Franca Piccini is a woman who loves to cook and has managed to preserve and pass on the culinary traditions of her land. Born in 1943 and raised on a farm in the municipality of Sorano, in a large family of 11 people, including uncles, grandparents, and grandchildren.
As a child, she carefully observed the women of her family cooking; she wasn't allowed to help, so she would knead dough with water and flour. Her passion for cooking has remained alive over time, and even today, at the age of 82, every time she thinks of dough, her eyes sparkle, her posture straightens and a broad smile lights up her face. She says that when she doesn't feel very well, she sets out the table with flour to knead, and she immediately feels better.
At 22, after getting married, she started cooking with her mother-in-law, but she had already learned many things by watching the women in her family. She cooked for many years at the town's festival, preparing tortelli, tagliatelle, and gnocchi, and it was she who started the "Scuola di Cucina Soranese" (Soranese Cooking School), which offered courses for 8 years and occasionally continues to hold events.
Franca recalls having the idea of using the chitarra to cut the pici, a typical pasta from the area made with water, flour, and a drop of oil. In the past, the dough sheets were rolled, well-floured, and then cut with a knife. A woman from Abruzzo, who lived downstairs from her, gave her a chitarra, a traditional tool used for cutting pasta, and Franca decided to try it for the pici. The chitarra consists of a wooden frame with steel strings stretched horizontally, similar to the strings of a guitar, which is where it gets its name.
The fresh pasta dough, once rolled out on the chitarra, is gently pressed with a rolling pin; the pressure causes the dough to be cut through the strings, forming thin and uniform strips, typically square-shaped, like the case of spaghetti alla chitarra. From that moment on, everyone wanted a chitarra, and so they had 25 pieces shipped from Abruzzo. The pici cut with the chitarra were thicker and more beautiful than those cut with the pasta machine, which is now used today, simplifying and speeding up the process.
Franca recalls that her husband Pacifico practically grew up in his family's vegetable shop, where he worked for 50 years and which they ran together for 43. They had a garden that Pacifico tended, bringing home lettuce, fennel, cauliflower, and cabbage. Franca says that once, life was healthier, even though they had little, perhaps precisely because they ate less and more genuine food, which promoted better health.
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.
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