Episode #50 – Today Nonna Paolone is teaching us how to make La Tazza also known as Scattone. If you enjoy drinking Red Wine you are going to love this. It’s an ancient recipe from Nonna’s town of Castropignano, Italy. A bowl of “La Tazza” is considered comfort food for Castropignanesi’s. It makes for a great appetizer or also an aperitif. It’s delicious on cold winter nights and Nonno eats a bowl whenever he has a cold. All you need is pasta, pasta water and red wine. Your body will thank you after you eat a bowl of “La Tazza“. Watch to get the step by step instructions so you can make this for your family and friends. One important ingredient that #NonnaPaolone always adds to her recipe is cooking with her heart. So, be sure when you make this you do it with all your heart. Enjoy!
Also, a lot of people have been asking how Nonna’s daughter Laurie Paolone is doing. Watch til the end to catch up on her Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer Journey.
A great article from the website www.lagazzettaitaliana.com about La Tazza: “My favorite aperitif is the Scattone, an authentic specialty of Molisana cuisine which is as easy to prepare as it is pleasing to consume. If you have never heard of it, what you are about to read might surprise you and, in the end, you might even want to taste it. The scattone is an appetizer that derived from the peasant society of the Molise region centuries ago. It is made with basic ingredients that were within the reach of the agrarian diet – homemade pasta and wine. According to legend, this dish originated from an incident involving a villager and his exaggerated twitch when he accidentally spilled a good amount of wine in a pot containing noodles. What happened next? To avoid letting food go to waste in time of famine, he and his fellow diners ate the unexpected blend anyway. The Scattone was typical of many villages of Molise. Depending on the local dialect, it was called “lu scatton” or “r ’scatton.” Since it was served in a small bowl to keep it warm, in some towns they also called it “la tassa,” from the Italian word “tazza” meaning “bowl.” In the past, the consumption of the scattone coincided with a break from a long day spent working in the fields. It was the energizing spritz that the peasants sipped while sitting by the chimney in anticipation for lunch or dinner. The mothers and grandmothers of the Sannio region prepared it for their sons and husbands just before draining the pasta. They would fill a bowl with the cooking water, (in dialect commonly called “broda”) add a little bit of sagnette or taccozze (homemade noodles resembling tagliatelle made with flour, salt and water), hearty red wine and, for those who preferred it, a sprinkle of black pepper. The scattone was much more than a simple starter. It also served various beneficial purposes. In the winter months, it was the home remedy to cure the common cold, at a time, as we can easily imagine, money and medicines were not as accessible as today. It was also an ideal stimulant for new mothers to help produce the milk necessary to breastfeed their babies. In the summer months, it was the beverage that quenched the laborers’ thirst generated from farm activities. Over time, its tradition was passed on from one generation to the next, even conquering the palate of well-to-do families and younger generations. At our house, the question “who wants tassa?” was a figurative dinner bell which tickled our appetite and announced that it was time to sit at the table. Today, lo scattone is still a dish prepared in many homes. Compared to our ancestors, our way of living has completely changed. Yet, like them, we can savor a delicious blend of bold wine and homemade noodles of a country aperitif that also tells us the story of the Molisan peasants who started work in the fields from the first morning hours and finished at sunset.”