Italy is known as the birthplace of pasta dishes. There are over 350 different kinds of pasta, and that’s only counting the many different shapes and sizes of the pasta. In Italy there are several special recipes and secret pasta dishes that can only be found in specific regions and are only known to a few “pasta grannies”. But one grandmother chef is trying to change that by showcasing these “Pasta Grannies” online.
Vicky Bennison, the creator of the website Pasta Grannies and the YouTube channel of the same name, wants to show the world how to make these rare and hard to find recipes. These centuries old family dishes and paste recipes are taught from one Italian generation to another. But Bennison wants to preserve these wonderful dishes and hopes that this culture and tradition does not get lost on the next generation. Bennison also makes sure that she gets permission from these women (and sometimes even men) to show these recipes to the public.
Some of the recipes have never been heard of before. In fact, some of the ingredients are hard to find anywhere else in the world outside of Italy. There is the strozzapreti (which literally “priest stranglers”), the ear-shaped orecchiette , and the shoe-like ravioli, named “swaddled baby” ravioli. Among the rarest dishes that she was able to features was the su filindeu (roughly translates to “God’s wool”), and only a few people in the world know how to make it. There is also the lumachelle della duchessa (literally “the duchess’s little snails”) by pasta granny Anna Faggi. The recipe for this dish can only be found in the Pesaro Urbino region of central Italy.