Ciccina

In the south of Sicily in the countryside of Licata, we spent a day learning to roll fresh pasta with Nonna Ciccina in her outdoor kitchen. Cooking up a taiano is a real process, usually reserved for feasting days like New Year’s or Ferragosto (the very special saint’s day of 15 August).

First Ciccina prepared the pasta dough, returning to knead and roll hundreds of intricate individual pieces of strozzapreti (you can, of course, just use a good-quality shop-/deli-bought pasta), before moving on to the many individual components that make up the layers of a traditional Sicilian pasta al forno (oven-baked pasta).