Pasta-making grandmothers in the Italian city of Bari have staged angry protests this weekend after being accused of passing off factory products for hand-made delicacies.
Famous for the ‘orecchiette’ or ‘little ears’ they sell, a type of pasta traditionally shaped by hand, an army of women line the streets of the city’s old quarter, making the food as tourists watch.
The city has seen a boom in tourism thanks to via dell’Arco Basso, known as ‘orecchiette alley’, where pasta is made in people’s kitchens, dried and displayed on wooden trays outside their homes.
But the tables where the local nonnas usually work the dough and sell their wares stood empty on Saturday, with production stopped as part of a joint ‘revolt’ against criticism of their practices.
Italian news site Quinto Potere has led a campaign against what it labels the orecchiette ‘fraud’, claiming mass-produced pasta is sold alongside artisanal food …