Message from Grandma

It started while Himself and I were watching the Father Brown Mysteries. The broad-brimmed hat with rounded crown reminded me of the  maccaroni my grandma (Ma's mother) made. The pasta was shaped like the hat. We called them cappellini (we pronounced this coop-pel-leen-ie). How I miss those delicious, melt in your mouth little hats, smothered in gravy (tomato sauce).

And even though when I was little, I watched Grandma make the maccaroni. I couldn't remember what she did. Ma didn't make this recipe either. I'm not sure she had mastered the technique. Ma told me Grandma (we never called her Nonna. It was understood we had to speak American) would take a bit of the dough, spread it with the tip of  a knife, and flip it over her thumb to shape the hat. Wouldn't have mattered as Grandma's recipes were not written down.

And then there was the dream. I was with a bunch of relatives long gone from this life. Even Ma's youngest brother, my uncle, who I didn't particularly care for. In the morning, I told Himself of being with the dead relatives. There were no other specifics of the dream I remembered or even who else was there.

In the evening, Himself said , I know why you had the dream about your dead relatives.

Why?

Today, is National Pasta Day.

Hmmm. I think it was all because of Father Brown's hat.

Later that night while playing on Facebook, a live video, Cooking with Nonna crossed my feed. Nonna was making home-made pasta. So I watched the video. Nonna's granddaughter, Rossella, was running the camera and color commentary. She said Nonna was making orecchietti (little ears). Having nothing better to do, I watched.



Nonna rolled out the dough into a rope. She took a knife, cut a bit off. With her fore-finger on the knife tip, she pulled the bit of dough towards her and the flipped the dough over her thumb. And I almost cried. She was making cappellini!!

Rossella picked up the pasta and turned it towards the camera to show the shape. She said orecchietti were called little ears or little hats!

Rosella collaborated with her grandmother and wrote a cookbook, Cooking with Nonna. I had errands to run at the mall (and I bought some Play-Doh to practice) so for giggles stopped into Barnes and Noble to see if they had the book in stock. They did! I raced drove home safely, brewed a cup of tea, and sat down with the book. Nonna is from Ariana, the same area as my grandma. A lot of the recipes were familiar, and I started to cry. A part of my heritage, I thought was lost forever has been found and returned to me.

I've been practicing with the Play-Doh to get the hang of the technique. Semolina flour is on the shopping list.

The veil is thinning at this time of the year. I'm glad I was paying attention so Grandma wouldn't throw her shoe at me.

Grazie, Grandma.