Another long one. I realize that my blog is slipping into a “memory catalog” territory, but I feel that it’s important for myself, my kids, and my future grandchildren. Since much of what I know about my parents and especially grandparents is missing, I want to help insure I help them for the future.
In Great Pasta Search (GPA) #2 Part 1 – Past e’ Fazoo, I talked about my father’s Past e’ Fazoo and the connection between food and even food’s Italian/Italian-American names to my father’s life and my children.
In this, GPA #2 – Past e’ Fazoo (Part 2) – Marigliano! furthers the connection that food provides to the STRONG women of my life both past and present. BTW – making the Ditalini noodle for Past e’ Fazoo failed (more on that later).
Grandma Jenny (I just typed it as Jenna!)
There’s one woman in my life that I never met; my Grandma Jenny (Giovanna). Grandma Jenny died giving birth to my mother resulting in a lifetime of insecurities for my mother, many further passed onto me.
I have a vague memory from talk about Grandma Jenny by my Grandma Maouri (aka Loretta, my mom’s adopted mother, who was actually Grandma Jenny’s sister-in-law), and only one artifact, her obit (thanks Chip).
Grandma Jenny was a leader in Swede Town (never figured out why most Italians in my little city lived in Swede Town). She helped initiate and was president of the Anita Garibaldi lodge of the Sons of Italy.
Back then, the Sons of Italy were only for men, so she helped create an annex for women named after Anita Garibaldi (a REAL BAD ASS WOMAN). Other than being a women’s social club, I can remember the lodge hosting and running many volunteer community events.
Without realizing, 60 years later, I’d come full circle with Grandma Jenny by joining, then becoming president of the Rochester Chamber Associates. We had been thrown out of the Jr. Chamber of Commerce and US Chambers of Commerce for allowing women as members. So, we started our own group with our primary purpose to do local volunteer work.
I met my wife at a Chamber Associates function. Where would I be if we’d not allow women to participate?
So, what about Marigliano?
Grandma Jenny’s family originates in Marigliano, Campania, Italy and sits at the outer rim of towns around Napoli at the base of Vesuvius. I’m certain that Grandma Jenny made her own Past e’ Fazoo with homemade noodles, and she learned from people who came from Marigliano!
I’d sit in utter amazement watching Grandma Maouri and Aunt Theresa spin cavadells (cava = cave, dells = little, so little caves to hold sauce) off their forks like machines. The rest of the world calls them cavatelli, or worse, gnocchi.
I never heard the term gnocchi until I moved here, and…BAH FUNGOO…it’s cavadell!
I’m unsure of my Grandma Jenny’s recipe, but my mother would insist that riggot (ricotta cheese) be added to the flour and eggs. She’d explain, “even though riggot is ‘expensive’, it’s not what the poor people do.”
This likely explains my desire to go to Marigliano. I NEED to walk around that remote part of Napoli to see the place that influenced Grandma Jenny. We’ve been through Marigliano once on a bus. I yearned to leap off; now I understand why.
Despite Marigliano being industrial, poor, heavily in Gomorrah control, and the site of one of the largest toxic industrial waste sites this side of Chernobyl, it sounds like my home town! By many accounts, Napoli is rough and tumble. I find Napoli soothing! And Marigliano sounds to be at the highest fringe of the rough and tumble now. I can only imagine what might it have been like in the early 1900’s that spawned the Diaspora?
Luckily, I’ve befriended a few cyclists who live in and near Marigliano who’ve invited me to come join them on a ride. I’d better start mountain training. It’s incredible hilly there.
The Past e’ Fazoo, FAILURE!
Did Grandma Jenny make her own Ditalini? I want to believe so; she was such a BAD ASS! The more I study round shaped “past” making the more daunting, and frankly frightening, it’s becoming.
So, on July 30, we made the dough and put it in the refrigerator to rest overnight.
On July 31, I attempted to make Ditalini. I cut the dough, broke it into chunks, rolled it, and attempted to make “pipes” around a wooden dowel.
As you can see, it didn’t work too well 😦 The dough would not hold together. My buddy Frank Q, who also makes homemade past, thinks I need a past extruder machine. He’s an engineer too, so go figure we’d jump to the need for more equipment!
SO PLAN B!
I rolled the dough back out and made…FETTUCCINE AND A PIZZA!
Plan B, Part 1 – Sicilian Pepperoni Pizza
This ended up being a very good pizza, not great. My dough is incredibly active right now. I assume that it’s because of the summer heat. The dough that I cut from my batch could’ve made 2 Sicilian style. As a result, the dough was very thick, and it’s thickness wasn’t as soft as if there was not enough room for the dough to rise in the pan! The sauce, as is getting customary, outstanding.
Plan B – Part 2 – Fettucine & Meat Sauce
So, finally, on August 1, we had homemade past (remember, it’s past, not pasta) with meat sauce. I never learned the term Bolognese Sauce until I moved here, and rarely did we ever have meat sauce versus meatballs or leftover steak or chicken in our sauce.
I’m not sure if it was not called Bolognese sauce versus meat sauce because it was a South Italy versus North grudge with in my family. I just think that meat was so rare for my ancestors, that making a meat sauce called Bolognese was too rare to have a name.
The noodles were outstanding! The sauce was pretty good. I’m not sure if I had expected more of a tomato taste due to the recipe that I used, or that Bolognese sauce is just light on tomato.
There will be another attempt at Past e’ Fazoo.
One for the record books!
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