Remember that scrumptious ravioli Carmela made for my birthday? (Check the May 15 blog – Pumpkin Ravioli.) She used an incredible Tupperware ravioli mold – former – thingy. I had to have one.
The Tupperware Lady told me that they don’t ship the stuff made in the USA here – cost too much. There are Tupperware factories in Belgium, France and Portugal. H’mm do they make special EU stuff that we can’t get – like great large ravioli former things????
Bye for now! I’ve got ravioli to make.
The cell phone. Remember life without a cell phone? I do! One day on my way to work in Red Bank, NJ, I got a flat tire. Hey, of course I KNEW how to change a tire but I was in a suit and didn’t WANT to change the tire. So how did I get help? In my high heels, I tottered down the street to the first house and at 7:30 in the morning banged on the door. Yup, I wasn’t afraid, serial killers didn’t enter my mind and obviously didn’t enter the mind of the woman who answered the door and called a gas station for me. Then I got a cell phone. Now, I realize that I can’t possibly navigate life’s curvy roads without a cell phone.
Three months in Italy with out a cell phone was out of the question. We weighed the options. One was to buy a cheap – no data – phone and a local pay-for-minutes plan. Nah! Impossible! Truth be told we are addicted to our iPhones. Want a restaurant? Turn to the Yelp app. On the road and need a hotel? Turn to Hotel.com. Lost? Pull out the google map and chart your way. All my contacts, Facebook friends, Dropbox folders and more are on my iPhone. What to do? How much will it cost for a data plan? The one thing we knew was that we were not going to buy the president of Verizon Wireless a new yacht by enrolling in their “cost you your first born child” international plan. We had done that for short trips and relied on wi-fi zones to call each other through the free Viber interface. We also know lots of folks with iPads and iPhones that use Apple’s FaceTime. Verizon had been notorious about not unlocking phones on contract so that you could install a pay-as-you go sim card. I was ready to go the mattresses with the Verizon Global folks to demand a more equitable plan for our three month stay. Was I surprised and delighted to discover that Verizon had changed its policy and would unlock our iPhones. I put our Verizon account on hold for three months and we left the country with unlocked phones.
Meanwhile, Annarita Mancini, the best and most efficient person a traveler could have on their side, investigated pay-as-you go cell phone services. Sit down – you are not going to believe this. For ten, not one hundred, but ten euros a month per phone, Jack and I were able to have unlimited 3G, 400 texts (I am not an avid texter so this is enough for a life time) and 400 minutes of talk time. So, for about $26 a month we get approximately the same bloody service for which we now pay Verizon $170 a month! How can that be?!
Don’t believe me? Check out the web site:
Our service is through a company called Wind. Now there have been some snafooos. When we bought our new sim cards and swapped out the Verizon card we weren’t sure what to do next. Jack always says, when in doubt hard reboot! We did that by sticking a paper clip in the tiny iPhone reset hole. I bit my lip and did some good luck incantations. Unnerving. We turned the phones back on and one worked perfectly. Jacks phone was in pazzo land. My Italian wasn’t good enough to understand Wind support. Annarita!!!
Over lunch in Morcone, the nearby village that requires the legs of a goat to walk through, Annarita stayed on hold with Wind, made pushy noises and got Jack’s phone functioning. The one annoying Wind security thing is that every time you shutdown your phone or runout of battery you have to re-enter your million number Wind security code. Jack says I’m lying it isn’t a million numbers only four. OK, he wins but I didn’t pick the four and I don’t remember the four. The first month the service was great. There were only a few spots on the mountain where we didn’t have ‘bars’. We also don’t get service in our kitchen. Of course the bones of the house are medieval and all thick rock. The kitchen is an all rock internal room. I don’t think Verizon or AT&T could sneak through those thick walls either.
