With deft flicks of the wrist, Nunzia Caputo cuts small chunks off the
end of a sausage-shaped roll of fresh pasta dough, squishes each of
them into a distinctive hollow shape with her thumb and sends them
skittering across a flour-covered wooden tabletop.
Gregarious and with a big smile, she is the best known of the “pasta
grannies”, women who spend their days making a type of homemade pasta
called orecchiette, Italian for “little ears”, in the labyrinth of
narrow alleyways that make up the old town of Bari, a historic port in
the south of [1]Italy.
“Semolina, water and lots of love – these are the only ingredients, and
this is our tradition,” she said, sitting at her kitchen table with a
granddaughter who is equally adept at making the ear-shaped morsels.
The pasta-producing women of Bari have become a tourist attraction in
recent years, embodying a classic Italian combination of good food,
gastronomic tradition and joie-de-vivre that proves irresistible to
legions of visitors and cruise ship passengers who eagerly buy their
bags of [2]pasta.
But the close-knit world of the pasta grannies has been convulsed of
late by allegations that some of them are covertly buying
factory-produced orecchiette, divvying it up into little sacks and
passing it off as homemade.
The subterfuge began to unravel when white cardboard boxes that had
contained commercially made pasta were found dumped in wheelie bins on
the outskirts of the old town.
No one has been named, at least publicly, but beneath the ancient stone
arches and wrought iron balconies of Bari Vecchia – the old town of
Bari – there are dark mutterings that a few women got greedy.
The scandal has, inevitably, been dubbed “Orecchiette Gate”.
A 55-year-old pasta maker said: “Some of the women have been selling
the commercially made stuff.”
“They shouldn’t have done it and now it’s given us all a bad name. My
grandmother taught me to make orecchiette when I was five. If you are
from here, if you come from this tradition, then you need to be honest,
transparent,” she said outside the tiny home she shares with her
89-year-old mother in a whitewashed courtyard deep in the heart of the
old town.
In response to the allegations, the authorities have decided to act.
A pasta maker selling her pasta produce in Via Arco Basso in the old
town
A pasta maker selling her pasta produce in Via Arco Basso in the old
town - Chris Warde-Jones
They are introducing tough new rules and regulations for the pasta
grannies, many of whom congregate along Via dell’Arco Basso – the
street of the low arch – an alleyway close to Bari’s imposing
1,000-year-old castle.
There will be regular health and hygiene checks on their homes. They
will also have to wear hair nets and, if they have long fingernails,
rubber gloves. They will have to buy new fridges in which to keep their
pasta products, separate from the fridges that they keep their food in.
Cooking utensils and surfaces will need to be disinfected and kept
squeaky clean. They will have to attend a four-hour course which will
earn them a food safety certificate.
Officials are compiling a map and a register of all the women who sell
homemade pasta in the winding alleys of the old town.
Stamp of authenticity
Most important of all, they plan to introduce a stamp of authenticity,
similar to those used for regional specialities such as wine and
cheese, to guarantee to tourists that the pasta is homemade.
Pietro Petruzzelli, the city councillor in charge of economic
development and tourism, said: “They’re small changes and they won’t
cost the ladies much to adopt.
“We want to maintain the tradition of orecchiette making but at the
same time make sure they are respecting the rules.”
Controversially, the women will no longer be allowed to make pasta
outdoors, sitting at tables, chatting to each other in impenetrable
local dialect, and displaying it on wooden trays.
Instead, they will have to make the orecchiette in their tiny, cramped
kitchens, where it will be protected from dust, flies, bird droppings
and everything else the environment can fling at. Their front doorways
will have to be covered with fly nets or curtains.
The new rules have gone down like a plate of congealed carbonara. A
meeting was held on Dec 10 between the pasta women and council
officials but quickly deteriorated into a shouting match as the
grannies protested against the rigorous new regime.
