Pasta Grannies by Vicky Bennison

Making pasta, it's my trusted companion when I'm not feeling very well and I prefer to do something with my hands. Sometimes I go gardening (and shovel the weeds), other times I frantically tackle the dust on the cupboards (which happens less often). But there is always the pasta I can count on. A comforting activity that also always earns praise at the table.

I started tagliatelle and ravioli in 2011 when I had my first child and I was unable to combine work and motherhood. I stopped working temporarily, but it also made me nervous looking at my child all day. And so I learned to use the pasta machine.

Consolation and success

When I moved to Schoonhoven, South Holland in 2016, I wanted to continue with that. I posted that I was making pasta in the local buy-and-sell Facebook group and got a lot of reactions from enthusiastic fellow townspeople. I felt at home and it also gained me a lot of followers on my Facebook page and with that I also managed to reach an audience for my Italian language courses that I started in September that year.

My school grew to about 4 students in 70 years and for a while I only made pasta for my own family, busy as I was teaching. In the meantime I already had the YouTube channel of the pasta grannies recommended.

In class we watched a video and there was no one who remained unmoved when seeing the grandmothers working. In December 2019, when I was once again less comfortable in my own skin, I remembered my former happiness: the pasta machine and the beauty of beautifully folded tortellini.

Pasta for a lifetime

Making pasta is a lifestyle and while the word 'lifestyle' is undoubtedly something of this millennium, you can see this reflected in the book pasta grannies.

The stories of grannies from all over Italy are touching. Their bond with the pasta is lifelong. They tell how they started as children, learned the 'trade' from their mother at the age of 9 and how it plays a role in their daily lives. How they prepared pasta in their own way with love for their family for a lifetime and fed the leftovers to the chickens.

The recipes in this book are original and the combination with the YouTube channel where you can see how to fold Sardinian culurgiones is ideal.

The recipe for Bolognese passatelli is also nice. Each recipe is a personal story and a tribute to the grandmother from whom it comes. The stories are lovingly written and on YouTube you can look up the grandmother in question and see her live.

The dishes are often simple, with only a few good ingredients. They give the word "simple" the positive connotation it deserves. Pasta with beans and tomato sauce, gnocchi with cream and cheese. That kind of work.

Grandma as a genius influencer

The marketing concept is, of course, genius. An Italian should have come up with that. But it was American Vicky Bennison. As many people outside Italy have now understood what exactly that Italian tradition is.

While many Italians have now switched to easy ready meals due to a higher labor market participation of women, the slow food movement has filtered through to other countries.

Of course you still have in Bologna La Vecchia Scuola (also very authentic YouTube material) or L'antica aguzzeria del cavallo which I wrote a blog about.

Every city still has its pasta, workshops and pasta schools. But they are now also good and fun outside of Italy.

Imaikouba for example (a Japanese pasta tool maker) and Pastaio Via Corte from the United States.

Italian writer Giulia Blasi may be annoyed by German food bloggers who tell her how to make the carbonara pasta The fact is that some foreigners, like Vicky Bennison, have completely embraced making good pasta.

They will make their own pasta granny be, in their time and in their way. I myself am one of them. That's what happens with success stories.

Pasta Grannies (preview copy)
by: Vicky Bennison, translation: Aniek Njiokiktjien
photography: Emma Lee
240 pages
€ 27,99
Character Publishers, February 2020
ISBN 9789045219578