Month two arrived and we had to pay for the second months service. We tried to do it online. It couldn’t be done by us. To set up an on-line account, you need a Codice Fiscale number – think social security. Annarita bought our sim cards before we got here. Thinking my Codice Fiscale was bad or I had someone else’s, I kept cursing at the computer and the Italian government. Later, we discovered that Annarita had registered the sim card with her name and number. Not a big deal. You can go to almost any Tobacchi (cigarette and assorted stuff shop) or Edicolo (newspapers and magazine shop) and top off your account. We did that and all was well – we thought. Jacks service continued, mine stopped. Eeeeeeh. Annarita!!! She came and rebooted my phone. Now why didn’t I think of that! Once again all is brilliant in cell phone land.
Question – why is it so much cheaper here for cell phone usage? All I could think of was, this is a smaller country and we only bought service for Italy not all of Europe. But hey, I ain’t calling anyone in Greece. Wait a second! Jack and I are going to London for five days. My brilliant niece Alexandra Rose is graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. We are hopping over to see her in a play and graduation review. How much more than our ten euros will Wind charge for calls outside of Italy? Two Euros a day ($2.60) that is how much more. For that we get 30 minutes of call time, 30 text messages and 30 MB of internet data. That extended plan is good for all of the European Union and the United States. We have learned to turn off the data on our iPhones when traveling and just use wi-fi zones so the 30 MB won’t be an issue.
Next time you travel to Italy, unlock that phone and let you voice fly with Wind!
In 2007 my mug graced my brand new Italian Passport. The process to become a Cittadina Italiana took me about three years and numerous trips to the Philadelphia Consulate. It took my sister less than one year and two trips to the Newark Consulate. It took my niece (her picture is above) about 6 months. It will take my cousin about three years plus. WHAT???? Let us start at the beginning. The questions most people ask me are these: Why would you do it? What is the benefit of having dual citizenship? Is the process difficult? How much did it cost you?
Why wouldn’t I do it is more like it. In the early 1990’s I started actively researching the Guerrera Family Tree. Piece by piece, I was collecting data, adding branches and getting more and more involved with the lives of people I had never met. To get a better handle on the research, I knew that I had to go to Pontelandolfo and visit the archives of the commune. Zia Caterina, Jack and I made that journey in 1995 – another blog will tell you that whole story. We not only added numerous branches to the tree but discovered my father and Zia Caterina’s first cousins! When Zia Caterina and I had gone to Italy in the 70’s their uncles were still living – we missed an incredible opportunity then. After meeting my extended Italian family, I became even more obsessed with all things Italian. Particularly, all things related to this small village in Campania, Pontelandolfo. While we were there I bought a few copies of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s birth certificates and certificate of marriage. That was an incredibly smart thing to do since folks have told me it is difficult to retrieve those documents via mailed requests – unless you use a service like http://myitalianfamily.com.
A quick search on line revealed that I was indeed eligible for citizenship – an act which would bring me even closer to my roots. There was no “aha” moment or benefits lightbulb that exploded in my brain – just the deep seated need to be closer to my “i parenti,” the DNA that makes me who I am.
How American of us to want to know what the hell we get out of the deal. Like feeling closer to ones heritage isn’t enough! Well, let me think what do I get out of it? If Jack and I really do retire to Italy we are already part of the Italian community. During the Bush Jr. years, My sister and I did talk about moving quickly forward so that if the draft was reinstated and we didn’t particularly agree with the why behind the war we could get her kids out. Now, that might have been our 1960’s sensibilities kicking in, because Italy had mandatory service until January 1, 2005. The other benefit is being able to work anywhere in the European Union – a benefit that my niece is actively using. Further, I can stay in Italy or any of the Schengen Treaty countries for as long as I like – no ninety days for me! ( Of course we are only staying 90 days this trip because Jack hasn’t applied for spousal citizenship yet.) The USA State Department explains all this. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_4361.html OK, I am bored with the what is the benefit idea – the benefit is IT MAKES ME HAPPY.
Ah, this is tricky! In the over ten years since my family has gone through this process it has changed based on who we spoke to in which consulate and new regulations. Here is the basic tenet – if one of your parents was an Italian citizen at the time of your birth – no matter where you are born – than you by blood are an Italian citizen. Yikes, my dad was born in Manville, NJ – does that disqualify me? No! My grandparents had not become American citizens until after my dad’s birth. That automatically made him an Italian citizen living abroad. Did my father know that? No! When I explored the process I explained it to him and he couldn’t believe it. He had served as a Navy pilot during WWII, had been Mayor of our home town – how could he also be an Italian citizen? Guess what – lots of you probably are eligible – here is what is currently on The Italian Embassy Website.
