Who Knew We Could Cook?

During the first week or two of being in Milan, I decided one night to make myself some gnocchi. I found this sauce called Arribiata which was a spicy tomato sauce and I thought it would make a pretty nice easy meal. So I went home and cooked it, while I was eating, this guy I recently met, Ravi, came and wanted to try some, I said ok, being the nice guy I am haha. The next day, Ravi kept saying that I promised him I would make him some of this Gnocchi, which I never did. He was just being himself and joking around, but of course I felt bad so I decided, "why not?!” So we cooked some Gnocchi. We both really liked it and wanted to cook again, so we did. We went to the grocery store and I said, "Let's make this interesting." So he began by asking how my spice level was, and I replied pretty high, he was happy so we got some peppers and mushrooms which we would sauté and add peperincini to. Then I asked, "how about some rice on the bottom?" Good idea, he thought. We bought our ingredients, went back to the kitchen, and created the great, the famous, Gnocchi Picante. I can't cook, Ravi had only cooked Indian food before and somehow, we created this amazing dish with rice on the bottom, gnocchi in an arribiata sauce and sautéed vegetables on top. It was amazing, and super spicy. We decided we might be pretty good at this experimenting thing. Then we just went on a roll. Throughout the next few weeks we created such dishes as Trofie alla Pesto Arribiata, Insalata Caprese, and Tagliatelle alla Crack (think Fettuccini Alfredo with Arribiata). After a while, people started noticing our elaborate meals, because we would bring down like a million pots and dishes and food, and after a while people started getting excited for what we were making. Then I met Saiko, she was in Ravi's room one day and I came down and we started talking, and now she is one of my best friends, but back then I didn't really know her and one day we invited her to cook. Then I met Antonio, another one of my best friends, and he wanted to join us. Shortly after that, I met all these amazing people from Turkey, Elif, Seda, Selay, Dilan, and Osman, and they would always come by and watch and eventually would cook with us! Every day would create something incredible, and eventually we had our first huge meal with 6 of us, Stir Fry Verdure, which is the first time Marica cooked with us, another one of my best friends!! We would spend hours in the kitchen cooking and joking, having the best time with each other and somehow creating these incredible meals. Then, we took on bigger and better things, I decided to try homemade Risotto, while Ravi would attempt homemade Bruschetta, they turned out incredible. Haha, I am usually modest but these dinners were so good, and we had so much fun creating them I can't even describe. The best part about it was that the next day after we made Risotto and Bruschetta, we cooked a meal for 8 people! We were teaching them how to make the stuff we had just learned the day before! It was just so much fun, as time went on we created a few other dishes and everything and I was just so excited to get to the kitchen to cook, because that is where we all hung out and where I met and got close to a lot of my best friends, and it's even where the family was created. It's just so funny how things like this happen, if Ravi hadn't joked around and made me make him some Gnocchi; I feel that my time in Milan would have been so different. It was just such a small thing that created something amazing. We never knew how to cook before but we just decided to take the risk and be creative and it worked out! Those were some of my best and most memorable times in Milan and the saddest part is that in only a few days we have to make our own version of "The Last Supper", but don't worry, because it will be amazing, and it will be a night that I’m sure we will all remember forever.