Nonna Prints

08/14/2021

07/21/2021

Dear Nonna Nation!!!!!

It has been way too long since I last posted something here, but rest assured, I'm baaaaaaaack!

Did you see the July issue of Cape Cod Life? Our dear friends on the editorial board, who were with us for a cooking class way back in 2018, have honored us again with a blurb on my book "There are Rules: Notes from my Italian Kitchen.” Look for the section called “Good Reads in Life -- Let’s Eat” on page 17.

Let’s fill you in on where we’ve been since we last chatted:

Joanne and I sold the shop in Sandwich in February 2020, sold the “big House“ and bought a condo in Kings Way, and then spent months renovating so I could resume cooking lessons when COVID was over. Finished the long awaited, much anticipated, cookbook just in time for Christmas last year.

So, why am I posting now? We are beginning a new Nonna Elena chapter: Nonna Elena Enterprises.

Nonna Elena Enterprises encompasses some of the old and some new:

Nonna Tours is back in business and our scheduled tours are this Fall to Piemonte, Spring 2022 to Toscana and Fall 2022 to Sicilia. If you are interested in joining us, I can give you details. Leave a note here, or PM me, or just pick up the phone (508-744-7062).

Nonna Cooks is still in flux and may return at first on line (via Zoom). Stay tuned!

Nonna Prints is now a publishing company and, in addition to There Are Rules, will soon be publishing a coffee table book on Sicily (with co-author and dear friend, Cheryl Ortenzi) and a second cookbook with recipes from our favorite restaurants in Italy.

Nonna Elena’s Box is the newest addition to Nonna Enterprises and is basically a subscription box of Italian foods and gifts, delivered to your door once a month. Learn more about this unique opportunity at NonnaElenasBox.com

So, now what? 1. Check out NonnaElenasBox.com and sign up for further news on what we're doing there. 2. Please, please share this on your personal page (copy and paste to be sure this txt goes on the post) or comment on this page or on the other Nonna Elena pages. We've been quiet for so long, I'm concerned that our friends will not see the announcement.

It's good to be back! Come join us in this new adventure!

Lu & Joanne

Nonna Elena's Box

02/27/2021

Dinner last night, trying to perfect cioppino for my next cookbook. Not quite where I want it, so we'll have to try it again soon.

02/10/2021

When Joanne says "What are you making for dinner? It's awful cold out." I understand that means "Why don't you make me some lentil soup?" So, of course, I did.

If you speak in the same code at your house, you can find the recipe in There are Rules -- Notes from my Italian Kitchen.

01/15/2021

Have you seen the latest review of There Are Rules??

Many thanks to Barbara Clark of the Barnstable Patriot who wrote this review as part of her article in the Entertainment Section and to Cyndy Cotton Executive Director of the Osterville Village Library who introduced us!
..local author and Italian chef Lu Matrascia, formerly the co-owner of Nonna Elena, a retail outlet for imported Italian specialty foods that was located in East Sandwich.

Matrascia, who spends part of each year in Italy, [is selling] her hot-off-the-press new cookbook, “There Are Rules: Notes from My Italian Kitchen.” It’s the Yarmouth resident’s first cookbook but, she says, not her last – she has two more in the works.

“There Are Rules” makes for engaging reading, even for non-cooks ( – just ask me!). It is just what it says; each section leads with a brief pronouncement or rule, interspersed with recipes that were carefully developed by Matrascia along with a number of colleagues, who spent hours taking notes as she prepared dishes, in order to compile her methods and quantities.

As for the “rules,” they have intriguing headings, such as “Risotto waits for no one. ... Cappuccino is only for breakfast. ... Parmigiano-Reggiano does not come in a cardboard can. ... No oil in pasta water. ... If you can’t drink it, you can’t cook with it. ...” and many more, to entice the cook to read further.

Besides rules and recipes, the winsome text includes some of the “stories, the opinions and the traditions” Matrascia has used over her years of traveling and cooking in Italy and the United States. In her introduction she says, “It wasn’t so much about the recipes, they could stand on their own. ... It was more about the process of learning to cook.”

Prior to the pandemic, Matrascia taught traditional Italian cooking classes from her home. With “hands-on” classes on hold for now, Matrascia plans to start up some virtual classes in their stead.

01/15/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQSN4a01OMI&feature=youtu.be

There are Rules, Notes from My Italian Kitchen. Accomplished chef, Lu Matrascia talk about rules and other helpful cooking techniques.

12/18/2020

There are Rules: Notes from my Italian Kitchen

Need a copy or two before Christmas? Get yours at Lo Adoro in East Sandwich. If you want it signed, message Nonna Elena or Nonna Prints and we'll get it taken care of.

12/16/2020

12/12/2020

Working on the next cookbook

PORCHETTA!!!

12/08/2020

Tonight for dinner we had Pesce Piccata made with the grey sole from the Lockdown Seafood Cartel. The recipe is on page 10 of "There are Rules -- Notes from my Italian Kitchen." Unfortunately, most of it disappeared before I could get a picture! I served it with my special coleslaw. There was none available for leftovers.

Elegant, but simple, easy to make, and aside from the fish, you probably have all the components in your pantry right now.

DEEEE-licious!

12/03/2020

A review by Marietta Nilson of There are Rules: Notes from my Italian Kitchen. If you have received your copy, we would love to have your comments, also! What is your favorite rule? Which recipe did you try first? Why?

While the wind and rain stir outside tonight, I am relishing the “good read” of my friend Lu Matrascia’s new self-published cookbook, “There Are Rules: Notes From My Italian Kitchen.” Her spirited ramble through cuisine from Venice to Sicily has me missing my beloved, late Italian brother in law, Bobby Mirando. He brought our Boston Irish family into his Providence Italian family’s passion for their delicious old country classics . We remember the lyrical Italian names of his dishes but his recipes were strictly oral, learned from his mother and his Aunt Liz. Now I can’t wait to get into the kitchen in the morning with my new guide book where everything IS written down with photos and even rules, too. Lu’s details include secrets to each recipe and the recipe titles in Italian. How does one say “joie de vivre” in Italian? Good feeling for a long winter’s night!