What is it about Italy that we love so much? Is it the salty cheese, the straight outta Nonna’s garden tomatoes, maybe the bellissimo eye candy?! I was lucky enough to visit the homeland (I’m 1/4 Italian…actually Sicilian but who’s counting), and let me be the first to say that these people do not mess around when it comes to cooking, eating, and feeding. Every other shop we walked passed was food related…standing room only espresso bars, bakeries where you can grab an amaretti cookie or two, gelato on every street corner (which we did…daily!)…or you can just stand and soak in all the tall dark and handsome all around you. Eye candy… Delicious with no calories.

Then of course there’s pasta and bread as far as the eye can see. Pfffffffft, what a tease, stupid gluten allergy. That being said, Italy did kick it up a notch in the gluten free department, sadly not every restaurant was up to speed, and that’s putting it nicely. One place actually tried to serve us a plastic frisbee and call it pizza, of course it was on a day that my sister decided to order gluten free as well so we could have a full blown pizza party. But then the frisbee comes to the table… she looked at her plate, then up at me, followed by “I’m not eating this!”

So I thought why not remake an Italian classic my way. Where full flavoured tomato sauce and soft melty goat cheese meet a bed of perfectly cooked zucchini noodles. But here’s my culinary spin… I’ll top it with chicken Parmesan meatballs. It’s like the ultimate comfort food. Plus with all this cold yuck outside there’s nothing more satisfying than an ooey gooey cheesy Italian meal to warm your belly, and how much fun is it to say “Parmesan”, said in my best Italian accent.