“Life is a combination of magic and pasta,” the 20th-century Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini famously said. Of all magic in the world, pasta, and Italian cuisine as a whole, is high on the list. When I studied in Bologna, Italy (yes, the city where “bologna” originated, known in Italy as “mortadella,” and having only a slight resemblance to what us Americans sadly know as bologna), each student in our program had to take an orientation class that focused on Italian language, history, and culture.

On the first day of my course, the director of our program, Anna-Maria, told us the first thing we needed to understand was the rules about Italian cuisine. If we were to be fully immersed in the language and culture of Italy, we needed to understand — and never break — those important commandments.