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Onorina Massimi making pasta at home in Fawkner – she thinks nothing of it, it\u2019s just what she does.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eddie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n Crupi sees making pasta as a way to stay connected to culture as things change. \u201cMy nonne have died now and when I make pasta I feel close to them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n To teach others to do the same, she asked family friends, two women from the same region as her grandparents, who had lived with them when they first came to Melbourne, to show her.<\/p>\n Crupi then decided she \u201cneeded to spread my nonne net much wider [by] using the Italian whisper network: it felt a bit like Looking for Alibrandi<\/em>,\u201d she says, referring to Melina Marchetta\u2019s book and film adaptation, about the close-knit Italian community in Sydney, released in 2000.<\/p>\n Soon she had 15 women from across Melbourne happy to share their secrets to making homemade pasta; in the process, she learnt a lot about their lives. \u201cWhen we started making pasta, all of their stories would pour out,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Making a life in an unknown country on the other side of the world is the other key thread that weaves through the book, an experience all the women interviewed shared, having emigrated from Italy in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.<\/p>\n In many ways, Pasta Love<\/em> is an homage to these strong, resilient women. \u201cI wanted to write a book that only I could write. There are so many great pasta books out there. I own them all, by so many chefs and food writers. I wanted to make my own contribution,\u201d Crupi says.<\/p>\n \u201cThese women are in their 80s and 90s now, that generation, we\u2019re losing them. I wanted to record as much of them as I could while I could. [It] made me realise I had to write this book right now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Pasta is love, pasta is life,\u2019 says Jaclyn Crupi, who was inspired to write by her nonne. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eddie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n The Northcote-based author, editor and part-time bookseller at Hill of Content has written two books inspired by her Italian heritage \u2013 Nonna Knows Best<\/em> and Garden Like a Nonno – <\/em>as well as children\u2019s books. Even so, not being a chef or a food writer, she wasn\u2019t sure she could write this book; she jokes about having an \u201cimpasta syndrome\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first met with the nonne I thought I would find disruption, that when they first moved here in the 50s and 60s they wouldn\u2019t have been able to find ingredients,\u201d she says. \u201cI was completely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Most have stuck to the traditional recipes used by their mothers – it was invariably women cooking – and their grandmothers before that. \u201cThe thing that struck me was what intuitive cooks they are: they didn\u2019t measure or weigh anything, they are looking, smelling and relying on themselves. I\u2019ve learnt to trust myself and it\u2019s now second nature. I love cookbooks but I feel more comfortable going off-piste.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Crupi\u2019s friends is 88-year-old Fawkner-based Onorina Massimi, who came from Collina in Le Marche, the same village as her nonna. Arriving here in Melbourne in 1961, when there was an Italian community already established, she found work as a sewing machinist alongside many other women like her. While she missed her family in Italy, and her mother in particular, Onorina met her husband, had two children, and is now a great-grandmother; her great-grandson calls her \u2018big Nonna\u2019.<\/p>\n Renata Launech, at home in Hawthorn, migrated from Italy in the 1950s.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eddie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n Now 86, Renata Launech came to Australia from Treviso when she was 12 – so unhappy initially she cried for a year. Not speaking English, she soon left school and started working as a machinist with her sister where, like Onorina, she made friends and felt more settled. Later, she met her husband – also from Treviso – through a family friend and they had four children; now they have seven grandchildren. All are keen students in the kitchen, she says, delighted they are keen to learn to cook as she does.<\/p>\n According to Renata, the secret to a long and happy life is to love your partner and family, and to keep busy. Her 90-year-old sister was visiting for lunch the day we spoke, and Renata was making her favourite meal of tripe.<\/p>\n A homemade pasta in the making by Onorina Massimi.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eddie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n Having lived through war and other harsh realities, Crupi argues this generation know what\u2019s important in life and are focused on what really matters.<\/p>\n Her grandparents worked hard all their lives, she says, but \u201cwhen they were not working, they were not working\u201d. Her nonna would spend several hours cooking, then sit in her chair for and look out the window for 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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