Lindsay Marie Morris

Chiara Barbera considers herself blessed to have grown up surrounded by all four of her Sicilian grandparents (nonni), who emigrated from the Catania Province to Australia about six decades ago. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself reflecting on the impact they'd had on her life. 

"I have this fear that our grandparents are going to leave this world, and we're not going to remember all of their traditions," Chiara says. "And I basically wanted to capture that and keep those memories alive."

 

Her solution? A digital platform called Experience Assaggio where subscribers can tap into the best insights nonni have to offer. Viewers can "pull up a chair" at the Assaggio Traditions Table and witness a collection of nonni, including her own, sharing traditions, recipes, gardening tips, and pastimes. 

 

Chiara and I chatted more about her brainchild, challenges, memorable stories, popular videos, future plans, and more. 

 

 

What challenges did you face starting Experience Assaggio?

I was in Italy during the pandemic, and that was very challenging. I had all of my grandparents in Australia, and I really craved spending time with them and making sure that I could capture everything I could from them and learn as much as I could. So basically, the idea was born in Italy, and then I actually came back to Australia after the first wave of the pandemic. 

I spent 14 days locked in a hotel room during quarantine, which was actually my saving grace. I got to work on something productive while I was locked in this tiny little room. And then when I got out, I was just so excited to get started.

 

People ask me if it was a challenge to get the nonni on board, but it actually wasn't. And I think that's just a testament to the type of people nonni are because they were just like, "Oh, whatever you want to do. I will make you happy."

 

Viewers can tap content ranging from recipes to gardening tips.

Can you share a memorable story from producing the experiences?

Caponata was one of our first recipe experiences that we recorded. I wanted it to be as natural as possible so they could just feel comfortable. And at one point, the nonna was like, "Can you see what I'm doing?"

 

And I was like, "Yeah. Go around the camera and have a look." 

(And I've actually left this in the recipe experience. I wanted people to see this. It was just such a beautiful raw moment.)

 

So she turns around, walks around the camera, and looks. And she's like, "Oh, yeah. They can see me."

 

It was just amazing because they weren't born with the technology. I think that was probably one of the cutest moments. We're really blending the two worlds with technology and nonni.

 

How do you select the nonni to feature on the platform?

They have to be 75-plus. And I'm very strict about that because they've lived through incredible life events. And besides that, it's really open to any nonni who can share their recipes and traditions.

 

What videos resonate most with viewers?

The most popular videos have been the caponata, cotoletta, and sugo and meatballs. I think they're probably the most popular because the caponata is very easy to make, and people want to connect and bring people together for a meal. 

 

Your platform features music. How do you choose the playlist for each class?

I have personally curated each one with intent, and all of them kind of give you a romantic, carried-away feeling that you're in Italy and experiencing all of those beautiful feelings of the older times. Most of them are actually songs that I sing with my grandparents. 

 

What are your future plans for Experience Assaggio?

I've got a platform now called Vera Italia, which is basically Assaggio's big sister and serves to connect local Italians with travelers. It's a way for people to travel to Italy but also to connect with the local people and really live that true Italy, which is why it's called Vera, which means true in Italian. It gives locals a platform to share what they're doing and connect with people who really want that immersive Italian experience. And we've got some incredible people there. 

Obviously, we've got a lot of cooking classes. Then we've got everything from fishing tourism, where you can go on a fishing boat with people and see how they fish, to basket-making with this beautiful man who learned how to make baskets from his father. 

It's a way to ensure that these humble people are seen and noticed, and they can be rewarded and encouraged to continue sharing their traditions. 

At the moment, we're in Calabria because my great-grandfather, who was Sicilian, migrated there, and soon we'll be looking to expand that to Sicily.

 

Experience Assaggio aims to preserve and share traditions.

What do you hope subscribers take away?

I hope they take the chance to dedicate some time to connecting with a recipe, a pastime, and the grandparents who have so much to share. I hope they'll take away the love, warmth, and wisdom that I've been so blessed to receive from these grandparents and share a little bit of nonni magic with them as well. 

 

 

 

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The tradition of La Settimana Santa, Holy Week, brings people out of their homes to watch and participate in various daily processions of statues through the streets. It's also a time to enjoy sweet bread, often flavored with anise, which is typical of the Lenten season. Among the favorite bread recipes is pani di cena—really cookies—which are shaped like crosses. While this "bread" is often served on Holy Thursday, you can enjoy pani di cena year-round. 

