Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy's Best Home Cooks

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Of choosing the nonne and recipes to include in Comfort Food, she says it was a puzzle of trying to combine recipes that are mostly easy enough for home cooks while also throwing a few challenging recipes in for enthusiasts. Make the egg pasta dough as described in Silk handkerchiefs with basil pesto from Liguria, below, swapping one egg for 55ml of water. Leave the dough, covered, to rest for at least 30 minutes. To make the pesto, remove the skin from the garlic clove and halve the clove lengthways. If there's a green shoot (or anima, as Italians call it), hoik it out and discard. Discover 91 year-old Pina's chestnut gnocchi with walnut pesto, lovingly made with ingredients she grows around her home in Liguria; or 99 year-old Marietta's special tagliatelle recipe, which is not really a recipe at all but a reflection of her vegetable garden, the Calabrian countryside and the changing seasons. As well as meat, seafood and vegetable pasta recipes, chapters cover pizzas, pastries and pies, rice and pulses, dairy and herbs, nuts and spices.

Once it's kneaded, place the dough in a bowl that fits the size of your ball and cover it with a close-fitting lid or dampened cloth which has not been cleaned in perfumed detergent; air is the enemy of pasta, and you don't want it to dry out. Let this rest for at least 30 minutes. I love the use of herbs, the pestos, and pansoti, which is a walnut salsa served with raviolo pansoti, which are stuffed with foraged wild greens so you get this bitterness along with the walnuts. We’ve also got some very good pies from Liguria.” Mandilli di saea" translates as silk handkerchiefs; these large pasta squares should be very thin and light. And our Pasta Granny who shared her recipe with us is artist Nadia, who lives in the mountains of Liguria near Lumarzo. She is keen on living in harmony with nature; she won't even disturb spiders' cobwebs because she says "they have a job to do". And she is in the right spot to enjoy her surroundings: from her kitchen-sink window she looks out at the edge of a forest and regularly sees deer and the occasional wolf. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. Learn how to make pasta like Italian nonnas do. Inspired by the hugely popular YouTube channel of the same name, Pasta Grannies is a wonderful collection of time-perfected Italian pasta recipes from the people who have spent a lifetime cooking for love, not a living: Italian grandmothers.When you have good ingredients, you don't have to worry about cooking. They do the work for you."– Lucia, 85 Each recipe is also available on the YouTube channel and one can easily find them by scanning the corresponding QR code. When you’re poor, eating meat is a great luxury and one that you don’t turn down. For many of these women growing up, they ate meat twice a year, but they don’t call themselves vegetarian,” she says. “For these women, growing up, everything mattered. They were the workforce of the family, working in the fields, making food from scratch at an early age. Everything is used. Excess pasta is turned into a frittata or a soup, and you eat modestly. If you place importance on food, you cherish it. It’s a way of bringing family together.” Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the tagliatelle for a minute or two; you want it to be al dente. Use a spider to scoop it out and dump it into the sauce. Saute everything for another minute, and ladle in a bit of pasta water into the pan if the mixture looks a bit dry.

She loves growing her own vegetables and cooking from scratch. She even makes her own flour using locally grown whole wheat; it has a wonderful nutty aroma, but don't worry, you do not need to do this! We tested her recipe using 00 flour. If you do want to copy Nadia and use your own wholewheat flour, then sift the flour first, to remove the flakes of bran, otherwise your silk handkerchiefs will be more hessian in texture.I recount a conversation to Bennison that I’d had with my neighbor earlier that day in which I’d raved about a cookbook I loved. There are recipes for vegetarians, as well as seafood or meat lovers. Readers are also spoiled with a sprinkling of traditional pizza, pie and pastry recipes.

Add the pasta to the sauté pan. Toss the pasta with the courgette and 1 tablespoon of the mint and sauté the mixture for a minute or so. If you feel the pasta is drying out too much, add a bit of pasta water.Pour in the water, then add the greens. Give them a good stir and add the tomatoes. Chop up the herbs so you have a good 2 tablespoons and stir this mixture into the sauce. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes or so. Delivery with Standard Australia Post usually happens within 2-10 business days from time of dispatch. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery and due to various reasons, the delivery may take longer than the original estimated timeframe. Each recipe is taught by a different granny - or nonna - as one would say in Italian. The reader is given a little introduction to the nonna and where she’s from. We are also given some interesting facts about the dish or the unique ingredients. To begin with, weigh out your eggs and flour separately. Tip the flour onto a pasta board and make a generous well in the middle in which to pour your eggs.