A woman with a hankering for her late nonna’s pasta sauce is offering $500 to anyone willing share their secret sauce recipe with her.
Alexandra Tully, 30, of Alexandria, Sydney, recently posted an ad on Airtasker looking for someone who might be able to help her recreate an important link from her past.
Ms Tully’s listing explained how her grandmother – her nonna – died a few years ago, and that one of the many things she missed about her ‘is the delicious, heart-warming pasta she used to make me.’
Alexandra Tully (pictured) is out to source someone who can teach her how to make a perfect pasta sauce
She continued: ‘There’s something about home cooked, authentic Italian pasta sauces.
‘I can’t articulate the sensation I had with nonna’s pasta sauces, but there’s a warmth and cosiness to it that I can’t recreate myself, nor has been fully achieved at the epic pasta restaurants I’ve visited around inner Sydney.’
‘So, I’m on the search for the best of the best and am offering $500 for your most secret of recipes.
Ms Tully said one of the things she most missed about her beloved nonna (pictured left) was her heart-warming cooking
The 30-year-old Sydneysider is hoping to learn how to recreate her grandmother’s classic pasta sauce (stock image)
‘The task will be to come to my home in Alexandria, spend an afternoon teaching and cooking your recipe with me, so I can share it with my family.’
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Ms Tully revealed that her recent wedding may have triggered feelings of nostalgia for her much-loved nonna’s home cooking.
‘I would always go to Nonna’s place after school and the smell of the sauce as I walked through the door is something I want to recreate for my family,’ she said.
Ms Tully has outsourced the job through the online site Airtasker and the ad has had over 200 responses
So far the ad has had more than 200 responses, with many sharing their own stories of how cooking connects them to their family history.
One commenter wrote: ‘My mum would make spagetti (sic) sauce so the whole street could smell it its not some thing i pass on willingly but my parents past away and i no how much i miss some things mum use to cook that i never learned but one thing i did learn and mastered was the pasta sauce.
‘I hope that the recipe I show you (and any others in particular that you miss from your Nonna) are able to fill you with the magical warmth that these pasta sauces fill me with,’ another said.
While a third was so willing to help out, they even offered to bypass Ms Tully’s $500 fee: ‘I’m sorry I know this isn’t the nature of airtasker – but I’d love to do this for free if this task dosesn’t (sic) work out.’
People everywhere have come forward with their own stories about how cooking connects them to their family history
Ms Tully said she’d been overwhelmed by the many responses to her ad, which appears to have resonated with many.
‘I was expecting four or five replies because it seems like such a niche thing to ask people and I didn’t think so many would relate to my story.’
The 30-year-old explained that her nonna came from the region of Lu in Italy so the sauce she was hoping to recreate would be an amatriciana – a basic tomato sauce which is flavoured with bacon or prosciutto.
Though Ms Tully is hoping to learn how to make an amatriciana she has said she is open to learning how to make sauces from other Italian regions
However, she has said she is open to looking at other regional recipes.
Ms Tully also noted in her ad those chosen to create the pasta sauce must feel comfortable appearing on camera as well as she is hoping to film the session.
The ad closes this Friday, and those interested can apply via airtasker.com/pasta.