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mia cucina italiana
An Italian Palate
My Nonna Anna was one of those Italian grandmothers who was an extraordinary cook. The smells coming from her kitchen were divine, and I'm convinced that the aroma of her homemade bread and sauces are what heaven smells like. My favorite of nonna's dishes was her homemade cavatelli. I learned from her that cavatelli is the name of the noodles, and not the goulash-style meal that some restaurants associate it with. Instead, cavatelli are light pillows of pasta, lovingly rolled one-by-one on a cheese grater to make a dimpled shell. I loved nonna's cavatelli so much that when I went away to college and switched schools at the last minute, she laughingly accused me of making the change on purpose so I could enjoy two going-away cavatelli dinners. A couple of years later, on one of my visits home, she quietly got up from the sofa and beckoned me to follow her to the kitchen. And started making cavatelli.
Since Nonna Anna used no recipes, I watched and commited everything she did to memory. I didn't want to stop and write the steps down, and didn't want to miss a single second of the experience, I felt honored that she would show me her signature recipe, and to this day, I feel it was one of the special moments of my life.