美国国家公共电台 NPR Malfatti, The Dumpling That Became A Napa Valley Legend

Malfatti, The Dumpling That Became A Napa Valley Legend 

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Of course, we all know the wine in Napa Valley is famous. But there's a local delicacy² there you don't want to miss. Lisa Morehouse has the story.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)

JOANNE CITTONI: Dad, how many malfattis do we have?

LISA MOREHOUSE, BYLINE³: At Val's liquor store in downtown Napa, there's a large industrial kitchen where the Cittoni family is at work.

CLEMENTE CITTONI: Tell them to come and bring the container.

MOREHOUSE: At the center of the scene is the patriarch Clemente Cittoni, who moved here from Lake Como, Italy, in the 1960s.

C CITTONI: And I'm still cooking at the age 78.

MOREHOUSE: After sauteing onions, spinach⁴ and a few other ingredients, Cittoni combines the mixture in a grinder before adding cheese and eggs - no measuring necessary.

C CITTONI: (Speaking Italian). A pinch here, a pinch there.

MOREHOUSE: Then the whole family gathers at a butcher block, pinching off bits of filling, rolling the dumplings by hand.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Hey, bello, how you doing?

MOREHOUSE: Ray Guadagni's a retired⁵ judge and lifelong customer.

C CITTONI: (Speaking Italian).

MOREHOUSE: He grew up nearby in Napa's Little Italy, and he's become an amateur historian of the neighborhood. He explains it this way - in the 1860s, young, single, Italian men coming to work on the railroad lived in boarding houses here. Then, people fleeing a nearby natural disaster.

RAY GUADAGNI: It was a devastating⁶ earthquake to San Francisco in 1906, and that led to a lot of migration⁷ here.

MOREHOUSE: For decades, the town of Napa remained blue collar with people working in factories and orchards⁸.

GUADAGNI: A lot of people were poor and didn't have money to go to dinner that often.

MOREHOUSE: But when they could, they visited the pride of Little Italy, the Depot⁹ Restaurant, opened in the 1920s by Theresa Tamburelli. As a little boy, Gaudagni fetched takeout there.

GUADAGNI: My mom would send me to the back door with a pot.

MOREHOUSE: A pot from her own cupboard and a note.

GUADAGNI: It would say the ravioli and the malfatti. And they would take it and bring it into the kitchen and...

MOREHOUSE: ...Fill up the pot and send little Ray Guadagni back home with dinner and a sloppy¹⁰, wet kiss from the cook, Clemente Cittoni, who, by then, had taken over kitchen duties from Tamburelli.

C CITTONI: The lady that teach me was Mrs. Theresa Tamburelli. She's the one invented the famous pasta. It's called malfatti.

MOREHOUSE: Now, it's hard to prove malfatti was actually born here. Italy's Lombardy region boasts an oblong green gnocchi malfatti. And in Siena, they make gnudi, little balls made of ricotta and sometimes spinach. But Napa's malfatti benefits from a great origin story. A visiting baseball team planned to eat at the Depot Restaurant.

C CITTONI: Poor Mrs. Tamburelli, she forgot the reservation. So lucky she made extra filling of the ravioli.

MOREHOUSE: Clemente Cittoni and Ray Guadagni explain with too much filling and not enough dough¹¹, she rolled finger-sized dumplings.

C CITTONI: Like little meatball.

GUADAGNI: Looked like sausage or something. And that she served instead of the ravioli.

C CITTONI: She made a mistake so she name it malfatti.

GUADAGNI: Meaning it's a mistake or poorly made. People loved it.

MOREHOUSE: And malfatti became as ubiquitous here as spaghetti and ravioli. When the Depot Restaurant changed hands and the new owner cut corners, Cittoni quit. That's why he's making malfatti on his own terms out of a liquor store. It's an echo of a vanishing working-class Napa now better known for posh restaurants and expensive vacation homes. Cittoni says he won't live forever, but he hopes malfatti will.

C CITTONI: Hope my daughter and her family, they keep going because otherwise, Napa Valley going to miss a hell of a good dish.

MOREHOUSE: And miss that lesson that a mistake can become something legendary¹².

For NPR News, I'm Lisa Morehouse in Napa, Calif.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 delicacy   

n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴

参考例句：

• We admired the delicacy of the craftsmanship.我们佩服工艺师精巧的手艺。
• He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 spinach   

n.菠菜

参考例句：

• Eating spinach is supposed to make you strong.据说吃菠菜能使人强壮。
• You should eat such vegetables as carrot,celery and spinach.你应该吃胡萝卜、芹菜和菠菜这类的蔬菜。

5 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

6 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

7 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

8 orchards   

（通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园，把平地变成了粮仓。
• Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。

9 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

10 sloppy   

adj.邋遢的，不整洁的

参考例句：

• If you do such sloppy work again,I promise I'll fail you.要是下次作业你再马马虎虎，我话说在头里，可要给你打不及格了。
• Mother constantly picked at him for being sloppy.母亲不断地批评他懒散。

11 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

12 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。