Stamattina, siccome Serena è impegnata, tocca a me, suo marito Geoff, scivere il blog.

This morning I went round to see our neighbour Dina in order to fix her old kitchen cupboard which is a bit the worst for wear. The works, however, had to be postponed because the kitchen was being used as un laboratorio per la produzione dei tortelli. 78 year old Dina lives alone with an ancient blind dog called Bark who spends most of his time snoring under her bench, about fifteen cats of various shapes, sizes, and colours, and numerous galline (chickens). Her husband Lino died about three years ago having been an invalid for quite a while following un ictus (a stroke). Dina is usually very independent, although just lately le fa molto male la schiena (her back is hurting a lot). Many of the things that she does, such as making fresh tortelli, she learnt from her mother, who in turn learnt from her mother, e così via….. (and so on).

Dina explained to me that, of course, her method of making tortelli is more ‘modern’ than it was in her nonna’s day, because her grandmother never had la macchina per la pasta that you can see in these photos. In the old days they used il matterello (rolling pin), and the flour for making the pasta was ground in one of the many local mulini (mills) from grano nostrano (local grain) which was cultivated up in the higher pastures about an hour’s walk from the village.

But I’ll tell you more of Dina’s recollections in future blogs. For now let’s have a look at the photos that she kindly let me take this morning, with a bit of explanation in Italian.

1. Sul tavolo della cucina si vedono le sfoglie di pasta, la macchina per la pasta, un vassoio di tortelli pronti per essere tagliati, la pentola con il ripieno (bietole, pangrattato, uova, formaggio Parmigiano, sale e noce moscata) e vari altri semplici utensili.

1. On the kitchen table you can see the sheets of pasta, the pasta machine, a tray of tortelli ready to be cut, the saucepan with the filling (chard, breadcrumbs, egg, parmesan cheese, salt, and nutmeg) and various other simple tools.

2. Dina mette il ripieno sulla base di sfoglia adagiata sullo speciale vassoio per tortelli.

2. Dina puts the filling on the base layer of pasta which is lying on the special tortelli tray.

3. poi tira la seconda sfoglia di pasta per ricoprire i tortelli,

3. then  pulls out the second layer of pasta to cover the tortelli,

4. e li appoggia su un vassoio di cartone per poterli poi tagliare più facilmente. Sopra alla macchina per la pasta si vede lo speciale vassoio per tortelli.

4. and places them on a cardboard tray in order to be able to cut them more easily. On top of the pasta machine you can see the special tortelli tray.

5. Con l’aiuto della rotellina, Dina taglia i tortelli.

5. With the help of the pasta cutter Dina cuts the tortelli.

6. Qui si vede in maggior dettaglio la speciale rotellina usata per tagliare e sigillare allo stesso tempo i tortelli grazie al suo margine dentato.

6. Here you can see in better detail the special pasta cutter used to cut and seal the tortelli at the same time due to its toothed edge.