A band of “pasta grannies” in Italy who have achieved worldwide fame with their handmade products have gone on strike after they were targeted in police raids.
The women have been celebrated on television and social media for their traditional practice of making orecchiette, or “little ear”, outside their homes in the medieval alleyways that make up the historic heart of Bari, a port in the southern region of Puglia.
But police conducted a series of raids this week, alleging that some of the grannies have been selling commercially produced orecchiette that they secretly buy from retailers and then pass off as homemade to unsuspecting customers.
Officers seized dozens of bags of pasta and other merchandise, including taralli, savoury biscuits made from flour and water, fining three of the women 5,000 euros each for fraudulent commercial activities.
Of *course* someone would cash in on that fame. That’s just how humans work. The only questions are who and how many?
gone on strike …… well yes, that’s one interpretation of why their output of “hand made” products has fallen to zero.
Disappointing story really.
I thought that they might at least have been a front for the Mafia who run that part of the world… What are they called ‘Ngaiomarsh, or something ?
If the raids had uncovered hundreds of brand new Serbian M10s in their larders, I would have been unsurprised.
I’m not actually sure there is a mafia over there. Well, obviously, there is, there’s one everywhere (as in criminal gang doing a bit of extortion, drug dealing, ripping off local council contracts etc – in Liverpool we used to call it Militant) but Mafia, correctly, is Sicily, Camorra is Naples, N’Dragheta is Calabria (the toe of the boot) and Bari, over on the heel/ankle, dunno.
Altzheimers is terrible. Fancy forgetting to bribe the local cops.
Was sure there was one. My missus always said that Bari was well dodgy, but then she was a huge snob about the South.
Looked it up and there is the Sacre Corona Unita which is based in Foggia. Easier to pronounce than N’aomiklein.
Holidaying in Sicily 40 years ago, having got friendly with an old, very well preserved lady of dubious connections (it was rumoured) I was unsurprised she thought there was a tie-in with the EU among the local mafiosi regarding a huge, unfinished housing estate…
Bari is the big neighbour north of Brindisi and you can make pretty reliable assumptions about a person on their preference for Bari or Lecce.
The USC referred to by Otto is much written about but seems more of a prison-gang for the local ne’er do-wells.
Those locals with a poor opinion of Lecce will often point the finger at the Anti-Mafia commission there as being significantly bigger villains than any they actually arrest.
What’s the actual crime here? Some rich twats paid double the supermarket price and probably went back for more. What’s the difference between this and a fashion house slapping their logo on a pair of sunglasses from the same factory that makes them for Boots?
‘worldwide fame with their handmade products’
Journos struggle with scale.
Otto,
I think you’re getting confused with N’aomiwolf.
Gamecock,
It’s more that they’re famous because of YouTube videos. There’s a channel about them with a million subscribers. And you then get a tourist industry. Like people going to eat in Rick Stein’s overpriced restaurants.
Oh Jimmers can you imagine how bloody the shootouts between the two gangs must be ?
Not as good as this one
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyg59yn10mo