BOOK

Two portraits of Sora Lella, born Elena Fabrizi in Rome in 1915. She was the sister of the great actor Aldo Fabrizi but before being an actress, she was a successful cook and restaurant owner. She opened her first trattoria in Campo de’ Fiori, then on the Isola Tiberina

ROMA STORY

THE RECIPES OF SORA LELLA

A NEW BOOK TO LEARN ABOUT THE STORY AND THE RECIPES OF THE LEGENDARY ROMAN COOK WHO ACHIEVED IMMORTALITY AS AN ACTRESS IN TWO OF CARLO VERDONE’S FILMS UN NUOVO LIBRO RACCONTA LA STORIA E LE RICETTE DELLA LEGGENDARIA CUOCA ROMANA CHE CARLO VERDONE HA RESO ANCHE IMMORTALE ATTRICE IN DUE SUOI FILM text Teresa Favi

Elena Fabrizi, also known as Sora Lella Elena Fabrizi, alias Sora Lella, è is one of the most beloved characters uno dei personaggi più amati del of Italian cinema. She was the sister of cinema italiano. Ma lei, sorella del the great actor Aldo Fabrizi but before grande attore Aldo Fabrizi, più che being an actress, she was a successful attrice fu cuoca e ristoratrice, tanto cook and restaurant owner. The tradi- da rendere celeberrima l’omonima tional restaurant that bears her name trattoria sull’Isola Tiberina nel cuoon the Tiber Island in the heart of re di Roma, che oggi è gestita dai Rome is still very popular and today is suoi quattro nipoti: Renato, Mauro, run by her four grandchildren: Renato, Simone ed Elena. Mauro, Simone and Elena. Proprio da loro, con l’aiuto di FranIt was thanks to their idea, with the cesca Romana Barberini, nasce il help of Francesca Romana Barberini, primo libro sulle ricette immortali della Sora Lella. Annamo bene. La recipes of Sora Lella was published. cucina romana di Sora Lella, edito Annamo bene. La cucina romana di Sora da Giunti ripercorre la storia della Lella published by Giunti narrates the leggendaria trattoria che si intreccia history of her legendary restaurant intertwined with the lives of her THE HISTORY a quella della famiglia e soprattutto della Sora Lella, una vera e propria family, especially Sora Lella herself. OF THE ICONIC Loved by everyone, she achieved national popularity playing the part of the outspoken but good natured grandmother of Carlo Verdone - who TRATTORIA IN THE HEART OF ROME, SINCE 1959, nell’immaginario collettivo Carlo Verdone la prefazione) attraverso due sue indimenticabili pellicole Bianco Rosso also signed the preface of this book - in BY FANCESCA e Verdone e Acqua e Sapone. France Bianco Rosso e Verdone and Acqua e Sapone. ROMANA BARBERINI sca Romana Barberini insieme ai racconti dei nipoti e alla storia narThe book by Francesca Romana Barberini includes stories rata da Aldo Trabalza from Sora Lella’s grandchildren and the story told by Aldo Lella e storico chef e gelataio della trattoria - nel suo Trabalza – their father, son of Sora Lella and renowned chef libro riporta anche le ricette of the restaurant – in his book as che tutt’ora continuano a fare la fortuna del ristorante. well as a list of the most famous recipes that still contribute to the enormous success of the restaurant. con un estratto del libro, e per le ricette, - divise in ca pitoli e associate a cinque prodotti tipici della cucina with the inclusion of an extract from the book, while for the capitolina (l’abbacchio, il carciofo, il quinto-quarto, il pecorino romano e il guanciale) - vi rimandiamo alla

COVER STORY

products of Roman cuisine (lamb, artichoke, offal, pecorino romano and pork cheek) - we recommend referring to the source. Giuseppe Fabbrizzi – the family name used to be written with two Bs and two Zs – was a carter, with his own horse and cart. […] Her mother, Angela Petrucci, ran a stall in Campo de’ Fiori. Mum was the youngest of six children, difference of ten years between my uncle Aldo and my mother. Growing up in poverty, Sora Lella did not have an easy childhood: she became an orphan at the age of two when her father fell ill with pneumonia after falling into a ditch with his cart and died a few days later. [..] Her brother Aldo quit school to stay at home and help his mother take care of his sisters, especially the youngest, becoming like eventually became one of the greatest Italian actors and was them away from the entertainment business, or at least trying in every possible way. Meanwhile, Sora Lella and her husband Renato had started their own restaurant. Lella in particular was fascinated with that world and would have loved to be an actress herself, but even after getting several in the restaurant’s kitchen. […] My parents opened their for the “Cooperativa trasporto carni”, a meat cooperative of fonte. seppe Fabbrizzi (una volta il cognome era con due B e due Z) era un carrettiere, con tanto di carretto e cavallo. […] La madre, Angela Petrucci, aveva lei un banco a schio, il più grande e cinque femmine. Tra mio zio Aldo e mia madre c’erano dieci anni di differenza. Quella della Sora Lella è un’infanzia povera e per niente facile: rimane orfana a due anni, quando il padre, dopo una caduta in un fosso durante un trasporto, si ammala di polmonite e muore in pochi giorni. [...] Il fratello Aldo lascia la scuola per aiutare la madre e prendersi cura delle sorelle, soprattutto della più piccola, diventandone così un padre putativo. […] Poi arriveranno gli anni italiani, e potrà prendersi cura della madre e della sorella che da poco avrà iniziato insieme al marito Renato la sua attività di ristorazione, tenendole sempre lontane dall’ambiente dello spettacolo, o cercando di farlo in tutti i modi; soprattutto Lella, affascinata da quel mondo e che vorrebbe fare disperatamente l’attrice, e che padre Renato era facchino della “cooperativa trasporto carni” del Comune di Roma […]. Mia madre […] cucinava molto bene tutte le cose che mio padre rimediava

