Gabrielle
Hamilton is the founder of Prune restaurant in New York. I was there once, with a date. I read her memoir during lock down. Ms. Hamilton is now married to a woman but was married to an Italian-born male doctor at Weill Cornell Medical College when she wrote the book. It is divided into three parts. In the third part, she talks about the visits to her in-laws in Puglia, the southernmost eastern region of Italy, the “heel” of the boot.
Some sections bring to mind a Luca Guadagnino film. Carmeluccia, the family housekeeper, teaches her how to make orecchiete (little ears) and minchiareddhi, the iconic pasta from that region.
Ms. Hamilton explains it in detail: “[The minchiareddhi or] “little penises” she makes by pressing a common knitting needle down into the pellet and using it like a rolling pin until the dough has closed into a tube around the needle. Americans would never recognize the shape as a penis, because of our obsession with circumcision, but anyone familiar with the unmaimed ones —in their unaroused state— will see it in an instant. These two shapes, she explains, are typically made together and served together because they share a cooking time.” Or because of their whimsical, complimentary and copulative shape? When served as one dish with a ragù, Italians call it I maritati: The Married. Soaked in that heavenly gravy, these homemade gluten-full sexual organs melt in your mouth. It’s quite tasty.
—New York City by Ms. Hamilton, 2/16/2021