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“We Never Paid Enough Attention”
Appears in
By Richard Sax
Published 1994
Mary Alfano Codola is my adopted Italian mother in Rhode Island. Any time I stop by, Mary plies me with “a little something”—a bowl of soup, a freshly baked spinach pie, a few of her cookies. But for the Christmas season and to some extent on Easter, too, she pulls out all the stops. The activity starts just after Thanksgiving.
“I make my candies first and get them out of the way. I make the torrone [nougat], with filberts, toasted almonds and vanilla. They’re cut in squares or little oblongs, and I wrap them. I keep them in a tin in the refrigerator so they don’t soften up.