CITIZENSHIP BY DESCENT / DESCENT (” jure sanguinis “) And ‘the son of an Italian citizen parents (father or mother) Italian citizens. Citizenship is transmitted from parents to children regardless of generation, with the condition that none of their ancestors ever renounced the nationality.
Go to the web site to read all of the rules and regulations.
http://www.esteri.it/MAE/IT/Italiani_nel_Mondo/ServiziConsolari/Cittadinanza.htm
The first step is to discover when the elder of your Italian American family became a citizen. We were lucky, my Zia Caterina saved everything. Including her dad’s certificate of citizenship.
Since my dad didn’t know he was an Italian citizen, he didn’t renounce it. When he found out, he was thrilled and admitted he never would have renounced it. OK, I had the blood line covered. Now what – this is the story of what I went through. Next will be my sister’s story, then my niece and finally my cousin.
I hop over to the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia and ask for a list of the requirements for citizenship. At that time it listed things like : Birth and Death Certificates of my Grandfather, Naturalization Certificate of my Grandfather, Marriage Certificate to my Grandmother, Birth Certificate of my Grandmother,Birth Certificate of my Father, Marriage Certificate of My Parents, Birth Certificate of Midge, Marriage License and Certificate of Midge, Birth Certificate of Midge’s Husband. Easy – no brainer! When I had the time, I drove from city to city in New Jersey and New York and bought the required documents. Full of myself for accomplishing this, I waltzed into the Philadelphia Consulate without an appointment. They took me into a secret room and I waited. After about a half an hour of staring at the art, a lovely woman pulled me into an office and looked at my fat folder. She smiled an said I was on the right track but needed an apostile for each document. An apostile? Wasn’t that one of the men who travelled with Jesus? Turns out an apostile is a certificate from a state that guarantees that the documents that I just bought from a variety of towns were valid. OK, so on the way home I stop in Trenton and go to the apostile office. They explain that they can’t put an apolstile on any of the documents that I just dropped a couple of hundred dollars on because I didn’t buy them from the NJ Office of Vital Statistics. But, I stammered, the oficies of vital statistics in each town were happy to take my money. A week or so later, I go back to Trenton and buy all of the same documents. Since there were so many I had to have them processed. That took a few weeks – when I got them guess what they looked like? The same bloody pieces of paper but they originated from the NJ Office of Vital Statistics! Off to pay for the apostiles. I don’t remember what all this cost me but I think about $25 a piece of paper times two. If you order documents online there are additional fees. This is from the NJ Office of Vital Statistics:
How do I obtain a record with an Apostille Seal? You must purchase a copy of your vital record from the Office of Vital Statistics and Registry and indicate on your application that it is needed for Apostille Seal. You will receive a certified copy, which contains the original signature of the State Registrar or Assistant State Registrar. You must forward this certificate to the Department of Treasury requesting an Apostille Seal.
Since my parents were married in New York City, it took a full day to gather the documents from NYC Boro Hall and then walk a few blocks to the State of New York Office to request the apostille. During each step of the process, I purchased additional copies of every document so that my sister would have a set. When I had a completed set, I made an appointment at the Philadelphia Consulate and carried the box in. I did make a copy of my entire packet, just so that I knew what I submitted. About one and a half years later I got a letter from Pontelandolfo saying that I was a citizen. Wheeeeeeeeooooooooooo.
Susan had copies of all of the documents. When she got around to doing this, residents of Somerset County New Jersey were told to use the Consulate in Newark. We read the website and made an appointment for her – it was about four months out. We also read the new regulations – she needed a translation of every document – including the apostiles. You were only allowed to use an Italian translater from the consulate’s approved list. That cost her about $50 a document. This was all done via e-mail. We scanned the documents and sent them off. Scanned translations came back. This was great we thought – because now my cousin Maryellen can use the same translations. Susan took her two children to the appointment. We figured we would process everyone at the same time. WRONG. Susan had to be certified first. She was missing something – I can’t remember what – but I do remember pleading and begging with the consulate employee because whatever it was I knew was on file from me in Pontelandolfo. Susan made a second appointment and returned with whatever had been left on the dining room table. During the second visit, she is given a document that she is told her daughter can use to prove lineage and easily apply for citizenship. We go for dinner and a drink or three. Just a few months later Susan gets her letter of recognition.
