Those who appreciate fresh pasta love to get online and find their own recipes to recreate at home. Of course, there are also those who are able to hop on a plane and go straight to the source.
If you are able to make your way to Bari, Italy, a port city on the Adriatic Sea, you will have the chance to learn everything that you need to do know.
You see, these “nonnas” (aka, grandmas) are outside every day and they are always whipping up delicious pasta. There is no one better to teach you and the technique that they use to make pasta has been passed down over the course of generation.
Since it has been fine tuned over the past few generations, you know that you are getting nothing but the best.
As shared in a viral TikTok video by Consuming Couple, the techniques that they utilize are said to even be older than the alleyway that they spend their time in. Once you have arrived at this stone paved street (which is known as Strada Arco Basso or Via delle Orecchiette), you will see a dozen grandmothers seated at a long, wooden table. Their ground floor kitchens are inside.
They sing, they chat, they spend hours on end cooking pasta. Their specialty is orecchiette, as this ear shaped pasta has become Bari’s calling card.
When visitors are given the chance to see the ladies in action, they are typically very impressed. The speed and precision at which they are able to cut the pasta is definitely a sight to behold.
The pasta is also known for its tiny ridges, which allow the sauce to stick more easily. “This is our workshop, our space, our everything,” Nunzia Caputo said, according to Insider. “By the road, see. One step and we’re outside, one step and we’re inside. This is an art that doesn’t have to be put aside. Rather, it was gifted to us, and we have to look after it and pass it down.”
@consumingcouple Nonnas making fresh pasta daily in the streets of Bari, Italy 🇮🇹 🍝 #nonna #freshpasta #italianfood #foodtravel
“There is no salt,” Caputo continues. “There are no eggs. It’s only kneading, elbow grease. This is homemade pasta.” Like most great chefs, she prepares her meals off feel alone. There is no need for exact specifications. “Whatever works,” she says. “I could never give you a precise calculation. It depends on the weather, the temperature.”
All this pasta talk has made us hungry!