My Nonny is my Italian Grandmother whose parents moved to America from Southern Italy in the 1920’s. She was one of six children and lived in Wolcott. Nonny was an amazing cook; she was a traditional Italian and made everything from scratch. Being Italian, just about every meal was accompanied by pasta, my favorite! The aroma from the boiling pasta and sauce on her stove brought you to a box seat at the Italian opera. Her sauce was a blend of hand selected tomatoes from my poppy’s vegetable garden, canned tomatoes, caramelized onions and garlic, Italian sausage and ground beef, and a mixture of seasonings that made the sauce a savory treat. There was only one more thing I needed to perfect Nonny’s pasta and sauce; cheese. 

            I called the cheese “Nonny’s cheese mouse”; a blue and white ceramic mouse holding flowers filled with mouth watering parmesan cheese. The eyes had holes to release the luscious cheese. Every meal we had, the cheese mouse attended. I always made sure to get a seat close to the cheese mouse so I was assured I was one of the first ones to get cheese on my pasta. Since Nonny moved into an Alzheimer’s nursing home and no longer cooks, I was lucky enough to take the cheese mouse home with me, and now lives in my refrigerator filled with rich parmesan cheese waiting to be the highlight of a meal. 
 

– NT

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more