Alex lives and goes to university in London. I suggested she use the London Consulate. She took her handy document from Newark and back up documents and headed to that office. They told her she needed to supply the same complete package that her mother had submitted and that the little certificate from Newark was nothing. UGGGGG. All of this is now done electronically, Alex asked if they couldn’t just get the same documents sent back to them? No. Another appointment please. Oh yeah, now we have to make the packet and get it to London! She brings the packet and is nervous about completion. She would like to stay and work in Europe and the EU Passport would be very helpful. Months go by and she hears nothing. She visits and e-mails the London Consulate and they say all things were e-mailed to Pontelandolfo. We asked our cousin to visit the Pontelandolfo office of Vital Statistics and check on Alex’s status. Instantly, her paperwork was done and her certification sent off.
Takes all of the same documents – but adds her dad’s information – translated and in a cute folder to her appointment at the Newark Consulate. There, she doesn’t get past the triage dude. You see, my grandfather’s birth certificate from Italy says Francesco Guerrera but his citizenship papers say Frank Guerrera – how do we know it is the same person? This name change – a common occurrence – happened with her father’s documents and our grandmothers. They told her nothing could be processed until she got the documents certified as belonging to the same person. I was with her and argued up a storm, explaining that two of us had already used the exact same documents and gotten citizenship. Further, all of the documents were already on file in Pontelandolfo. He shrugged. We left and Maryellen hasn’t moved the process forward. So lessons learned. Double check everything. Read all new regulations. If you can, have a local relative in Italy lobby for you! What did it cost me? Do we count the trip to Italy to buy the birth and marriage certificates? I’d say if you include travel and all the mistakes I made it cost me about $1,000. It cost my sister about the same because it was $50 a document for translation plus the cost of the original documents and apostile.
Gardens all over Pontelandolfo are bursting with zucchini flowers. Folks plant tons of plants – not because they are looking for an abundance of zucchini to give to their neighbors, but so they can eat the blossoms!
First step was to pick the flowers. In Flagtown, NJ where we have tried to plant zucchini, the deer get there first. Here in Pontelandolfo, deer are not a problem. Midge, who loves fried zucchini flowers, is the natural predator. Today, when I got back to our house Zia Vittoria,our fabulous landlady, walked out and said don’t cook – I have fiori di zucca. Well, I don’t really know what she said because she speaks the dialect of the village and I only understand about 10 %. But – I saw the flowers – and I knew where she was going. So, I volunteered to help her fry up a batch and learn her technique. I’ve made these too and my recipe is a bit different. We will follow Zia Vittoria’s recipe and talk about mine later.
It looked and felt like the consistency of pancake batter – or a Bisquick batter. She had it resting in front of a sunny window and it was uncovered.
The zucchini blossoms were fairly large. First we popped off the stems. (I’ve never seen that done before) Then we washed them and let them drain.
This next step was totally new to me. She took a dish towel, hand dried each blossom and flattened it. Just a bit of pressure between two sections of the dish towel.
Then she dumped a bunch of them into the batter and let them sit a while.
Meanwhile she choose a small frying pan with high sides and filled it about 3/4’s of the way with olive oil. She ladled the oil from a big vat in her working kitchen. I was shocked! We have all been told for years not to deep fry in olive oil. I asked her and she said something like, ” why should I buy oil to fry in when we make our own perfectly fine olive oil.” I waited to see if it would smoke or flame or turn us into strega – but no it worked perfectly fine.
The next step was to gently turn each blossom in the batter. She used a flick of her wrist and didn’t tear one flower.
