Anna Carrucola
Our neighbour and friend Anna Carrucola has lived in Cerretino all her life. Recently TdC board members Anna Zambon and Adriana Fiorante sat down with her to talk about her food memories.
Can you describe your memories of food during your childhood in
Cerretino and what daily life was like in the family, including your
earliest memories of cooking and eating habits?
My mother cooked a lot, and we never went hungry because we had sheep and chickens. My father was a bricklayer, so even though money was money was tight, we managed to live well. My mother made pasta and bread at home, and when she made bread she also made schiaccia, with salt and oil. Sweets were few and were only prepared for holidays, like August and Easter, when we made biscuits and leavened pizzas.
For breakfast, we ate milk and barley coffee, which we made ourselves by roasting and
grinding the barley. I only started cooking after I got married, because my mother wouldn't let me touch the pots. We children helped with the housework, washed dishes, did laundry at the fountain, and took the sheep out to pasture.
I remember that laundry was done with ashes and boiled water. My mum spun the wool from the sheep and made sweaters for all of us, even for my father who wore them in summer. When my mum cooked, my brothers and I had to do other chores. We were not allowed to cook, so I learned by observing.
My favorite childhood dish was pasta, especially homemade noodles.
homemade pasta. However, more often than pasta we ate soups, such as bean soup, which I didn't like.
which I didn't like. My mother always cooked a second course, which was not common in all families.
common in all families. Sunday was special, they cooked gnocchi, tortelli, and other more elaborate dishes than on other days.
On Sundays, my mother didn't go to mass because she had to prepare lunch. We
went to the eleven o'clock mass and came back at noon to eat. Dinner depended on the
dinner depended on the season: in winter we ate early, in summer we ate later. In summer we ate late.
Can you tell me when water and electricity arrived in your home in
Cerretino how you handled the situation before you had these amenities?
Water came to the house in 1974. Before then we had no running water and we had to fetch water from the fountain with jugs. When I got married in 1961, there was still no running water, so I brought water from the fountain in Cerretino. We had an advantage because there was a vein of water and a well nearby, so for some chores like rinsing clothes we used water from the well. However, for cooking and washing vegetables I had to bring water from the spring. Bringing water with jugs was tiring work, especially because so many trips had to be made.
Besides water, we did not even have light when I got married. The light came to Cerretino a little earlier, but here there was none. My husband, who was a carpenter, needed light to work, so he applied and paid out of his pocket to bring the light here. He proposed to the villagers of Ronzinami that they share the expenses for the light, but they refused, preferring to continue without electricity. One of them even said, "the light is enough for me".
Can you tell me about your cultivation and harvesting habits of
vegetables or wild herbs and how cooking was learned in your family?
As a child, my mum used to plant many things in our garden, such as potatoes, tomatoes
corn for polenta, and even lentils. We bought almost nothing because we produced
almost everything we needed. We had a vineyard for wine, and many fruit trees
such as fig, peach, pear, apple, and cherry trees. Figs were especially abundant, and my
mother made jam from them. We also grew beans, and I remember some beans were big and very good, almost like eating meat.
For cooking, we used what we produced. For the beans, for example, we would stew them
with a little tomato sauce or simply seasoned. In summer, there were plenty of
salads and fresh fruit.
My mother had learned to cook working as a maid in Castell'Azzara, in a
large house that they rented to wealthy people, like teachers and doctors. There, she cooked for
them and learned new recipes. This was her only time working outside the home, but it was
but it was enough for her to learn more than she would have at home, where my
grandmother, for example, cooked mostly simple dishes such as polenta, onions, and pasta.
I also remember how my grandmother used to make jams and especially preserve them,
by putting them in large Turkish leaves after they had been picked and unwrapped by hand. The leaves best leaves were used to wrap the jam, and then she would tie them up with ropes and hang them from the rafters. hung them from the rafters. This was manual work that involved the whole family and that was done after dinner. In addition, my grandfather used to make migliacci, a kind of crepe that was prepared for Carnival. He prepared a batter with eggs, water, a little flour, and a pinch of cinnamon. The batter was not too thick, and he cooked it in a pan with a little oil.
Once ready, the migliacci could be sprinkled with sugar, honey, or even cheese, depending on taste.
How did you manage the preparation and preservation of tomatoes
for the winter, and who helped with these activities?