On the Tiber Island, Trattoria Sora Lella is still today one of the capital’s most unmissable informal tourist destinations: to reserve a place, you have to put in at least a month’s wait. It has been frequented by, among others, Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sergio Leone, Lina Vertmüller and Richard Burton

ROMA STORY

AS WELL AS A COOK, SHE WAS AN ACTRESS AND IN 1984 WON A DAVID DI DONATELLO FOR A FILM BY CARLO VERDONE OLTRE CHE CUOCA, FU ATTRICE E NEL 1984, GRAZIE A UN FILM DI CARLO VERDONE, VINSE UN DAVID DI DONATELLO

the Municipality of Rome […]. My mum […] was very good at cooking all the things that my father brought back from work. All couriers at that time were able to “come by” meat cuts, intestines, sweetbread, tripe, tail and so on. […] The restaurant was doing well even if the war was raging. They had many customers, including many of my father’s oldest friends; they had all grown up together in the Trastevere some relationship issues [...] until they solved their problems Tiber Island. […] I chose the name “Trattoria Sora Lella”. […] The restaurant continued to dwindle though. The Tiber Island was not a popular location among the locals and only a few tourists visited it. […] Renato and Elena […] held on and kept working hard [...] One evening they saw four gentlemen come in who seemed to be curious about the restaurant. […] My mother walked up to their table, greeted them and told them that she had prepared a sauce with minced meat, dried porcini mushrooms and some chicken giblets. One of them was Giorgio Bini, a professor of ichthyology, journalist and gourmet food critic and connoisseur. […] The professor said that if our cuisine was always that good, our problems were going to end soon. He started referring a lot of people to us and all of them, after eating at our place, would in turn send other people to us. We started to feel hope. One night, there was a journalist from the “Oggi” weekly magazine along with a group of people. After eating, he called my mum and told her that he wanted to write a piece about her and the restaurant for his magazine. A photographer came a couple of days later and took a nice picture of my mother in front of the blackboard where we wrote the dishes of the day in chalk – we still keep it in the dining room. As soon as the article came out, it was a success, so much so that for a couple of evenings, we were extremely busy: we did not know how to serve so many people at the same time!”.So, the real great protagonist of this story is her, Sora Lella. And, as Carlo Verdone says in the preface: “We will always love her for showing us real humanity and the great dignity of a simple common woman whose face was and will always be one of the most authentic expressions of Rome in one of the best periods of the history of this city”. al lavoro. Tutti i facchini allora “rimediavano” ritagli di carne, coratella, animelle, pajata, coda e così via. […] Il locale andava bene, anche se eravamo in piena guerra, venivano tanti clienti, tra cui tanti amici di mio padre, i quali erano cresciuti insieme; erano tutti Trasteverini (abitanti del quartiere Trastevere). Della prima trattoria le cose iniziano ad andare male tra Elena e Renato, […] toria dell’Isola, all’Isola Tiberina. […] Il nome fu scelto da me: la “Trattoria Sora Lella”. […] Il locale continua a non andare bene, l’Isola Tiberina è un luogo per nulla frequentato dai romani e pochissimo anche dai turisti. […] Renato e Elena […] tengono duro e vanno avanti, […] una sera entrarono quattro signori mostrando un con carne macinata, funghi porcini secchi e qualche rigaglia di pollo. Uno di loro era il professor Giorgio che se quella era la nostra cucina, non avremmo avuto un sacco di gente e la gente, dopo che aveva mangiato da noi, ci mandava altra gente. Si incominciava a vede giornalista del settimanale “Oggi”. Dopo aver mangiato, sulla rivista, dedicato alla trattoria e a lei. Dopo un paio a mia madre davanti alla lavagna che ancora abbiamo in sala, con i piatti del giorno scritti con il gesso. Uscì l’articolo, fu un successo, tant’è che un paio di sere andammo nel pallone: non ce la facevamo a servire tanta gente, tutta insieme!”. La vera grande protagonista di questa storia, dunque è lei, la Sora Lella e, come dice Carlo Verdone nella prefazione: “Le vorremo sempre bene per averci mostrato la vera umanità e la grande dignità di una semplice donna del popolo il cui volto è stato e sarà sempre una delle espressioni più autentiche di quella Roma dei tempi migliori”.