By now the oil was sizzling and bubbling – stil no flames of death or smoke. Each blossom was plopped in the hot oil until she filled one layer of the pan. After the first side was brown, she used a slotted spoon and flipped them over. Meanwhile, I put paper towels on a number of trays – yes I got the simple job – I washed the dishes too!
When the second side was brown the blossoms were taken out – again using a slotted spoon and placed on paper towels to drain. At this point, you can add some salt to them. Here is the finished product! They were enveloped in a light pancake and very tasty.
Mine were a little different. What follows is a batch I made last week from some purloined blossoms.
I didn’t use yeast – just eggs, flour, salt and pepper. We had some left over cheese that was drying out so I sliced chunks and stuck a few pieces inside each blossom. Then I dredged them in the batter and fried them in canola oil. As they were draining, I did toss some salt on the blossoms . They came out really crispy and light with oozing cheese in the middle.
Happy blossom hunting!
Yikes, these Apple products are cool. I had no idea how to make a video blog of myself talking about Pontelandolfo. Then I remembered, I had a Mac Air Book – or is that a MacBook Air – and I guessed there would be a way that was so easy a kid could do it. So I called over a 5 year old Italian kid – who couldn’t read the English directions but pointed the screen of the lap top at me and said “Parli”. So I did. Let me know what you think of the Video Blog idea. As an aging theater professional, it is easy to talk and talk and talk….
I can’t really talk about politics without talking about the one guy who understood it best, made sure I understood it and got frustrated as hell when newbies to the process refused to listen. Good old “Johhny G”, my dad Giovanni Francesco Guerrera, was a politician in the grand style of former speaker of the House of Representatives – Tip O’Neill. “People vote for people.” “All politics are local!” Those are the clear cut salient facts that my dad foisted upon me at a tender age. Dad was one of the men who moved Hillsborough Township into the 2oth century. He was Mayor and on the Township Committee for numerous terms in the 60’s and 70’s. He was always involved in local, state and national campaigns – sending me to represent him once to a meeting in the Jimmy Carter Whitehouse – but that is another story. His passion for politics was learned at his daddy’s knee – Pontelandolfo’s Francesco Guerrera. My nonno, with other Italian immigrants, started Hillsborough’s Democratic Organization! Whoops – let’s get back to today and personal politics.
Yeah, yeah, we all care about issues, platforms, programs etc. But the reality is, if you are my friend and I ask you to vote for me you will. Just like we buy candy from our friends kids to support organizations we don’t particularly agree with – for me it is the Boy Scouts. I hate the politics of the Boy Scouts but love the kids in my extended family who pound on my door in cub scout costumes – I mean uniforms selling candy. So ethics be damned, I buy the candy. See – people buy from people.
Daddy always said the way to win an election is like pyramid marketing – you get a core of folks who adore you for whatever reason – and get them to contact and pitch you to the friends who adore them for whatever reason. People respond to people.
National and domestic issues are important but how does that break down to me, my family and my home town? Now you get it – think local. Well, politics in Pontelandolfo is about as local centric as you can get. It is time for me to stop thinking about my larger than life political pappa and tell you about Pontelandolfo.
The candidates actually go from house to house and talk to people! How amazing! No robo calls here just house calls. That means you need a strong bladder, because at every house you have a caffè and conversation. What really amazed me is that people actually told you if they would vote for you or not! Having lived in Asbury Park, where if everyone who swore they voted for me really had I would have been Queen for a day, I was amazed that folks might actually deign to tell the truth. “Hey, you’re my pal and I love you but I don’t like the guy at the top of your ticket so – sorry no can do!” Remember from my earlier post, you vote for the Sindaco (mayor) and then write in one name from his ticket to be your choice for consigliere (council). Check out the sample ballot – put an X in the circle for the Sindaco and write in one name. ( I did discover later that some folks had indeed told a wee lie to my cousin and really didn’t vote for her – but that was an anomaly.)
