The Life of Rosina Fiorani
Rosina Fiorani was born and raised in the countryside, near Pitigliano. In October of 1970, at 19 years old, she married Silvano Cimignolo. Rosina remembers a strong wind blowing strong on her wedding day. There was no rain that summer and only a bit in October. They did not have grapes or wheat that year, so they had to buy grapes to make wine and wheat for flour.
They were married at Madonna delle Grazie when Silvano was 21. At that time, women were expected to be married by the age of 21. After the wedding, Rosina moved in with Silvano's family. The house was owned by the local government and was bought after Silvano's father passed away. He still had younger siblings living at home when his father passed, and they had to help support his mother and brothers.
Silvano started working in road maintenance for the municipality of Sorano, while Rosina took care of their 70 sheep. For 50 years, she milked them every morning and evening and still continues to to care for the sheep —though today only 12 remain. They still deliver their milk to the Sorano Dairy once a week.
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Franca Piccini, born in Sorano, is a beloved member of the community.
In 1956, when Rosina was five years old, her family went to the mill to grind wheat for flour, had geese for eggs and made sweets at home. Sometimes they bought pasta in bulk at the shop in San Quirico, but usually, they made it themselves. In her family, there were five children, and they had 10 hectares of land. There was no electricity or running water, so expenses were low, but the work was plenty. They didn’t cut wood, so they would go and search for it in the forest. Rosina recalls a snowy winter when she and her siblings froze their hands while collecting wood.
She didn’t start school until later, after turning eight, because it was far away and she had to walk alone. When her brother and other children grew up, she started going to school with them. The path was long, and they had to cross a river. For a long time, there was no bridge, and sometimes they used a ladder placed horizontally to get across.
Rosina remembers that as a child, they cooked over the fireplace. She bought a kitchen stove after her marriage when they brought electricity to Sorano in 1971. During her childhood, bread was made at home once a day. In the farm, there were 56 people - each family cooked for themselves but used a communal oven. After getting married, they bought modern appliances like the stove, a washing machine, and a fridge.
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Franca has made a small cookbook of all the recipes of other Soranesi.
Franca, who has always loved to cook, began asking customers who visited the shop for recipes, writing them down on little pieces of paper that she would then hang up. Later, she published a small book with her recipes and those she had collected over the years, published by the Stampa Alternativa publishing house, in the Millelire series, based in Pitigliano, now known as "Strade Bianche."
As a child, Franca remembers that in winter, they had polenta every morning, often with salted cod or meat in a stew, and for her, it was delicious with cheese on top, especially the version with pork. For lunch, they would cook stews: beans, cauliflower, fennel. Meat was eaten twice a week, while for dinner, they would have pasta or a hearty soup. The pasta was all homemade: pici, tagliatelle (made with just a few eggs and flour), gnocchi, and sometimes, when they went to the village, they would buy pasta. She recalls that when she felt ill, they would make her breakfast with milk from the cow, diluted with barley coffee, and that in summer, breakfast was usually bread with tuna, while they typically didn't have snacks; at most, they could eat an orange if there was one.
When the town's sports association started the prosciutto festival and the tortello feast, Franca always participated as a cook, going after work in the evenings and on Sundays. Later, when her grandchildren, who had founded the "Associazione dei Giovani Capaccioli," organized parties in the village, Franca would go and cook there too. She fondly remembers having so much fun and tells of one day when, just for fun, they made a dough sheet over five meters long and took photos of it. Franca has many fond memories related to cooking and her life so far, and she still has so much to offer to those who wish to learn. "You learn by watching," she says, "but you must know who to watch." We hope to meet her again soon at the Scuola di Cucina Soranese, to continue learning from her and preserve the traditions she has so lovingly passed down.
Franca has many fond memories related to cooking and her life so far, and she still has so much to offer to those who wish to learn. "You learn by watching," she says, "but you must know who to watch." We hope to meet her again soon at the Scuola di Cucina Soranese, to continue learning from her and preserve the traditions she has so lovingly passed down.
Rosina still works on her own farm.
One Italian dish she loves is lasagna, as it is very different from Chinese cuisine. In particular, lasagna is baked, whereas in southern China, they don't use an oven, instead cooking by steaming or braising. Now, to cook Chinese dishes, Ruby is able to find all the ingredients in Italy, but when she arrived in 1984, she had to bring everything from China, as it was almost impossible to find the right ingredients. She taught her son to cook, and he has a great passion for cooking.
Rosina has always cooked since she was a child. Being the oldest among her siblings, she prepared pasta, soup, meat, and polenta for lunch. In winter, for breakfast, they ate bread and ricotta or cheese. Rosina’s mother always made cheese and sold it. They had 15 sheep, and the family also had cows for work. When calves were born, Rosina’s family sold them.
Among her favourite recipes are lasagna, tortelli, and tortellini. She still makes cheese with the milk from her sheep, enjoys cooking mushrooms, and game, such as woodcock, which she cooks for at least three hours after sautéing with celery, parsley, carrot, onion, and garlic, and deglazing with wine. Once cooked, she passes it through a food mill, adding an egg yolk, and uses the mixture to make crostini.
She also keeps ducks and rabbits.
Occasionally, her chickens are eaten by foxes, but today she has three beautiful roosters with feathers down to their legs. With the passage of time, she gradually stopped keeping female lambs, so the flock has diminished, but even today, despite her age, Rosina happily takes care of the animals and is always on the move to care for them. The sheep, when it’s time to milk them, recognise her and know what to do. She calls them all by name, and they respond.
Rosina was married in and lived in Sorano for her entire life.