WASHINGTON POST: Nonna-maxxing, living like an Italian grandmother, serves up a recipe for la dolce vita

As they roll fresh orecchiette at a bakery in southern Italy, Grazia Incampo, 90, and Teresa Calia, 88, look more like lifelong pasta makers than social media stars.

The best friends, who have known each other since they were children, have become unlikely wellness influencers for “nonna-maxxing,” a social media trend that celebrates living like an Italian grandmother: always having a friend nearby, throwing away almost nothing and finding countless uses for olive oil.

The craze, which has simmered like delicious ragu for months, also centres on home-cooked food, time spent gossiping together, light activity like tending heirloom tomatoes and, importantly, embracing the aging process.

Short clips on social media show Incampo and Calia singing and laughing as they create oversize dishes. In one video they attempt to “cut” their alcohol intake, with Incampo frantically snipping with scissors as Calia pours a generous glass of wine.

Curious about their outlook on life and newfound fame, we spoke to some Italian nonnas and experts about their best tips for la dolce vita.

Home-cooked food made with love

Incampo and Calia are the brains behind the traditional recipes at Antico Forno Santa Caterina in the town of Altamura in southern Italy. The pair have amassed legions of fans for their cheeky humour as much as their giant servings of pasta and breads laden with fresh cheese, meats, tomato and olive oil.

Their lightheartedness and passion for food shows why nonnas have captivated the internet and been deployed to charm crowds of tourists with their presence.

Bakery co-owner Giacomo Barattini — a distant relative of Incampo’s — said he sought her advice on preserving traditional recipes for bread, focaccia and cookies, and showcasing the authentic Italian dishes the region had to offer.

“I like homemade pasta very much,” Incampo told us as she sat under a cool arch preparing lunch for the following day, “always made with our own hands.

“Bread, too! One should never lack good bread. Even (when) it’s old . . . it’s delicious. We don’t throw anything away, we’ll make use of it.”

Susanna Mills, a National Health Service consultant in public health and a clinical fellow at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, said the post-war generation typically had a stronger connection to the food they eat, with people more likely to grow, wash and cook their own vegetables.

The benefits of home-cooking are well documented, as it tends to be lower in sodium, saturated fats and proportioned smaller than restaurant or takeout food.

For Elda Sirizzotti, an 86-year-old nonna who moved to Toronto from Italy in 1966, homemade food is non-negotiable.

“I like to feed people,” Sirizzotti said in an interview.

Her granddaughter, Alessandra Requena, runs her website and social media accounts where Sirizzotti dishes out tips including how to keep strawberries fresh and prepare snails to eat.

“Once you have potato, flour, oil, you have everything. You can make anything you want,” Sirizzotti said.

Her diet consists of everything from pasta to beans, lentils, potatoes, vegetables and meat — food restrictions are out when nonna-maxxing.

Sirizzotti uses traditional recipes from the Ciociaria region outside of Rome, which were once used by her own grandmother to make dishes like gnocchi, lasagna and tomato-based sauces.

This approach is something Requena has absorbed into her own cooking, where she focuses on ingredients including dried pastas, home-canned tomatoes, eggs and seasonal vegetables.

She uses these to make Italian-style dishes such as pastas, frittatas and sautéed vegetables — and said her nonna would always make a minestrone soup for clearing out unused produce at the end of the week.

“Making your own food is so much easier and more accessible and healthier when you understand the basics of that kind of Italian cooking,” Requena said.

Social connections are key

Strong social connections are linked to health benefits, feeling happier and even lowering the risk of cognitive decline, with research showing that people are often happier being with others.

Incampo and Calia seem to be the embodiment of this, holding court in the bakery on everything from love to health problems for those who drop by.

“They never watch TV and they never stay alone,” Barattini said.

“They talk about happiness, they talk about love, they talk about everything and they teach us the life philosophy everyday.”

Incampo said she advises families to love and care for one another and that “we should always carry on” — even if the younger generation doesn’t want to hear it.

“Nowadays it is difficult (to advise) youngsters on what to do to have a long life as they won’t even listen to their parents, or anyone else,” she said.

“You need to work, listen to your parents, grandparents too, aunts and uncles. We do provide them with a few tips.”

Work hard, but enjoy it

Staring into the Tuscan countryside and lightly tending an herb garden looks dreamy, but make no mistake: Most nonnas laboured hard throughout their lives, and still do.

“I like work,” said Sirizzotti, who moved to Canada at age 26 and raised three children while working various jobs, including making shoes, in a stockings factory and in a care home.

“When I move here . . . I fly, like a bird,” Sirizzotti said about the transition from postwar Italy.

“We didn’t have so much . . . no English, no house. It was very hard,” but “I was happy”.

Sirizzotti tended a garden plot and raised chickens, lambs and other animals.

Now at 86, she starts the day at 6.30am watering her garden and drying herbs for the winter months.

For exercise she walks and gardens, activities known to challenge your brain, reduce stress and stave off cognitive decline.

Requena said this discipline and drive, rather than romanticised notions of life in rural Italy depicted online, is a key element social media can overlook.

“If there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that actually maybe you need to inconvenience yourself a little bit more,” she said.

Embrace aging as a privilege

It’s perhaps no coincidence that images of older women enjoying themselves, indulging in food and spending time in nature have become aspirational on social media where filters, skin care regimens and wellness trends proliferate.

Becca Levy, a professor of public health and psychology at Yale University who has studied how beliefs about aging can impact health, said the nonnas are a refreshing antidote to the view that older age is a time of inevitable decline.

Levy’s research has found that exposure to “positive age beliefs” can lead to physical and psychological benefits.

Sirizzotti said she has “no complaints” about her health and is happy with her independence and life.

“I like the way I am,” she said. “I do everything for myself, for my grandchildren. I walk, I go to the store, still I drive.”

Her tips include a good pair of shoes and quality olive oil to be used on everything: food, face and skin (she goes through at least 1 liter per week).

“Whenever something not good for you, wash your face and go outside,” she said.

Incampo’s advice is equally succinct: “Problems are everywhere . . . Don’t worry, they are always sorted out.”

Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report.