Nonna Silvi’s recipes: 5 unbeatable ideas

With his video recipes, in less than a year he conquered Tik Tok and Instagram, bringing the business of his son Marco and his two grandsons – the Martini oven of Castelfiorentino and Montelupo, in Tuscany – to an unimaginable reputation, in Italy and abroad. So much so that, for example, while its new e-commerce Grandma Sylvie – alias Silvana Bini, 83 years old next March – debuts in the last few days with “pastry and savory products made exclusively by hand by her and our partners, with the portrait of her grandmother on the packaging, which we will quickly send all over Europe” – like the nephew Gabriele, 27 years old – it’s already time to think big. “We have been contacted by an American investor and we should soon enter large-scale retail in the United States, but we are also moving towards opening a bakery in New York». Not to mention the other projects: Nonna Silvi’s cooking school in San Giminiano, the space that already exists in Giallo Zafferano, the Tuscan product brand Art of Italy…

And to think that it all started by chance, last January, when Gabriele had the idea to publish the first video of Ms. Silvana in the kitchen on the company’s social networks. A triumph: “She is successful because she is a nice grandmother who cooks delicious and simple dishes.” As for her, she doesn’t care too much about all that: in the new book The recipes of a lifetime (De Agostini, 21 euros) tells not only the dishes that accompanied her in the various phases of her existence – divided into chapters – but also her personal history intertwined with that of the country. It started in Montespertoli, a stone’s throw from Florence, in 1941, in “a poor family consisting of a grandmother, mother, father and seven brothers during the war”. Of which he speaks of joys and “great hardships, working night and day,” as he says Vanity fair, always discovering himself. A book that we recommend reading not only to cooking lovers, but also to anyone who has the desire to discover or remember the last 80 years of an Italy that – especially today – is good to keep in mind. Recipes are included, obviously, like the five below.

Octopus and rocket carpaccio

“My daily cuisine is a land-based cuisine, based on meat and agricultural products, but over time I learned to appreciate fish, which, for obvious reasons, was never on my table as a child. This recipe was taught to me by my nephew Gabriele, who every now and then finds new recipes for me to try. I like to prepare it especially in the summer, when it’s hot: it doesn’t take long to prepare, the time is almost all cooking and resting. The only condition is that the octopus is nice and fresh.”

Friday 30 minutes
Cooking 1 hour and 30 minutes
Rest of 1 day
Difficulty •••

Materials for 4 people • Fresh octopus 1 kg • Celery 100 gr. • Carrot 1 • Onion 1 • Lemons 2 • Rocket 100 gr. • A dozen olives • Parsley 1 bunch • Extra virgin olive oil • Salt • Pepper

“Clean and wash the octopus or better yet buy it already cleaned from your trusted fishmonger. Then run it under running water, being careful to scrub it to remove any dirt. If it is tough, you can soften it with meat tenderizer. Wash the celery, peel the carrot and the onion, put them in a large pot of water and let them boil. When the water boils, add the octopus. Boil for about an hour and a half, covering the pot with a lid. Once cooked, drain the octopus with a colander and cut into pieces. Take a large plastic bottle, cut it in half, put the octopus inside and squeeze it. Make a few holes in the bottom of the bottle so that the water can flow in between. Now cut the top of the bottle to the height of the octopus and cover everything with plastic wrap so that the octopus stays pressed. Let it rest in the fridge for about 24 hours. The next day, remove the octopus from the bottle, helping yourself, if necessary, with scissors. We place it on a cutting board and cut it into very thin slices, possibly with a slicer, otherwise with a knife. Wash the parsley and chop it. In a bowl, squeeze the lemons, remove the seeds, add the oil, salt, pepper and parsley. He messed up. Prepare a bed of washed and squeezed arugula on each plate and arrange the octopus slices on top. Finally, pour over the oil and lemon sauce and complete the dish with a few olives.”

Gnudi with spinach