Mama Grimaldi: Part 1

Shortly after my recent visit to the Catalan village where my guitarist friend Andrea Grimaldi baked an ecstatic slew of great pizzas, he and his family took off on a trip back home to Italy. He's been sending me back photos of his mother's cooking, and I consider them semi-religious relics.

In the 90s, when I often taught and played in Spain, Andrea was legendary among his generation of musicians for his great cooking, but the highlight was when Andrea returned from trips home. A chunk of Barcelona's music community eagerly awaited his arrival, along with kilograms of food prepared by his mother, the legendary Mama Grimaldi.

Mama Grimaldi became a legend for those of us lucky enough to taste Andrea's precious cargo. The black madonna of Montserrat perches atop a mountain overlooking Barcelona, offering her protection. No less significantly, Mama Grimaldi's excruciatingly scrumptious parmigianas inspired a generation (she's apparently a cooking legend even in her home village, where few grandmothers are slouches in the kitchen).

As I said, Andrea's been kind enough to send me some photos from his trip, currently in progress. I'll be publishing them here. Please expand every single one to full screen (if you don't, bad things will happen to you).

Mama Grimaldi's gnocchi with tomato, basil, and mozzarella

Parmigiana

Cannelloni

"One of the best ice cream places in my village." [note: one of the best!]

Note: This is the first time, to my knowledge, that Mama Grimaldi has consented to be publicly revealed...exclusively for Slog readers. These are our cannelloni.

Continue to part 2