Carrefour it

(can you tell I'm a fan of Things Organized Neatly?)

There's a few grocery store chains around Torino - Meta, Pam, LiDL, Carrefour, and a couple others. I go toCarrefour (which is actually a french chain...just one of the many snippets of french influence Torino has)
because it's the closest and cheapest.

I'm usually able to keep my grocery trips to under 30 Euro each, including trips to the Open Market (that'll be for a future post). Grocery shopping wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be...as long as you get the store brand for as many items as you can (which tastes fine, works well), there's a ton of stuff you can get for less than a euro. The Carrefour and Carrefour Discount brands are super cheap compared to the other brands. Making sure to look at the price per kg, not just the listed price, helps out as well.

Overall, pretty successful shopping trip - I got everything I needed (yes, I NEED paprika pringles...you can't find them in the US and I am obsessed with them) for about 20 euro. The only thing I messed up on was that I bought chicken, thinking that it was on sale for 1.50 euro, but it turned out to be full price at 3.99 euro. That's almost 1/5 of my whole grocery purchases! Damn you, pollo party.

Polenta

I had never had polenta in the US, but I've been loving it ever since I tried it for the first time in Switzerland - it's apparently a staple of Northern Italy. It's so hearty and filling, definitely a good comfort food. Plus, I am shocked by how a little goes a long way - a cup of it could feed me two meals worth, which is barely making a dent in the (ridiculously cheap) bag I have.

This meal was one of those stone soup-esque, "take out what little food I have left and make something out of it" sort of meals. I'm trying to clear my food completely  before i go grocery shopping again, mostly because I want a clear sense of how much i spend on food per week. Polenta is a good food for these types of days because seems really versatile - you can pretty much cook it in any sort of broth and put anything in it to flavor it and make it taste good. This combination was really yummy.

Polenta with pancetta, tomatoes and potatoes.

Polenta
one 500g packet of pancetta
one medium-sized potato
one tomato
parmesan cheese, shredded
oregano (optional)

The ratio to cook polenta is 4 water, one polenta. I mostly eyeballed it because we don't
have any measuring tools and trying to convert mL to something I can understand is still
a mystery to me. If I had to estimate, I use about 3-4 cups of water (in a cup this size)
and a little less than one cup of polenta.

chop up the potato into cubes about the same size as the pancetta, then fry in a pan
with salt and pepper until browned.
add pancetta to the pan and cook until it doesn't have a deep shade of pink anymore.

meanwhile, bring the water to a boil in a pot with a little salt. once it's at a rolling boil, slowly add
the polenta (avoid dumping it in all together, because then it will clump up and cook
unevenly) Turn the heat to low, and put a lid on it for about 10 minutes. Every two minutes
or so, lift the lid and stir it around. When it starts to look a little more porridge-y
in consistency, add the potatos, pancetta, and a chopped tomato.

scoop out the polenta, top with cheese and some dried herbs if you have any, and eat!

Il Primo

Ciao! I decided to start this blog on a whim...I'm studying abroad in Torino, Italy, which has been nothing less than amazing so far - I can't imagine living anywhere else in Italy. I'm really into cooking, mostly because I'm really into eating. I always try to put effort into cooking something interesting and trying new foods.
While I would love to eat out all day, every day and try all of the mouthwatering Italian food Torino has to offer, I'm...sort of broke. I'm abroad for 8 months in total, and I saved up, but not enough for me to not die a little every time I see my credit card bill. But I love food too much to fully sacrifice eating well, so this blog will a record of my balancing act between having no money and my refusal to eat like crap. I've been here a for a little over three weeks, and I've been doing pretty well so far, so we'll see how this goes.

Just to spice this post up a little, here's a picture of some bruschetta we had at the Asti Food and Wine Festival a few weeks ago. so. good.