I grew up in the era of recipe cards. My mother had a typical recipe box and inside there were what looked like hundreds of 3×5 index cards. All the cards were written by hand in that unmistakable penmanship that only someone educated in Italy can have. The recipes were always named after their source. For instance, Crema di Mimma was the custard recipe from Mimma. There was always phonetic spelling involved or the “Italianization” of an American word. The majority of the recipe card was just a list of ingredients…that’s it. No. Instructions. Needed.

Somehow, I ended up with a lot of these recipe cards from my mother’s box. What a treasure. Some of the cards are old, faded, and food stained, but they are beautiful reminders of a time long gone. Reading through the cards, I could vividly remember my mother using them. Even though she probably knew the recipe by heart, the card was always sitting out on the counter for reference.

One of the recipes that will forever stick out in my mind is the one for “Sponge Cake”. I remember it not necessarily because of the recipe itself, but because when this cake finally made its way into the oven, the kitchen was essentially off limits. There was no jumping, heavy walking, or breathing near the oven. Even thinking of opening the oven door could get you disowned. When the cake was finally taken out of the oven, an intricate cooling system was put into play. Three or four espresso cups were placed on the counter and the fluted pan was VERY CAREFULLY inverted and balanced on the espresso cups. The cake had to remain totally undisturbed until it was completely cooled. All of this was done to ensure that the cake could be successfully removed from the pan without deflating or falling apart. Hence the reason that I have never attempted to make this cake myself. Too much pressure.

I recently came across my mother-in-law’s recipe box. She, too, was an amazing cook, and one of my favorite recipes of hers was for Castagnole. These are basically balls of dense dough that you deep fry. They are usually eaten before Lent at Carnevale or Fat Tuesday. Some people sprinkle them with powdered sugar. My mother-in-law made a mix of equal parts honey and whiskey ( powdered sugar is for sissies) that was heated to a syrupy consistency and then poured over the Castagnole.

The recipe is pretty straight forward. The only modifications I made were: I used a cup of milk instead of a “water glass” and I fried them in vegetable oil..no Crisco. They tend to flip or roll over as they fry. I fried them on medium high heat until they were dark golden brown all over. For the syrup, I eyeballed one part whiskey to two parts honey (feel free to improvise to personal taste) and warmed it over medium low heat until the honey dissolved.

The use of recipe cards may well be a thing of the past. The internet and sites like Pinterest provide every recipe imaginable at the touch of a button. But there is something very special, and definitely nostalgic, about reading that 3×5 card and following the recipe (instructions optional).