Who doesn't have at least one dish tied to a special memory? The flavors, smells and echoes in the kitchen are able to take our mind back to distant images, safely kept like precious jewels in that treasure chest that is our mind.
The smell of breakfast that reached us as children still wrapped up in our blankets. Or the irresistible aroma of roast meat, ragù sauce, a tart that flew passed us while we played in the hallway with our brothers and sisters. And those Sunday mornings spent standing on the chair to help Mom knead gnocchi or tagliatelle? Don't tell us you've never done it, whether you're a boy or a girl.
We mentioned the sounds and noises of the kitchen. When we were little even these we could hear and recognize from one room to another. The pots that passed from the stove to the worktable and vice versa, the rapid beating of the knife against the chopping board chopping vegetables, or that of the trays that slammed together while nimble female hands covered them with delicacies, and the jingle of the glasses and plates while the table was being set, perhaps for some special occasion: a birthday, Christmas, Easter.
How can we not remember the summer too? The sun pleasantly touching our shoulders, the skin pores tightening by the salt from the sea, lunch on the beach, where the aroma of the sea is mixed with that of lasagna or cannelloni, dishes prepared the day before and now dished out in front of our little hungry eyes, with our hair still wet from the sea clinging to our forehead, surrounded by aunts, cousins, grandparents, all cheerful in the mid-August air.
It is for these memories that today we have taken inspiration and want to suggest several recipes that, we hope, will awaken in you the memories of loved ones, places in our hearts filled with happy moments.