Nancy Trinca wanted to make her own pasta sauce one more time.
Photo provided
With the help of Connie Head, right, dietary attendant at the Finger Lakes Center for Living, Nancy Trinca, accompanied by her daughters, cooked up a pasta sauce passed down from her Sicilian parents.
With the help of Connie Head, right, dietary attendant at the Finger Lakes Center for Living, Nancy Trinca, accompanied by her daughters, cooked up a pasta sauce passed down from her Sicilian parents.
It had been three years since Trinca, 93, last made her family's Sicilian recipe for sauce. As a resident at the Finger Lakes Center For Living she had been unable to do so.
The sauce is made from tomato puree and paste, then seasoned with salt, pepper, basil and oregano with a few pinches of sugar and a touch of baking soda. Knowing the ingredient list is the only prerequisite to preparing the sauce. No precise measurements are necessary.
“You just do it by taste,” said Trinca's daughter, Joyce Martino.
The recipe was passed down to Trinca from her parents, who were born on the Italian island. It can be traced through several generations of her family. Trinca would make the sauce with fresh tomatoes when they were in season. When Trinca moved to the center, she often visited home with Martino and her other daughter in Auburn, Mary Ann Finn, to prepare the sauce with them.
“It was the one thing she enjoyed doing,” Martino said.
Trinca got reacquainted with her culinary love after Connie Head, a dietary attendant at the center, brought Trinca a dish of sauce with meatballs. After Trinca expressed to Head how much she missed making her own sauce and how eager she was to make it once more, Head had an idea.
“I had always wanted to learn how to make homemade sauce,” Head said. “We talked about how we could make it together.”
Head soon contacted Martino and Finn to help her and Trinca with making the sauce.
On 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, the four collected the ingredients brought to the center by other staff and began preparing the sauce in the center's first floor kitchenette.
“We were all laughing and having a good time, it was our own little party,” Head said.
Martino and Finn did the bulk of the work making the sauce, while Head watched and learned. Trinca, meanwhile, stirred when she could and directed traffic on the kitchen floor.
“We were a little nervous at first that she wouldn't remember the ingredients, but she was tasting it and telling us what it needed,” Head said.
The sauce was served over a bed of angel hair pasta, with homemade meatballs and sausage on the side. Six employees joined the four chefs for the lunch. Even after the last plate was cleaned, Trinca continued to savor her memories of the day.
“She was in her glory, smiling and laughing the whole time,” Head said. “She was talking about it for three or four days afterward.”
Martino and Finn are particularly grateful for Head's role as the catalyst in their mother's nostalgic day of cooking. Head's gesture is even more impressive in light of the fact that Nov. 30 was her day off.
“It was a genuine and caring thing that she did,” Martino said. “She's such a sweet person.”
Staff writer David Wilcox can be contacted at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
The sauce is made from tomato puree and paste, then seasoned with salt, pepper, basil and oregano with a few pinches of sugar and a touch of baking soda. Knowing the ingredient list is the only prerequisite to preparing the sauce. No precise measurements are necessary.
“You just do it by taste,” said Trinca's daughter, Joyce Martino.
The recipe was passed down to Trinca from her parents, who were born on the Italian island. It can be traced through several generations of her family. Trinca would make the sauce with fresh tomatoes when they were in season. When Trinca moved to the center, she often visited home with Martino and her other daughter in Auburn, Mary Ann Finn, to prepare the sauce with them.
“It was the one thing she enjoyed doing,” Martino said.
Trinca got reacquainted with her culinary love after Connie Head, a dietary attendant at the center, brought Trinca a dish of sauce with meatballs. After Trinca expressed to Head how much she missed making her own sauce and how eager she was to make it once more, Head had an idea.
“I had always wanted to learn how to make homemade sauce,” Head said. “We talked about how we could make it together.”
Head soon contacted Martino and Finn to help her and Trinca with making the sauce.
On 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, the four collected the ingredients brought to the center by other staff and began preparing the sauce in the center's first floor kitchenette.
“We were all laughing and having a good time, it was our own little party,” Head said.
Martino and Finn did the bulk of the work making the sauce, while Head watched and learned. Trinca, meanwhile, stirred when she could and directed traffic on the kitchen floor.
“We were a little nervous at first that she wouldn't remember the ingredients, but she was tasting it and telling us what it needed,” Head said.
The sauce was served over a bed of angel hair pasta, with homemade meatballs and sausage on the side. Six employees joined the four chefs for the lunch. Even after the last plate was cleaned, Trinca continued to savor her memories of the day.
“She was in her glory, smiling and laughing the whole time,” Head said. “She was talking about it for three or four days afterward.”
Martino and Finn are particularly grateful for Head's role as the catalyst in their mother's nostalgic day of cooking. Head's gesture is even more impressive in light of the fact that Nov. 30 was her day off.
“It was a genuine and caring thing that she did,” Martino said. “She's such a sweet person.”
Staff writer David Wilcox can be contacted at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
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