TASTES LIKE HOME
My nonna, Maria Grazia Riccio, was born in a village in the hills of Campania, an hour outside Naples. She’s your classic Italian grandmother and an excellent cook. I spent much of my childhood in her kitchen learning how to make southern Italian dishes. Traditions were a large part of village life. Each year on the Sunday following Easter the women would gather together with something they’d made over the holiday – tarts, pies, breads and so on. If the weather was warm, they’d meet out in the countryside for a picnic feast. We would make this Neapolitan rice tart – in my nonna’s dialect, pizza di riso – in the week leading up to Easter. As we cooked together, she’d tell me old proverbs, a favourite one being ‘Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi’, which literally translates as ‘Christmas with your family, Easter with whoever you want’.