Preparing tomatoes for the winter was a common practice among women, handed down from generation to generation. My mother, like many others, did everything herself, because she already knew how to do it. This was the knowledge that was passed from grandmothers to mothers and then to daughters, so there was no need for help or special teaching.
Even when it came to making bread, everyone did it themselves. The women kneaded the dough, let it rise, and then baked it in the wood-fired oven, knowing intuitively when the oven was ready. When the oven was ready. They would make several loaves of bread, which had to last the whole week.
How did you manage field work and food production in your
your community, and how did the community dynamics regarding the food?
Everyone had some land and sowed Turkish wheat to make polenta. Then you
went to grind the wheat in Castell'Azzara, where there were two mills. The journey on foot
took about an hour and the grain was transported by donkey. The wheat was used to make flour and semolina, the latter used as feed for the pig, which each family raised. The
families did not exchange food regularly but sometimes shared excess fruit, such as pears or other fruit, such as pears or other fruit if someone had more.
Work in the fields was manual and required the use of a spade to prepare the soil, while those who owned cows used the plow. Cheese production took place when sheep were bred. My family had eight sheep and my brother and I would my brother and I would take them out to pasture, fetch them at night, and milk them to make cheese. The day was marked by an intense routine in the morning, dedicated to farm chores and care of the animals. The afternoons were quieter, often spent in front of the houses, where the women spun milk.
The houses, where the women spun wool or engaged in other manual labor, while the children played. After dinner, the community gathered for social vigils, but no community lunches or dinners were organized not even on Sundays. Each family had lunch and dinner in their own homes. Mrs Anna told us about the collection of wild herbs, a common practice in the rural communities of the past. Among the herbs mentioned, mallow was particularly prized: ‘Most of all people picked mallow because it was used to make rinses, even when many times it hurt the teeth,’ Anna explained. Speaking of wild fennel, Anna introduced a broader discourse on a deep-rooted tradition in country families of the time: the complete and waste-free use of pork.
Did you use wild fennel in any particular recipe?
Yes, we mainly used wild fennel when slaughtering pigs. We
put the pig's liver together with the fennel to make polenta in the morning. It was a tradition because the fennel gave a special flavor to the pork. We used to make touches of liver with a bit of pork fat, which melted with the fennel and gave a delicious taste. Some polenta with that liver was really good.
We used to make this dish only when the pig was slaughtered. If there was liver left over, we would make livers, cutting them into pieces and salting them, adding fennel and a little pepper.
We used a thin skin, called ‘ratta’, which was inside the pig. This skin, all squared and striped, was used to wrap the liver, attached with a fennel stick, like a toothpick. Then we would cook the livers and put them in jars with the pork fat. When they were needed, we would take them out and cook them. It was really good. The wild fennel was easily found everywhere. There was no specific day to pick it; we picked it when we needed it.
Nothing of the pig was wasted here, was it? How did you use all the parts, even those that seem less useful?
That's right, nothing was thrown away from the pig. Even the residues were used to make soap at home. You would use the bones of the pig, like the bones of the head, from which you would remove the good meat, but there was always some fat that stuck to the bones. That fat, together with pieces of rind and other parts such as the ears, was put into a pot with water. Caustic soda was then added, which was dosed according to the amount of water. All this was boiled for two or three hours. After boiling, the mixture was poured into a wooden box to solidify. Before it dried completely, it was cut into pieces to make soap. This soap was then used for washing clothes. It was a necessity, as money was tight and the stuff scarce. Nothing of the pig was wasted, nothing at all.
Can you describe the complete process of processing the pig and how all its parts were used all its parts, including the brain and blood?
Usually, the pig was killed in the morning. To do this, two or three men
would prepare boiling water and use a long instrument to drive it into the pig's heart, while others would hold it to prevent it from escaping. Then, the pig was peeled with boiling water and scraped with a knife to remove the hair. After being attached to a beam, it was split and the intestines were collected in a basin to be washed and used to make sausages and salamis.
The pig's blood, on the other hand, was collected in a pot, where salt, bits of fat and sultanas were added. Some prepared it with sugar instead of salt. This blood was then poured into thick casings, tied in the shape of brusti, and cooked in boiling water. After cooking, the brusti were cut into slices. It was a complex process, but every part of the pig was used so that nothing was wasted.
Even the pig's brain was particularly good, considered a delicacy in our house.