Tina Marisa Rocchio

Quarantine brought about memories of my grandmother in every form and led to my compiling her recipes and telling their tales. The first recipe I ever wrote down was for pasta e fagioli. I may have been eight or nine as my grandfather dictated the ingredients to me. For some reason I loved the simple peasant dish more than anything else when I was a girl. To be honest, there was absolutely nothing that my grandmother created that I didn't love. Everyone in Providence loved her cooking; she was renowned for it.

The other recipes in this folder contain such gems as the most delicious lemon squares you've ever tasted; "Anthony's favorite cookies" (referring to my father); "Rigotta" pie (with a 'g' because that's how they had always heard it); an Easter pie which is similar to a savory Neapolitan pastiera, and so many more. On the back of one recipe is a child’s foreshadowing scrawl, “Mom, I took some money from your bag. Don’t worry, Michael”. That would have been my father’s brother whose business ventures and bright ideas would cost my grandmother much more than a few cents from her purse.

Some of the pieces of paper in here, many written in my grandmother's beautiful handwriting, date back to the 1930s. Many call for Crisco or its 1920s predecessor, Spry. That - plus copious amounts of butter and cream, and a steady supply of Lucky Strikes - might explain the lack of longevity on that side of the family.

 “Anthony’s Favorite Cookies”

1 pound soft lard

2 ½ cups sugar

4 cups flour

1 spoon almond extract

½ cup chopped walnut

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

*Combine the above ingredients and bake at 325 for 10-15 minutes.

Makes about 70 if you follow directions to alletter (sic)

*Do not liquify the shortening! It must be in dough form before baked.”

Notice how lard and shortening were used interchangeably (I can just hear my Aunt Peg inquiring to my grandmother in her Down East voice, “Now Dolly, what did you use for shawhtenin’?”). They most definitely would not have used lard (“lahd”) in cookies. I’m fairly certain they’d have used Crisco, “mahgerine” or “butah”, although when they used butter, they usually specified that. Also, notable, there’s no mention of how to roll and slice the cookies, only that if you follow the directions to “alletter”, you’ll get about 70. 70 would have been a pretty standard batch, multiplying by the 10s around holiday time when decorative platters piled high with a milieu of Christmas cookies and wrapped in cellophane and ribbons littered literally every flat surface awaiting visiting day.