Elena Pomponi grew up in Sorano and, after losing her parents at a young age, was raised by her uncles. At 17 years old, her uncles sent her to study tailoring, and by 18, she started her own business as a seamstress, and has continued to work in Sorano ever since. However, when she was young, she also did other jobs. She recalls that at the time there was no running water in the houses, and she used to carry water jugs to an elderly woman, climbing a hundred steps each time.
Her family lived with very little. Her uncles worked the fields and were out of the house most of the day. She remembers that until the end of elementary school, she mostly ate alone with what her uncles had prepared for her: usually two slices of bread, some cheese, and sometimes an apple.
She often went to lunch at a friend's house, and when this happened, she was happy to sit at the table with someone else. As a child, she was not allowed to cook. She started cooking later, once she got married. She made gnocchi, tagliatelle, and, since lasagna was never made at her house, she learned to make it later from a sister-in-law who worked as a servant for a family.
During her childhood and youth, Elena and her family lived with whatever the land provided. When it was the season for beans, they ate beans; when it was the season for artichokes, they ate artichokes. Her uncles had rabbits, hens for eggs and sometimes for broth. She also remembers that they had guinea pigs, which became Sunday meat, cooked in a stew or roasted. Elena found them disturbing because they resembled rats.
When they made sauce, they used a small piece of lard and a very small amount of ground meat. Elena recalls that they would go to the alimentari - the grocer - to buy tomato paste, spending two or three Italian lira cents for a little bit of concentrate (as we call it today) and half an ounce of grated Parmesan cheese.
Having three children, Elena always cooked. She remembers that, once, the sauce was made with half an ounce of ground meat and chicken liver, not like today where a kilogram of mea is typical. The broth was made with the head of the chicken and the feet, while today these parts are discarded. She recalls cooking everything: stews, meat, bean soup, bread soup, potato soup, rice with potatoes, and often a vegetable soup with all kinds of vegetables. She would then slice the bread; they didn't toast it, but placed it in a tray and poured the soup over it.
One of the recipes Elena fondly remembers is fig jam with walnuts. They would make it thicken well, then shape it into a loaf wrapped in corn leaves to preserve it throughout the winter.
At 86 years old, Elena still works as a seamstress. There is always someone at her house, a friend or a client trying on a jacket.
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