Traditional Italian pasta recipes are on the verge of extinction. And to save them, writer Vicky Bennison has launched a youtube channel where Italian grandmothers show how to make real pasta.
Writer Vicky Bennison is a big fan of delicious pasta and heartfelt human stories. And she knows better than anyone that no one can make Italian pasta better than Italian grannies. It occurred to her to record recipes of Italian pensioners she knows, not as a boring cookbook, but as a youtube video blog. Vicky did not choose this format for cooking notes by chance – she thinks that everyone should know the awesome pasta recipe writers by sight.
The vivacious 95-year-old Giuseppia from Sardinia
The very first character in Vicky Bennison’s blog was 95-year-old Giuseppia from Sardinia. She knows by experience that the health benefits of pasta are not a myth but a reality. Pasta may be the reason why Giuseppia has survived to such an advanced age, healthy and cheerful.
Giuseppia makes pasta called Macaroni de Ungio.
Recipe for Pasta Macaroni di Ungio by Giuseppia Porco
1. Prepare the homemade pasta. Gradually mix the warm salted water with the durum wheat flour. It’s important to knead the dough well before making the pasta. Giuseppia uses a special board to make the strange pasta, called “fingernails” in Sardinia. You can hardly make such pasta in Russia, but you can try to make similar ones. The main thing is to make the paste similar in shape to a shell, thin and small.
2. Making the sauce. Sauté the onion, add the flesh of the tomatoes, the passata and the fresh herbs (basil, oregano, spinach).
3. Boil the pasta until al dente. Be careful not to overcook the homemade pasta.
4. Serve. Sprinkle the boiled pasta with grated aged hard cheese and mix well. Drizzle the sauce over the top, sprinkle with fresh basil and serve with your favourite guests!
Sisters Maria and Rita from the Marché cook unusual ravioli
Sisters Maria and Rita from Marchette are another bright star of the writer’s video blog, cooking unusual ravioli with cheese, chicken and cinnamon.
Sisters Maria and Rita make their own ravioli.
Maria and Rita’s recipe for ravioli di Pappa
1. Prepare the ravioli dough on the basis of: 100 grams of flour to 1 egg. Knead the dough thoroughly, about 10 minutes.
2. Prepare the meat filling. Grind the cooked chicken together with the broth, ground cinnamon, soaked bread and a small handful of peanuts in a blender. Add the cheese and some egg white and mix until smooth. 3.
3 Make the ravioli. Roll out the dough and cut into strips. Then put meat filling, cut into strips and make something like dim sum.
4. Cook the ravioli in plenty of salted water until tender.
5. Serve. Drizzle the ravioli with melted butter, sprinkle with grated hard aged cheese and drizzle with tomato sauce.
We hope Vicky’s video blog helps keep the tradition of passing down recipes from one generation to the next alive. So different and delicious, the recipes from our grandmothers should live on for years to come as an extension of their love for us.