…and pasta is magic. Our origins define what we are, and my regional roots deeply influence me. In Emilia-Romagna, fresh home-made pasta, a skilful mixture of eggs and wheat, is the protagonist of regional gastronomic culture. Not only it contains tryptophan, an amino acid which turns into serotonin, the hormone of happiness, but it also testifies of centuries of efforts in creating a unique cuisine.
Emilia-Romagna, though not so famous as Tuscany, is an area of gastronomic excellence. The tradition of home-made pasta is still prevalent: the pasta machine is considered “the tool of the devil”, and we still have, in our fresh-pasta shops and restaurants, women who are rolling pasta in front of the shop-window. Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany are the staple of national gastronomic heritage. The first cookbook of Kingdom of Italy (unified only in 1861) was published only thirty years later. And its author was a gentleman from Romagna (like me) who had moved to Florence in his youth (like me, again). Our good Pellegrino Artusi, publishing his Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well in 1891, created the pattern of a unified cuisine in a country which had been politically separated up to thirty years earlier. Copies of his book, stained and tattered, passed down like a family heirloom, from mother to daughter.