Mamma Delinda

Well, sadly this week my mother in law Delinda passed away, almost 95 , thank god no suffering just I think her batteries finally ran out . Some of you who know me have often heard me speak about her , I'm sure I've told most of you my favorite dinner party story on how I have a scar on my knuckles because I wasn t able to roll out the pasta dough so she wrapped my knuckles with the huge rolling pin !!! Lol .
Well I know it seems strange to be talking about her on my klean Keeley blog but, what you don't know is that if it wasn't for her there would be no blog . You see as a showgirl my kitchen talents were non existent, so when I met luigi he cooked or we didn't eat , when I tell you I couldn't even boil an egg that is no lie , infect trying to impress my new found Italian stallion , one morning I got up while he was still sleeping and decided to surprise him with breakfast in bed , well I surprised him alright and everybody else in the building by setting off every apartments fire alarm on our floor !!!!!!
Well , we got married , had Astra and moved to Italy , I spoke no Italian , had 0 cooking skills and a 3 month old baby !!!but ......... I had mamma Delinda! Now at the time I wasn't so sure that was a good thing after all the factmthat her "nanni" baby boy who at the time was 36 had married an English showgirl with 0 housewife skills was most definitely not what she had in mind for him which she reminded me of frequently .For 3 months we lived with her while waiting for our apartment , well actually I lived with her as Luigi was gone Monday thru Friday coming back just for weekends !!! Well those 3 months totally changed my life , she was on a mission to make me the wife that she had always had in mind for her baby ! Amongst learning to wash everything by hand including sheets ! ( the washing machine was off limits to me until I perfected this task ) she taught me how to cook ! , and not only did she do that but she ignited this burning passion I have for good food and above all klean , healthy food .
Over the last 23 years this strong , powerful woman with huge hands has taught me everything I know about cooking and food ! I can gut and clean almost any kind of fish , pluck the feathers from a fresh chicken and make homemade pasta , tortilla , ravioli and my all time fav .. Capellaci , that was the first thing she made for me the first time I met her .
So this is why I wanted to dedicate a place to her in my blog , oh and may I add all of the above was done in a minute little kitchen around a small table , no fancy oven or stove or any kind of fancy equipment just her , her huge hands and the millions of stories that she would share with me . I remember one day after 15 years of being married to " nanni " she came to me in the bathroom of her small apartment and swilled up my hands in hers and she said " tata u r almost worthy of my son " wow , almost that's huge coming from her .
So Mamma Delinda as you join all your family and friends and you all sit around some big kitchen table in the sky eating tortilla di zucca and drinking a good Reggio lambrusco please don't forget to tell the story of the skinny , English showgirl that you turned into a pretty decent cook and a pretty ok housewife and I promise you that every time I'm cooking up some slap up Italian dinner I will always say " grazie Mamma " for being patient enough to teach me everything I know ...... Mi mancherai xxxx