Spaghetti squash… a sunny winter vegetable. It grows on a vine like pumpkin and has yellow, star-shaped blossoms that only open for one day. Love how, once tender, you can gently fork the strands from the sides to create spaghetti in its own bowl.
I never encountered spaghetti squash when growing up. And when it came to spaghetti pasta, when I was a child in the 1970s, at home we mostly had fettucine not spaghetti. Going to Australian friends’ houses I envied how they had spaghetti and added bolognaise sauce on top. I felt self-conscious that at my house we had fettucine with my grandparents’ homemade passata mixed all through and twirled it onto a fork. I’d get tied up in knots about doing anything ‘different’ and not fitting in.
Now I think it’s wonderful that Australia having migrants from more than two hundred countries also means people cooking and sharing more than two hundred traditional cuisines and that’s as well as our First Australians’ rich culture of food and cooking. It’s said that different groups often come to be accepted when their food becomes known, enjoyed and sought after. To think, once spaghetti was so strange and foreign to some and now it’s such a beloved dish in all its forms. Hopefully there are now kids with Italian ancestry happily twirling their spaghetti in front of their friends and even teaching them to do so too. Maybe even with spaghetti squash! Zoë x 💛🍝
Zoë Boccabella 
I think it was a real challenge for children of migrant parents back in the day.Half in one culture and half out of another.There was a real lack of understanding and at times prejudice.These days it is cool to have ciabata bread,olives,sushi , Babaghanoush in your school lunch wear glasses and have braces.Acceptance of differences has taken many years and now everyone wants to travel to other countries and embrace various cultures.Migration opened the eyes to a big wide world outside of Australia.Would love to move to Italy and learn all the secrets from various Nonas-my dream.
Hi Kellie, yes, all so true! And I know it was harder for the generation before me, while a little easier for the ones after in this respect. Hopefully it will continue to be better and better. Both migration and travel have been so integral to both the discovery and learning between different cultures (with food playing a part!), and, interestingly, being either end of the financial scale has contributed to this happening in different eras.
Going to Italy and discovering all the secrets and experiences of the Nonnas sounds like a wonderful dream – I hope it comes true! xx
I enjoyed reading about spaghetti squash and fettuccine. I, too, grew up twirling my spaghetti with my mother’s made from scratch sauce stirred in.
Soon we will visit Fossa a trovare familia. We will drop by the negozio run by Signora Boccabella. Non vediamo l’ora.
Glenn
Thanks, Glenn, that’s lovely to hear. And how wonderful that you will soon be going to Fossa. I do hope you have a wonderful time there and discover all you hope to. Of course, it sadly remains a ghost village since the earthquake but it is still beautiful in a poignant way and holds so much history and memories. Tante belle cose, Zoe x