What people were talking about in the bars and around the piazza were the local problems that the commune has. Some of these issues are indeed national – like there are no jobs for young people. Others are very local and personal. This is beautiful village and yet some folks are dumping their garbage and nothing is being done to clean it up. The elderly often can’t subsist on their incomes and something must be done to provide local support – or to petition the province for help. The local library was something I witnessed and heard “Rocomincio Da Te” candidates talk about. It needs books! It needs to be perked up and better utilized. Programs for young people are always an issue. Are sports enough? Should the commune increase arts based programs? Each list of candidates distributed their platforms and spoke about issues like these.
Technology is not totally ignored in this very personal approach to campaigning. Cars are outfitted with speakers and festooned with campaign posters. A pre-recorded “Vote for XXXXX,” and “Vote for the (insert name of ticket” could be heard blaring up and down the streets and barely streets of the country side. At first I was taken aback – whoa is that an obnoxious gelato truck? Well, there is no obnoxious gelato truck – what a gift that would be – but campaign aides rousing the voters. The second time I heard it I went out on our balcony to see which ticket it was. It was the one I was voting for so I waved and cheered. Does the spirit good to see your team out and about. Since Pontelandolfo has lots of small family farms and the families really are out working the fields and tending the animals, I could see the benefit of the mobile system. Where I couldn’t see it was in bigger cities – where the blaring through the busy streets was constant. If I lived in one I might be forced to wear earplugs or toss pomodori out the window. Jack and I followed one rolling billboard and blaring sound system for about 20 minutes in a town that shall remain nameless. Well – here see for yourself.
Collateral (posters, yard signs, fliers and other printed stuff):
Tired of the blitz of campaign signs cluttering the highway? Starting in August, do you hate going to your mail box stuffed with political name calling, back biting and substance-less tirades? Then start spending election season in Pontelandolfo – of course it is not in November. There may be some whispering and cajoling but there is no crush of collateral. The placement of signage is regulated by the commune. I first discovered this in Florence when I was teaching an arts administration course. My students were doing some volunteer work for a theatre company. The goal was to place small posters in as many shops as possible because large posters placed throughout the city had to be approved by the city, a fee paid per poster and – this is the best part – a city employee hung the posters!
When the political posters went up in Pontelandolfo I was surprised to see them all neatly mounted on stone walls adjacent to each other. Each ticket was snugly posted next to another. The posters are large and placed in only a few spots around town. When I asked if the campaigns had to pay the commune, it was explained that political tickets don’t have to pay the posting tariff but the commune still approves the signs and hangs them. What is truly amazing is that except for color the signs all look the same! Ahhh a civil way to post those bills! We still get to look at the beauty that is Pontelandolfo and not political signs flapping in the breeze.
Let’s talk about campaign literature – how the hell can we possibly call the scurrilous crap that fills American mailboxes “literature”? Innuendoes coupled with pictures of politicians looking drunk, dead, demented. Glamour shots merged with tales of perseverance, family and patriotism. The only piece of campaign material that I saw was the Sindaco and List’s “programma” – their platform! That is right – shake your head in disbelief – an actual pamphlet that explained – not just 3 bullet points but explained – each plank. The “Programma Di Governo” of the ticket called “Ricomincio Da Te” included economics, jobs, environment, health, culture, education, police – well you get the point. They actually wrote in complete sentences about issues that really matter – none of this “lower taxes” generic bullshit that I hear in Hillsborough, NJ. This is my cousin Giusy Mancini’s ticket so we are prejudiced – openly and often. The platform was explained and the pamphlet handed out at an evening event in the village’s small theater. I’ll bet over 200 potential voters turned out to hear the candidates and “brava” their support of the platform. Note – the people had to come and pick up the collateral – no one was standing in front of the local grocery waving it at them.
The theater was absolutely packed – to the rafters really – well folks were hanging over the balcony. When we got there a bunch of men were standing outside looking – well just looking. It reminded me of the wild political days of the late 60’s when rooms were packed and the energy was high. People listened, clapped or not, cheered or not and PICKED UP the one piece of literature!
In the spirit of honesty – yes I do have an honest bone or two in my body. I must admit that in other towns in the area – much bigger cities – I did see not only more signs plastered on poles everywhere, but huge billboards on skinny trucks wending their way up cobblestone streets.
