For this project, I chose to make a dish called “Rigatoni alla Bolognese al Tonno,” a simple Italian dish. I learned this dish in the Spring semester of 2020, the semester when the pandemic started. At the beginning of that semester, when things were still normal, I met a group of exchange students who were studying at Emory, and I became friends with a girl from Italy. From the very first day of our friendship we have gotten along well. We spent a lot of time together and frequently cooked together. She was the person who introduced me to my dish. She is from the Abruzzo region, more specifically from the city called Pescara, which is the largest city in the region. Pescara has a very active fishing community, so she really enjoys sea food. We have this passion for sea food in common, so when she first suggested we cook a pasta sauce containing tuna I agreed right away. While she taught me her dish, she also shared stories and traditions from her home, which made me feel like I was there with her. Every time I cook this dish to someone new, I tell them about her region, city and family.

The pasta is very simple but still delicious and fulfilling. It consists of tomato sauce, tuna and a pasta that is open, so the pieces of tuna and a bit of tomato sauce can fill the pasta. As a result, spaghetti is not the best choice of pasta, like the traditional Bolognese dish, however the rigatoni pasta would be the perfect pairing this the tuna sauce. I personally really enjoy cooking this dish for lunch at home with family or with my boyfriend, so basically with the people that I love. Ever since doing it alone for the first time, I got really attached to this dish. I think it combines many things that I am passionate about in one dish. I think this pasta really embraces simplicity, and I try to do the same thing in my own life. I have always valued the small things in life but during the pandemic this appreciation grew even more. This dish is also an innovative version of one of my favorite dishes, which is just simple pasta with tomato sauce, so this new spin to the classic dish also expresses my new relationship with food that is based on trying new things and being open to change.

After meeting my Italian friend and learning more about her culture, I became fascinated by Italian culture. When I returned to Emory, I enrolled in Italian class and that was when the door to Italian culture really opened to me. I was completed immersed in the culture, music, movies, cuisine, and traditions. This interest for the true Italy also made me interested in the history of this dish. I learned that Italy became a unified country not so long ago and that each region is so different from each other, so I was really interested in knowing where the pasta with tomato sauce and tuna had originated. I researched its origins, but since it is based on simple ingredients easily found in many regions in Italy, people don’t know where this dish originated. My research led me to two possible origins: Sicily and Emilia-Romagna.

Sicily is a possible place of birth for the Rigatoni alla Bolognese al Tonno because it is one of the best places to find fresh tuna. Sicily has many fishing villages that are responsible for catching much of Italy’s seafood, including most of its tuna. Another evidence is that Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian national hero and a key figure in the movement to unify Italy, was said to have eaten the dish when he arrived in the Sicilian city of Marsala in the year 1860. The Sicilian version of my pasta contains also olives, capers and parsley. For Emilia-Romagna, the evidence lays in the nature of the most famous dish from the region, the Pasta alla Bolognese. My dish is the traditional Bolognese with the difference that it switches red meat ragu for fresh tuna. It is believed that people adopted this new version of the pasta so it could be eaten on religious holidays, such as Christmas Eve and Good Friday. During these holidays, Christians are not allowed to eat red meat, so cooking it with tuna makes it possible to eat this delicious dish every day.

My Rigatoni alla Bolognese al Tonno dish is the backbone of my love for Italy. Every time I cook it, it allows me to share a part of my Italian friend with the people I love, as well as aspects of her culture and country. This dish also symbolizes my culinary progress. The 13-year-old Julia would have refused to eat a new version of her favorite dish just because it was different; however, the 21-year-old Julia sees value in learning this new version for the very fact that it is new.