Of my four grandparents, all who immigrated from Italy to the USA, three of them came as young children. They attended school in New York and fully assimilated to their new country. They only spoke English around their children, so my parents didn’t speak Italian. My paternal grandmother had a Brooklyn accent so thick, you could cut it with a chain saw. She pronounced oil as earl and toilet as terlit. They were American in every way except one – in their food. That aspect of our lives was 100% Italian.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to cook and I love to experiment. I’ve made wine and beer, homemade mustard and sourdough bread, bacon and pancetta. I like making things that are unusual, things I never heard of before. As an adult, I learned that a lot of Italian foods and drinks are very regional. Three of my grandparents were from Sicily. I never heard of Pasta Carbonara or Cacio e Pepe until I visited Rome. Naturally I had to try making both. Cooking these dishes connects me to my Italian roots.

One day I was scrolling on Instagram and a reel showed up in my feed. It was of an Italian woman making tigelle. She mixed the dough, put the dough in between disks, and cooked it in what looked like a pizza oven, right there in the flames. This fascinated me. I was ready to build one of those ovens in my kitchen, but, at my age, I’m not building anything except the occasional Lego project with my grandsons. Still-I really wanted to make these. Luckily I discovered one could make them without the disks or a fire breathing oven. I found a recipe on The Spaghetti Sisterhood website.

They were simple to make and I liked that I could pull out my cast iron griddle for them, just like crumpets, English muffins, and naan. I mixed a simple dough, heated my griddle, and watched the tigelle puff up golden. I didn’t have prosciutto so I had to use turkey in my sandwiches. Don’t judge me.

Tigelle are a fun, easy way to bring Italian tradition to your table. What’s your favorite Italian dish or family recipe?