Santina is a cousin by marriage. She was born in Sellia Marina and now lives in Sersale, where she was recently widowed. She has a heart of gold, is a little shy, but kind, hard working, and modest. On this last visit, I stayed with her at her house and she shared her daily routines with me. I learned how she makes minestra this time, delicious!

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Every time I go to Italy, I bring some little gifts to give to the women of the houses I visit. In the past, I’ve brought food, oven mitts, and other kitchen stuff. Last time when I brought heart shaped oven mitts, there were not enough to go around, so when I got home I had to mail a couple more back to Italy.

This summer, I bought 32 kitchen towels for my September trip. I figured I could give two per person, or if things got tight, I could still give people one each. You never know.

So it was about one week before my departure date when one of my little teenaged Facebook cousin-friends from Sersale sent me a message. This was Ilenia, the granddaughter of Santina. She asked;
“My grandmother wants to know if you can bring more of those wooden spoons”
“Wooden spoons??” I wondered,
“Oh wait, you mean those silicone spatulas?”
“Yes yes, those!”
I was very happy to finally get some feedback about what they wanted, it always feels like a shot in the dark.
So as soon as I could, I took all those hand towels back to Target and looked for silicon spatulas. We actually bought all that they had, about 15 I think, all different colors, with two of them being the smaller size.

When I arrived in Sersale, I stayed at Santina’s house. Since she was the one who requested the spatulas, I pulled out a few right away, and I gave her a small one to match the big one I had given her a few years earlier, which she truly cherishes. She told me every time she uses it she thinks of me!
She asked my if I had any more, and I responded “Yes, yes, don’t worry.”

So when Mafalda came over,  I ran and got her a spatula. Santina saw what I was doing and asked: “are you going to save one for Annina?” (Annina is the cousin who later made me Sersalese pasta from scratch, called ‘mparetati)
“Oh yes, don’t worry.”
So when I also took one out for Silvana (daughter of Tommaso Stonato) she looked worried again. You see, I never showed her how many I had. Once again, I told her not to worry, I even had one for her son Daniele’s girlfriend…
I made the rounds, her daughters each got one, Teresa Riccio got one… When I left Sersale, everyone who fed me received a spatula! I had three left, one for Elena Verdolini, and a matching set of two white ones for Lucia in Naples, who is one of the best cooks in the world.
And of course Annina got hers too.
I have no idea what to give my male cousins. Anyone have any ideas?