This is the beginning of the most exciting part of my living in Italy. Learning how to cook not like an Italian American but like a Pontelandolfese. Today, I am sitting next to the gorgeous, multi-lingual, brilliant Annarita Mancini and she is going to unearth the secret of the incredible ravioli con zucca. We decided that this is not a cook book blog but a “watch your nonna” and “listen to your nonna” blog. Everything is a pinch of this and a handful of that. So just leap into the conversation and add your nonna’s touches too. Sit back, think foodie thoughts and follow along.
For you lovers of language we will post the first recipe but not a recipe in Italian ably written by Annarita and then in English poorly written by me.
Facilissimo preparare i ravioli! Un uovo per 100 grammi di farina…io e mamma abbiamo dovuto usare 9 uova!!! (That means she fed a ton of people and added more flour too.) ok…unire le uova, la farina e un pò di olio, mescolare fino a rendere l’impasto omogeneo. (“The flour is asking you for more eggs” says Carmela – “that is how you know how much.” How funky granola woo-woo is this! I love it! It is more about look, touch – or as Carmela says “your relationship with the food) Sorry for interrupting – what kind of look are you shooting me – I said I was sorry.
Creare delle sfoglie usando la macchinetta per la pasta. Le lasciamo riposare cospargendole con un pò di farina…nel frattempo prepariamo la zucca per il ripieno dei ravioli…cuocere la zucca con olio,aglio e sale, quando é cotta unire le noci tritate, lo speck a pezzetti e una manciata di formaggio grattuggiato. Con l’aiuto del “miracoloso” attrezzo per preparare i ravioli il gioco é fatto. Mettiamo una prima sfoglia di pasta sull’attrezzo,poi aggiungiamo un pó di ripieno negli appositi spazi,copriamo con una seconda sfoglia, passiamo il matterello sulle sfoglie e i ravioli sono pronti. Passiamo alla cottura…cuocere i ravioli in acqua bollente per meno di 5 minuti. (Come dice mamma:” il tempo che salgono!”)
See she is doing it again – she just knows when it is done! OK, OK – back to Annarita – Per condirli abbiamo usato gli stessi ingredienti del ripieno: zucca, noci, speck e formaggio…basta farli saltare in padella per 2 minuti e il risultato sará delizioso!!!!
According to Annarita making ravioli is easy! She forgot to tell you that Zia Giuseppina first had to go to the chicken coop and get the eggs. OK, now that we have eggs and flour here we go. They use one egg for about 100 grammi of flour – that is about 4 ounces. You have to go by touch here. Not too liquid and not to dry. If it needs more flour – add some. So for twelve people they used nine eggs and about two pounds of flour – Did we really eat all those ravioli???
Blend the eggs and flour together until you have a nice smooth ball of dough. Then break it into handfull sizes, flatten it and send it through the pasta machine. After you made the sheets of dough, set them on the counter on a little flour and let them rest.
Meanwhile, you got some strong dude to cut into the fresh pumpkin and peel it – go find a cute guy at the local caffé. Slice the pumpkin into tiny thin slices. Put some great olive oil in a frying pan with garlic and let that start to cook. Add the pumpkin and saute all together. Add salt to taste. (Anyone have another word besides “add”?) When the pumpkin is cooked add thinly sliced walnuts, grated parmesan and speck.(Unlike other prosciutti, speck is deboned before curing and made in northern Italy.)
Place a sheet of pasta on the – I could not believe this- TUPPERWARE ravioli form. Poke the dough into the form and put about a spoon full of filling in each cavity. Cover with a second sheet of pasta and pass a rolling pin over it. The ravioli form has ridges that will cut the pieces into the perfect shape. Flip the form over and – shazaam – you have ravioli. Now, you all know how to toss ravioli into boiling salted water and cook it until it floats to the top.
What you didn’t know was the segreto – secret – use the same filling for the “condimento” – non sauce. They fried up extra pumpkin, garlic and speck. Then tossed in the nuts and some grated parmesan – which is made from local cheese and the cooked ravioli and served it up with fresh parsley – add extra parmesan to taste. There you have it – “to die for” ravioli.
Buon appetito! 
Nonna's Mulberry Tree 