Nonna’s Way TV Pitch!

A few months ago Nonna’s Way was contacted by Paul from a television and digital media content production company to do a TV pitch!

“I’ve been a bit of a fan of your blog and thought I would reach out on a whim on this Friday afternoon” is how he started his conversation. After reading the entire email, the two of us proceeded to look at each other and then look around for candid cameras! Seriously? We’ve only been at it for a little while, still building a following but relatively unknown, and we get this?!

Needless to say, we were awestruck but also took it as a great compliment. Upon speaking with Paul, we learned that they like what we are doing and how we are doing it. There’s a trend emerging out there and it’s getting away from the complicated meals, best restaurants, and biggest meals. People want to get back to basics and learn how to prepare good meals at home and preserve food themselves. Well, there’s nobody better to teach us how to do this than our nonnas! 

We had a great time filming Nonna’s Way with Paul– a first for Anna and I. We will admit, we were a wee bit nervous but what an amazing experience it was! The nonnas and our families got a kick out of it too. We finished off the day with a big lunch in Nonno Giovanni’s garden. It was fantastic and brought me back to the days of large family dinners on my nonno’s farm in Italy. 

Nonna Olga made her ricotta cake, which you can find the recipe for on the blog. We explained to Paul that this was one of the first recipes we covered and what an eye opener it was, as we began to realize what we were in for trying to get these recipes recorded. We recalled with this first recipe that Nonna Olga had started without us. When we asked her how much oil and flour she used, she simply pointed to an empty half-eggshell in which she had measured the oil, and for the flour amount she pointed to a line on the empty ricotta container! Get the picture?

Our families got a glimpse of our dilemma as well when we tried to measure salt and oil for Nonna Pina’s eggplant parmigiana sauce recipe. I will hand it to her though, she did try to use a measuring spoon, but filling a teaspoon with salt then dumping some more into the pot for good measure isn’t quite scientific measuring! We’ll be testing that recipe and posting it soon as it was a big hit at the luncheon that day.

For now, a few images from the set of Nonna’s Way!

So odd being on the other side of the camera!

It was a great opportunity to thank the test kitchen nonnas that went above and beyond to help us during the making of our newly launched book: Nonna’s Way, A Collection of Classic Italian Cookie Recipes. We had many nonnas contribute recipes and we are grateful for all of them. The test kitchen nonnas tested recipes with us and answered endless questions which helped us record easy to follow recipes and instructions.

Had to get a shot with the producer, Paul. Thank you so much, it was a great day!