Take 2kg flour collect 20 eggs mix well and knead ’till your arms ache, leave to rest… Finely grind 2.5kg mixed meats, veal, turkey, beef, add seasoning, some mortadella, parmesan and the all important secret ingredient. In company with 5 women and 2 guys and one of the next generation sit round a table. Pinch pleat, fill, fold all the while a lot of gossip, laughs smiles and stories and Ecco! We have hundreds of handmade cappelletti for Christmas.
I only went on the premise of.. ‘daiii, ti prego, vieni a casa del babbo per un pranzo veloce’ a ‘ come for a quick lunch’ little was I to know that I had been set up and all was organised. Lunch cooked by Vittorio was just the start of a memorable afternoon that put paid to all my other plans.
It was such a splendid afternoon at the family home of Monica’s father. Straight after lunch I found myself surrounded by aunts, cousins, and great aunts, Monica, her sister and of course Monica’s daughter. I was taught the art of making cappelletti, and of course each of the girls were quick to put their point of view and grade my work. The pressure was certainly on. It was great fun, I learnt so much about not only cappelletti, their tradition, but also the old contadini ways, the life of hardship and thrift, that it occurs to me a book should be written. Oh! sadly the video did not work, I was hoping to post here and on You Tube but alas thanks to a small capacity iPhone sadly no video… Let’s hope Santa is bringing me an iPhone 6 64mb for Christmas haha!