Grandma's Taralli - recipe

It's a sweet remembering, when I was a little child going to visit my grandma in Greci, always I brought back with me a big plastic bag full of this salty Taralli with a ring shape. They still make me think about my grandma. Eat them with some slice of salami and some piece of parmesan cheese and...obviously a glass of red wine.

Here the recipe :

TARALLI
Ingredients
10 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 tsp of salt
1 cup of dry white wine
3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Work together the flour, the wine, the oil and the salt till you obtain an elastic and homogeneous dough.
Let it rest covered with a cloth for 20 minutes in a place not too cold.
In a big pot boil some water adding 1 tablespoon full of salt..
Make now taralli getting from the dough some small sticks 8-10 long like a finger and with the same diameter of a finger : close them on theirselves placing on the tops of the two ends and pressing them with a finger in order to seal them.
Take 10 at a time and put them in the boiling water and pull them again helping yourself with a skimmer as soon as they come on the surface.
Put them on a cloth, one next to the other, draining for a few minutes.
Grease a tin and put in it taralli without letting them touch on.
Put the tin in the oven(already switched on at 400º F) and let taralli cooking for 40 minutes
(they should became of a light brown).
If you want you can flavour them: you can add, during the kneding, one of these ingredients: seeds of fennel, sesame chilly pepper, oregano, scales of dry onion. One tablespoon of spices will be enough for this quantity of dough.

Greci-town = 'Katundi'

(emblem of the town of Greci)

The town of Greci is situated in the South of Italy in the province of the city of Avellino in the Campania region. It is an Arbereshe town , with Italian-Albanian origin. The Arbereshe culture continues to live with a strong effort of the 'Grecesi' , Greci inhabitants.

When a Greci inhabitant go back to the town of Greci , call it with the word 'Katundi'.

'Katundi' it's an Albanian word and it means 'town'.

This is a special way to call a town, because they don't use the proper noun but the common noun. This a very distinctive mark of fame, since other few cities full of history use a common noun to call them.

Few cities like Rome called 'Urbe' from latin it means city, Istanbul from the greek word "eis ten polin" (city).

They discovered America

My sweet cousin Sherry forwarded me this interesting video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQUVerMGCM



It may be a symbol, since it tells about the discovery of America , and how much Italians influenced the story of this wonderful country. We can forget what our ancestors did for us and our countries (America and Italy). They passed through a lot of pain, and what we are it's because of their past hard work.

And to appreciate and to know something more about Italian immigrants I suggest this touching book. The author is a young Italian writer Melania Mazzucco.
http://www.amazon.com/Vita-Novel-Melania-G-Mazzucco/dp/0374284954

Arbereshe sweet recipe - Le Pettole

As a cooking fun , I love also to make old recipe. This is a old recipe of Arberesh tradition.
Arberesh was the Italian-Albanian ethnic group of the South of Italy. Their traditions are still alive, and I think it's nice to tell about them to our son, to preserve this precious heritage.
The town of Greci - Avellino has Arberesh tradition, and this is dedicated to it.
Here a recipe for a fried sweet traditionally served for Christmas : 'Le Pettole'.

Le Pettole
Ingredients :
5 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of extra virgin oil
1 and 1/3 cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of salt
2 tablespoon of dried yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
soy or sunflower oil for frying

Preparation :
Make a dough with all the ingredients ,the dough will turn a little bit sticky.
Let sit in a warm place (75-85°F) for one hour.
Put a pan with the soy oil on medium heat, when the oil is hot , fry the dough , taking it with a spoon.After 30 seconds turn every 'ball' on the other side.
When ready sprinkle on le pettole sugar ,or warm honey.
This video is so simpleness, a woman from South Italy make le Pettole, enjoy it !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htvudkRErL8

"THE STORY"

Every story has a start...




My grandmother's brother Leonardo Norcia left from Greci-Italy for the States in 1920 to find luck. He was in touch with my grand-mother Carosena Norcia by mail by mail.





In 1980 my grandmother died , I was 13 years old, then I lost any contact with him.I always thought about him and his sons and daughters , but I knew only his last name and first name, I didnt' remember where he lived.
http://www.ellisisland.org/search/matchMore.asp?MID=12200632540265594112&FNM=LEONARDO&LNM=NORCIA&PLNM=NORCIA&CGD=M&bSYR=1896&bEYR=1910&first_kind=1&kind=exact&offset=0&dwpdone=1
(The passenger record of Leonardo Norcia)

Five years ago I decided I wanted to find him or at least his family. I was very lucky because after two months of researches on internet , hundred of emails sent , I found a man living in Arizona Nick Norcia (he is my far cousin too, thank you Nick !) fan of genealogical researches. He had and has a huge database of Greci's people and my uncle was in it ! He was able to find all his family.They live in Wisconsin.Now we are in touch and they came to visit me and Italy one year ago (it was their first time here in Italy). It was one of the biggest experience in my life.



Last September Sally , my cousin Peter Norcia's wife, came here and we met.



This the start of a fascinating trip , because since I started to search for my Norcia's relative in the States, I have met (in person here in Rome ,and only by email or by phone) a lot of friends and above all a lot of relatives.



Lot of American people with Italian roots.



Thank you , my life is more rich since I met all of you...



A particular tribute to my uncle Leonardo Norcia who decide to left for the States , leaving here all his family even if he was only 17. Thank you to all the Italians that decide to left, lot of courage and will.



Thank you...