Hi 👋🏼 My name is Solae’ the taller, younger, less Italian half of Mamma Mangia.
I grew up in a small town in Utah. My family was the only Italians I had ever known most of my life.

I don’t speak Italian.

I didn’t know my Nonna.

I have never been to Italy.

BUT…

I am Italian-American. My mom was born in Sicily and I have a deep love of my Italian roots.
If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would one day start a public social media account and business I would have literally laughed in your face.

So how did we get here? Well, it all started about 5 years ago. I was cooking and called my mom for the 27th time to ask her something about the recipe. I got thinking that one day I wouldn’t be able to call her to ask these questions. Very few of our family recipes were written down and the ones that were weren’t 100% accurate. I got thinking about my children and future children…about the recipes and memories that would eventually fade away with time. I hated the thought and set my mind to convince @mammasil that we should make a family cookbook. It took MONTHS to convince her that we could and SHOULD do this.

4 years, hundreds of phone calls, thousands of food pictures, incalculable hours, and over 200 recipes from 3 generations later…..we did it. We finished our heirloom cookbook.

That cookbook changed me. During those 4 years I learned so many new recipes and cooking tips but more importantly I learned of the power of food, recipes, and cooking. Food brings people together. Recipes hold memories. Cooking can calm the mind and can heal the heart. These experiences ignited a fire within me. An even deeper pride in my Italian roots was born and a connection to my ancestors that I had yearned for but never knew how badly I needed.

After the cookbook was finished my mom and I just cried. It was more than a cookbook. It was a genealogy filled with stories and pictures along with the recipes. We had worked so hard for so long but now that it was over we didn’t want it to stop.

So me, being the over ambitious person I am, approached @mammasil with a new idea…..

I told my mom we should start a social media account and share our experience, heritage and culture. My mom said NO….

I spent the next 3 months convincing her again this would be a good idea. She finally concede and in August 2020 Mamma Mangia was born. It’s been over a year now and we have been blown away at the love and support and growth we have seen over the past 14 months. We have always said God has guided us the whole way and we stand by that today.

I don’t know who benefits more from this account YOU or US but we are grateful to have this little space.
Our biggest hope in sharing our stories and recipes is to ignite a similar fire within each of you. Go learn YOUR story. Find the recipes that tell the stories of YOUR family. Make food that brings YOUR family together.

Take the time to cook and love it. Connect with your food. Let the art of cooking heal your heart and enrich your soul! And of course….MANGIA!!!!