This week my father’s sister, aunt Rosa, came to visit us: always full of energy and with a good humor, she looked at me and said: “Let’s make friciddi” …. I couldn’t wait: I wanted to learn how to make this fresh pasta, which I used to eat when I was a child, every time I went to visit my grandmother, from my dad’s part. My grandmother was from a little place near Potenza and, together with my grandfather, had a small grocery store. Thanks to them, I always loved the southern cuisine, with intense and spicy flavours and made of simple and genuine ingredients … bread with homemade starter, fresh pasta like orecchiette and friciddi, all kind of vegetables from the garden.

It’s very important to me to maintain a contact with my origins: keeping alive the memory and the traditions handed down from generation to generation, help to keep stable this connection that brings us all together. I feel that traditions as well as having to be honored and respected, must also be reviewed, giving attention to what life’s asking us now, in this moment. So start from tradition and go sensitively and skillfully towards innovation.

In this direction, in the kitchen, I like to rediscover old recipes, remembering the people who teached them to me, but inserting something new, to create dishes that can respond to new needs…for example changing seasonings or making new combinations.

I am very happy to share with you the moment I met my aunt: around the kitchen table, with patience, she teached me this traditional recipe and gave me some advices to obtain an optimal result. It was wonderful to see that, after a few moments, my son of 7 years old, naturally joined us and began to work by putting the energy of his little hands into the creation of this fresh pasta: we were living an extraordinary experience…ancient gestures were living again thanks to the meeting of three generations …We talked for all the time of our family, of old traditions and of this wonderful land that is Basilicata. It was a really beautiful day.

If you are curious to know what is the secret recipe of aunt Rosa’s friciddi, keep in touch … ☺