Ruby Ho's Life
in Sovana
Ruby Ho lives near Sovana, in a farmhouse in the countryside, where she and her husband Giorgio Merli manage a holiday home, which is also a farm. In addition to hosting guests in a wonderful place with a garden full of plants, flowers, and fruit all year round, they produce extra virgin olive oil, which they sell, and wine grapes for family consumption.
We visited them during the Chinese New Year, a celebration that is very important in China and is also celebrated in many places around the world, especially where large Chinese communities live. Ruby has always celebrated this occasion and decorates her home every year with great care, creating beautiful shapes from red paper.
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Franca Piccini, born in Sorano, is a beloved member of the community.
When her children were young, they would go to China to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It is traditional to give red envelopes containing money as a good luck wish, and her relatives still exchange these gifts today. This year, Ruby and Giorgio celebrated by cooking dumplings, while waiting to travel to visit their relatives.
In most parts of China, dumplings are prepared on New Year's Eve, but in the south, where Ruby comes from, they make glutinous rice balls with sweet or savory fillings. Ruby mentioned that the filling can be made from sweet bean paste with a piece of brown sugar. The dough is made with cold water and glutinous rice flour, the same type of rice used to build the Great Wall of China.
For the New Year, it is customary for younger people to go and wish the elders well. During the holidays, the family prepares a special tea with pieces of dried fruits such as apricots and jujubes, and toasted rice. They play a version of bingo and traditional table games, and it is the only time of the year when money can be used in games. Ruby explains that the New Year is officially celebrated for four days, and on the first full moon of the new year, there is a big celebration: the Lantern Festival. She explains that in ancient China, women of high rank could not leave the house, and this was the only day they were allowed to go out, which is why it became known as the day of lovers, when men and women could finally meet.
Ruby and Giorgio met in Hong Kong through a mutual friend when he was there on tour with his musical group. Ruby moved to Italy in 1984, at the age of 30, and they married in 1986. Their first daughter was born in 1987, and they initially lived in Sovana, in an apartment above Giorgio's parents' house, but later moved to the countryside.
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.
Ruby has a garden full of many different kinds of fruits and vegetables that grow year ground.
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.
Her dream has always been to live in the countryside. She loves taking care of the garden and cultivating the vegetable garden, and has always had the desire to "dig" the earth. Many of the trees and plants in her garden were planted by her, starting from a seed. She truly has a green thumb.
All the way from Hong Kong, Ruby has since made the Maremma her home.