an adopted son to come) to the small town of Pomezia just south of Rome where my husband worked. The official reason was to spare him the daily commute, but really what we all most wanted was fresh air, a lush yard and plenty of room for pets. By the way, since he retired my husband is doing most of the family cooking  (perhaps there should be also a “cookingwithnonno” site!?) but he is more the-chef type.

My father came from Sardinia and when I was a small girl his parents and two sisters and their families had also moved to Rome and lived all in our same building. My cousins and I roamed freely among the four apartments. The “aranciata” was a treat my grandmother used to fix for us kids on the rare occasions when she, tiny but strict and austere, thought we had been good enough.  Or, more frequently, when a visitor was coming on too short a notice to bake a proper cake.  Also the fregula is one of her recipes, however we kids used to call it the “TV soup” because my grandmother officially disapproved of “wasting” useful daytime hours watching TV.  Problem was she rather liked it, so she often made fregula as an excuse for sitting in front of the TV for at least a good half an hour during the tacitly prohibited time. So these are actually great-great-grandmother’s recipes.  Since I am no chef, but try to do lots of different things at the same time, I favor quick (but tasty) dishes like frittata with zucchini.  Huge quantities disappear quickly, so I guess people like them too.  Buon appetito!