By Rosalba Velletri
I find this project of the Food Memories quite intriguing as it made me realize that I have so many memories in relation to food, that is really hard to just pick one. Here’s a story about my Sunday Lunches.
My decision to pick Sunday lunch is probably because Sunday was always a day of celebration, when mum and grandma would prepare a feast because we often had other members of the family joining us for lunch, uncles, aunties, cousins, and that morning was dedicated only to cooking.
I remember waking up to the smell of the meat ragu’ that had been simmering on the stove from the early hours of the morning and I was in for a treat, my favourite breakfast, made of a slice of fresh crusty bread with the ragu’.
A ragu’ that is worthy of that name had to include different meats, usually the cheaper cuts, and some bones, it was made with the home-made tomato passata and had to cook for about 3-4 hours. When I got up, my mum and grandma were at the kitchen table making fresh tagliatelle to go with the sauce, rigorously made by hand, with the rolling pin. It was fascinating to watch them cut the tagliatelle by hand with speed and precision that could only come from dedication and years of practice.
The Tagliatelle al Ragu` would always be followed by meat and vegetables that could be chicken or lamb, cooked in the oven, with potatoes (Pollo al Forno con Patate or Agnello), other sautéed vegetables in season (artichokes, silverbeet, peas, chicory, broccoli etc.) and a dessert (Bigne’, Biscotti etc).
Our Sunday lunch was a celebration of the food and the family, playing with the cousins and chatting across the table, we usually had 15-20 people; that joy is imprinted in my mind and is what I treasure and miss the most.
I feel very lucky to have had such experiences, I have been blessed to have had these traditions passed down as I was growing up and I feel they are part of my DNA.