relief awareness.