There is a saying.. what grows together goes together. To celebrate his birthday month of April, one Croatian American is putting a Dalmatian twist on a favorite Italian pasta recipe, and using locally sourced ingredients to do so

American tech & business writer Albert Anthony, who traces his lineage to the coastal region in & around Zadar, writes to The Dubrovnik Times on his journey to make a locally inspired pasta arrabiata recipe that any home chef can use.

"From Dubrovnik all the way to Trieste, the coastal region of Croatia has a wealth of ingredients full of color, flavor, & aroma, that can be readily sourced or grown, are generally economical, & easy to put into a pasta sauce," he mentions. "As an April baby, coastal living in springtime is about tending to the garden where everything is blooming early this year, visiting the local produce marketplaces, & experimenting with regional flavor experiences as a home chef."

A Simple & Economical Approach

The author, who has lived in several large metro areas in the US, uses just a few critical ingredients in his Dalmatia -inspired version of pasta arrabiata, a dish with roots in Rome, that literally means "angry pasta" in Italian and known for its heat.

"Based on my market research, you can make penne all'arrabiata for two people, for just 8 Euros worth of local ingredients, and still have more of them left over. That seems economical & practical in my opinion," Albert Anthony writes. "Only a handful of basic ingredients are necessary including parsley, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, penne pasta, sea salt, tomato sauce base, basil, and grated parmesan cheese, for example. These are all grown native to this larger coastal region of Croatia but some come from neighboring Italy as well. I would stress the importance of the quality of olive oil, to truly bring out the Mediterranean in the dish, as someone with generations of ancestors who were producing extra virgin olive oil even before electric presses came about."

Basic Ingredients, Centuries Old

Having worked for the IT department of North American & UK supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, during the remote work from home period of 2020, Albert Anthony was able to use downtime to experiment as a home chef as many others probably did, and was able to incorporate many of the ingredients he learned from Dalmatian parents & relatives, but also adding his own approach tailored to combine the life of a busy professional with that of health-conscious food options.

When experimenting with a local garden recently on the Croatian coast he restored out of previously unused land, he found that an ingredient like parsley is very low-cost & productive to grow locally, doing well most of the year, and versatile for various pasta & sauces and as a garnish, adding a magical aroma to the dish, which he demonstrates on his YouTube channel, and without the use of unnecessary pesticides.

"Starting only a few years ago, the reality for many people working remotely was that your kitchen & home office were next to each other throughout the work day, so when not dealing with IT problems it was an opportunity for me to learn or practice new recipes during lunch breaks," he says.

"While pasta & pizza dishes have been common elements in many large metro areas in the US for decades, especially since so many Americans can trace their roots to immigrants from southern Europe that later helped cultivate that type of cuisine in the new world, these are dishes that can also be considered health-conscious too.. if you understand a core set of basic ingredients & balancing them correctly.. pasta should not be looked at as a sin because of carbs. What is interesting is that something seemingly so basic as sea salt from the Adriatic was actually a major source of salt trade & commerce in this region during Roman times, as we see from the museum & saltworks at Nin, and it continues to live on in our recipes of today, especially as a critical element in pasta sauces. "

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Author Info

Albert Anthony is the pen name of an American tech & business author with Croatian roots. He writes for Investing.com as well as Amazon, along with producing content for his YouTube channel. He was born Albert Anthony Bozulic in the NYC area & traces generations of family roots to the Zadar area on the Adriatic coast, and is currently a part-time contributor to The Dubrovnik Times, op-ed section.