95yr old Rosa makes an easy pasta with stewed peppers and tomatoes! | Pasta Grannies

95-year-old Rosa lives in Grotta Manada in Campania. It's the kind of town where the baker delivers fresh bread to your door, and the countryside isn't too far away. Rosa lives five minutes from her sister-in-law, Angiolina, and sees her almost daily. Angiolina grows special fleshy round peppers, typical of southern Italy, along with lettuce and tomatoes. These peppers and tomatoes form the basis of a chunky vegetable sauce called Ciambotella. To make cicatelli, the local name for cavatelli, Rosa uses around 500 grams of semolina rimacinata or durum wheat flour. She adds about 250 ml of water to form the dough. Granddaughter Rosa is helping. Rosa is very fit, as you can see from the way she kneads the dough. This is because she is a proud housekeeper and does all her own laundry by hand. With the dough made, Rosa makes the Ciambotella. The peppers need deseeding and roughly chopping. She fries the pieces in olive oil with plenty of garlic cloves. Ciambotella comes from the verb ciambutia, which means messed up or confused. Rosa loves tongue twisters and sayings, and while the peppers cook, her family ask her to share her favourites. If you do this, leave the garlic until you actually use the sauce. Rosa meanwhile removes the peppers from the oil and fries some quartered tomatoes. She pours in some homemade passata and returns the peppers to the pan. Rosa brings salted water to the boil for her cicatelli. She takes a slice of dough and cuts strips. She then rolls these out into ropes about 1 cm in diameter. Rosa chops them up into 5 cm segments. To make the pasta, Rosa presses the tips of three fingers into the dough and pulls it towards her to create an open, curved tube. She's so experienced she can do this with both hands at the same time. She soon has enough for a serving and dumps the cicatelli into the water. She gives them a stir to stop them from sticking. They all take around 4 minutes to cook. Rosa adds a little water to stop the sauce catching on the pan base. Another key ingredient for ciambatella is basil. The variety in this part of the world has huge frilly leaves and is very fragrant. She wants everyone to stay for supper. She checks the pasta has cooked enough and then drains it. She ladles in some ciambatella to dress the cicatelli and then ladles over some more on each serving. And I'm the taste tester. This is so, so good. Grazie mille Rosa. Click subscribe for regular helpings of Pasta Granny's and come back next week for 90-year-old Piera's deep-fried tortelloni.