Food writer Enza Whiting features a pani di cena recipe on her blog, Enza's Quail Hollow Kitchen. Enza was born in Palermo and lived in the town of Valledolmo for the first four and a half years of her life. 

We discussed pani di cena and what Enza hopes her family and readers will take away from her recipe.

 

 

Tell us about your pani di cena recipe.

My grandmother made these cookies for us when we were kids. She would shape them, cutting them in the shape of a cross. They were always served on Good Thursday, right before Easter.

It was a Sicilian tradition in the church that the elders made these cookies. They would have these church communities or church groups aside from the priests, and whoever was the head of that community or that committee for that year would make these cookies for all of the other members of the committee. So they would make the pani di cena.

They were always made on Good Thursday, and they would get a sugar lamb. It was part of the tradition that they sacrificed for their community by creating these cookies and giving them out in all the towns. 

My mother told me the story about when my great-grandfather was the elder, and it was his turn to make these. My grandmother was maybe 15 or 16 years old, and she was the one who made them all. 

They didn't all have ovens in their homes, so the town had ovens that everybody would use. All the women would get together, bake the cookies, and then take them to the ovens to bake them in their local oven. I guess that's how they used to make their bread, too, because they didn't have ovens in their homes; they had to use a public oven to bake their bread. So it was very communal.

The other thing my grandmother would do for us was make the little crosses, but then she would also make pupa cu l'ova using the same dough. She would put a colored egg in it and bake it. My favorite thing on Easter was getting the hard-boiled egg with my cookie. 

Pani di cena is actually more of a cross between bread and a cookie. My grandmother's recipe is more of a cross between bread and a cookie. I call it a cookie; my mother calls it bread. When you bite into it, it is somewhat crunchier on the outside and tender on the inside. However, the inside has more of a soft cookie texture than the texture of bread that you would normally think of as soft bread. It is made with yeast. So, it is a yeast recipe, but the texture is different from that of some of the breads you will see. 

 

Why did you start Quail Hollow Kitchen?

Being Italian, food is a big part of your tradition. It's how we celebrate things; it's how we communicate with each other. 

I remember when we were kids, we had dinner together as a family every night, and my mother would make meals with whatever she had in the kitchen or the refrigerator because there wasn't a lot of money growing up. So, they had to be creative and use what they had available. But dinnertime was always sacred. That was a time when we sat down as a family.

My dad was really big into talking to us about what was going on in the world because he wanted us to really understand what was happening around us and how it impacted us. During those dinners, my parents also spent a lot of time talking about where they came from, what life was like for them growing up, and how different it was for us here because it was important that we appreciated all the sacrifices that happened to get us to where we were.

So, for me, food and our traditions have always been really important. We continue to talk to our kids about those things because I don't want them to forget about their heritage, their history, and what life was like for other people so that they can enjoy the things that they enjoy today. We do all of that around food. It always seems to be the center of these family functions, celebrations, and communications. 

I started Quail Hollow Kitchen mainly because my grandmother had passed away, and I was really worried that as my mom was getting older, I was going to lose all of her recipes. So she was able to carry on my grandmother's traditions with food, and I wanted to be able to somehow memorialize it so that even when I'm gone, my kids can still have access to all of that information. And it's named Quail Hollow because that is the street that I live on.

When I got into it, I realized that I really enjoyed all the different aspects of this website. So it's grown from there, but it still centers around all of our Italian dishes and foods, and really makes sure that all of our Sicilian foods are front and center, somewhere our family has access to.

 

 

What do you hope at-home bakers will take away from this cookie recipe?

Personally, for my family, because it's been a part of our family, and we have made this every year for as long as I can remember, I hope they understand that this has been handed down for many generations.

For other readers, I hope that they want to try it because it may be different from something that they're used to. Maybe they will learn something about how other people have enjoyed foods around the Lenten holiday and Easter that might be different from how they've celebrated it. 

It's really about keeping that Sicilian heritage and history going. I have other blogger friends who do similar things within their cultures. I think many of us out there hope that as the world continues to progress, we don't forget some of the things that made our families what they are. 

 

>>Get Enza's recipe here!<<

 

 

 

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