This summer too, is coming to a close; the longest and hottest ever. We will miss it, because, as Ennio Flaiano said:
“There is only one season: summer. So gorgeous that the others ring around it. Autumn recalls it, winter beseeches it, spring envies it and childishly tries to spoil it.” ~Ennio Flaviano
Anche questa estate è ormai al tramonto, la più lunga e calda di sempre. Ci mancherà perché come ha detto Flaiano:
“Non c’è che una stagione: l’estate. Tanto bella che le altre le girano attorno. L’autunno la ricorda, l’inverno la invoca, la primavera la invidia e tenta puerilmente di guastarla.”
What happens in Bomba, a village of scarcely a thousand people in the Sangro area (Abruzzo), when a big wedding is on the way? Everybody is invited to the “ricevimento”, an informal party for friends and acquaintances to be held before the proper wedding party.
At the ricevimento, among the usual refreshments, a typical local pastry is served: the Pasticciotto. In order to prepare 800+ pieces of this tiny masterpiece, a team of hard-working ladies, busy from dawn to dusk, starts preparing the stuffing and the dough two days in advance.
The main ingredients for pasticciotto are short crust pastry and a filling of almonds, lemon peel and sugar syrup. Their making is a feast of its own, ladies gather around a long table and spend time telling stories, updating each other and, why not, gossipping a little. Activities are shared and scheduled as if on a (sweet and merry) assembly line.
Pasticciotto First Lady: Luciana D’Intino
The Pasticciotto “First Lady” (i.e. the groom’s mom) surveys each stage of the “production”: divide the dough, put it into the cake tin, fill it in with the stuffing, cover the tin with some dough, stock the tins on the trays, carry the trays to the local baker’s for cooking.
I took part into the process – as an unskilled labourer, I was assigned menial work, but greatest fun nonetheless – and even though I met these ladies for the first time then, I immediately got involved in their community, I perceived the delightful sensation of being a minuscule part of something “good”. And I am sure that every guest at the ricevimento will enjoy all the love and the fun the Pasticciotto Ladies put into the cakes.
Because when you cook, the first ingredient you need for a great taste is something that you don’t weight with a scale.
“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Every one of a hundred thousand cities around the world had its own special sunset and it was worth going there, just once, if only to see the sun go down.” ~Ryū Murakami
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