Pasta makers met with Pietro Petruzzelli, the tourism and economic
development city councillor, to discuss the new rules
Pasta makers met with Pietro Petruzzelli, the tourism and economic
development city councillor, to discuss the new rules - Chris
Warde-Jones
Mrs Caputo said: “We can’t work indoors because our kitchens are too
small.
“In the summer, we’ll die of heat. We have to work outside.”
Bari, one of Italy’s southernmost cities, sweltered in temperatures of
42C this summer.
Teresa, a pasta maker in her seventies, said: “If they continue with
all these demands, insisting we conform to the regulations, I’ll just
pack up and stop work.”
But health officials are adamant and say it is too risky from a hygiene
point of view – the women can no longer knead and pinch pasta dough in
the street.
An official from the regional health authority said: “How many times
have we read about a wedding where all the guests are rushed to
hospital because of food that wasn’t kept properly?”
The whole business has proved so contentious that even the Catholic
Church has got involved.
Father Franco Lanzolla, the parish priest from the Romanesque Cathedral
of San Sabino, has stepped in to act as a mediator, treading a delicate
line between the authorities and the pasta women. The raucous meeting
was held in a room adjacent to the cathedral.
He says there is more at stake than just a few women making pasta in
their cramped kitchens. “There’s a lot of unemployment here. Without
work, there are many young people who can be tempted into criminality.
But if there is work, you can give them hope, a future, self-esteem.”
Booming tourism in Bari
The “pastaie” or female pasta producers have become a symbol of Bari,
which is undergoing a [3]tourist boom.
[4]Jamie Oliver featured them in one of his cookbooks and Dolce &
Gabbana shot a commercial featuring some of the women with the
lingerie-clad daughters of Sylvester Stallone, whose family originates
from Puglia.
Mrs Caputo has 60,000 followers on her Instagram account, Le
Orecchiette di Nunzia.
“Nunzia has become a superstar,” said Anna, a local tour guide. “She
went to Brazil once and was practically treated like the Pope.” In
November, she met the real pontiff, shaking hands with Pope Francis at
an audience in the Vatican and giving him some orecchiette as a gift.
Among the tourists taking photos of the pasta grannies in Via dell’Arco
Basso was Ophelie Stoeckli, 28, from Lausanne, who was visiting with
her sister and mother.
“I had heard about the pasta ladies – I saw them on TikTok and
Instagram and I wanted to come and see them,” she said.
Growing demand for homemade pasta
The reason why some of the pasta grannies were tempted into food fraud,
selling commercial pasta that they pretended was their own, lies in the
growing popularity of Bari as a destination.
As the number of tourists increased, so too did the demand for the
pasta grannies’ products.
Francesco Petruzzelli, a local journalist who has covered the scandal
in depth, said: “With so many tourists visiting, the ladies couldn’t
keep up with demand.
“It’s hard work – it takes an hour to make a kilo of orecchiette and
you need strong arms to knead the dough. That’s why they started buying
commercial pasta and pretending it was their own. Tourists don’t know
any better – they can’t distinguish between homemade pasta and the
factory stuff.”
Mr Petruzzelli, the city councillor in charge of tourism, is adamant
that the days of flogging commercial pasta masquerading as home-made
pasta are over.
But he is most anxious to preserve the way of life of the pasta
grannies.
“The risk for a place like Bari, where tourism growth is in double
figures, is gentrification. The pasta ladies can be an antidote to
that. If they stopped work and moved out, their homes would become
Airbnb apartments. Bari would lose some of its soul.”
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References
1.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/italy/
2.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pasta/
3.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/12/rome-anti-tourism-protest/
4.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/jamie-oliver/
5.
https://secure.telegraph.co.uk/customer/subscribe/3months/?WT.mc_id=tmg_yahoo_subsoffers_-Yahoo&utm_source=tmgoff&utm_medium=tmg_yahoo&utm_content=subsoffers_&utm_campaign=tmg_yahoo_subsoffers_-Yahoo
