The origin of the Sorrentinos: the "nona" who invented the recipe, the first restaurant that offered the dish and the relationship of the two families who share the credit

A painting behind the counter reproduces a legend in Italian. The same frame, clear and delicate, is transcribed in the translated letter. It is a diploma of decoration and recognition, pride and inspiration of a motto. He said: "This house has been distinguished by the Lions Club and the municipality of Sorrento, Italy, for the dissemination of the culture and gastronomy of the Sorrentine Peninsula in our country, having been designated" the only one and unique sorrentine in Argentina "." Distinguish what is the Trattoría Napolitana Véspoli, the restaurant that wants to be the first sorrentin of the country.

Sorrentíng is a term related to Sorrentinos, a type of pasta and a nice one. Chief David Veltri, president of the Association of Italian Chiefs of Latin America (Associazione Cuochi Italiani in Latinoamerica), compares them to a "hat": large and round, they stand out from clbadic ravioli, its filling can combine cooked ham and various cheeses (the traditional recipe) with modern culinary improvisations mixing ricotta, vegetables, chopped nuts and capresse.

"In Italy, the Sorrentinos are the people who cross Sorrento," he confirmed Pablo Barrenechea, administrator of the local gastronomy, after having affirmed that the Sorrentinos are an Argentine invention. He is 66 years old and is married to Patricia Véspoli, political niece Argentino "Chiche" Véspoli, mentor of the first Argentine house to serve dishes in Sorrentinos.

To tell the story of Sorrento is to venture to the fate of culinary origins. There is an inclemence in the registers, a bibliographic gap in the genesis of a legendary formula. The abstract and null reference of the plates allows the myth. The root of Sorrento counts with a dose of fantasy, but Pablo, "infiltrated in the trattoria" in the sense of the definition given by Chiche, has reliable evidence that the first dish of Sorrentinos was sold on the national territory.

Francisco Saverio Véspoli arrived in Mar del Plata in 1887. He came with his family and was born here to Argentino, his only born son in the country. They returned a few years to Sorrento until they finally settled in the spa town in the early twentieth century. They founded a hotel where they fed their guests: they were born in the hotel business until they turned to gastronomy. They settled in the neighborhood of La Perla: first on Plaza España, then in the 25 de Mayo street and finally on February 3, 3154, for four decades. An 80-year-old grandfather had lunch at the store a few days ago. Pablo reminded him, as an anecdote to determine the validity: "It is a senior who got up, she approached me and said:" I am a retiree of the Vespola, they m 'n fed when I was a law student.' "The other day," he added, "we had a dinner of sixty graduates from the National School of Mar del Plata: they were preparing a trip to Bariloche as if it was a trip for graduates, this kind of thing is going on here inside. "

There are four generations of memories and customers. No reliable testimony proves the reliability of the motto of the Trattoria: the unanimity of the guests and the popular acceptance serve as a foundation. Just as there is no certainty, there are no questions either. Trattoría Napolitana Véspoli is a gastronomic emblem. The Italian magazine presents walls: the Amalfi Coast, Naples and a dive for Italian complement each other with the open kitchen – forbidden in the city with exceptions for historical preservationism as in this case – and the treatment of fresh pasta. It is a kind of cult of Mar del Plata: they visited it, without protocol or promotion, personalities of the caliber of Joan Manuel Serrat, Mercedes Sosa, Fito Páez ("He called us by telephone to know if we could to receive after the recital, at two o'clock in the morning "," stressed Pablo) Guillermo Vilas, Carlos Menem and Carlos Reutemann, among others.

Pablo Barrenechea described the first Argentinean house of the people of Sorrento: "Now we are surrounded by buildings, but we keep our old style.From, it looks like a house … Inside, you end up with a little bit of Italy: almanacs brought back from there, old photos, posters, redecorated walls with kneading sticks, we keep the physiognomy and the philosophy of the place ". He first replied that the secret of the native Sorrentino was only that, secret; Then he confessed: "The Sorrentino is made with VAT, the added value we give to work, the love we give for what we do. "

Pablo Javier Junco created the blog Old photos of Mar del Plata, recognized by the municipality through the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism. It is mentioned that the first Sorrentine is from the Véspoli family and that the recipe is the property of the Persian family. Infobae I'm speaking with Emilia D & Andrea, responsible for the Persian pasta factory, located in Tucumán 3174, Mar del Plata. It is the fourth generation of the lineage, daughter of Susana Persian, granddaughter of Don Cayetano Pérsico and great-granddaughter of the creators of the round raviol. Rafael Persico and Rosalía Ruocco lived in Sant Agnello, near Sorrento. They emigrated from Europe with an uncertain destination: first to New York, then to Mar del Plata. In 1927, they settled permanently in the country: Cayetano was then seven years old. He grew up and got married with "Porota". They had Susana, Horacio and Elena. Sunday was the family table and the fresh pasta. The "nona" Rosalía had unknowingly patented an authentic recipe: segmented the dough with the edges of a glbad and closed them with the teeth of the fork.

"My great-grandparents were the first ones to come, they did it at home, by hand, they did it first with the glbad and the fork, then they carved a wooden mold for them. do with a characteristic form, which is not smooth, They sold them at the restaurant, many people came directly to their homes to buy them, "said Emilia, who shamelessly declared that the Sorrentinos were a real family recipe. "Everyone tells me that it came from here. My mother tells me that at home she ate them already when no one knew themHe said that the Sorrentins had more than a century of history.In 1978, Cayetano Pérsico with his daughter Susana and son-in-law Miguel D & Andrea founded the first store with a sale to the public. remembered that the first day Blocks of tail and difficulties to normalize a product which did not exist until then.

In those years, the new and definitive house of Trattoría Napolitana Véspoli was also inaugurated. This was not a coincidence. The two families had emigrated from the same Neapolitan city and shared their experiences in a flourishing Mar del Plata. Cayetano Pérsico worked at the casino with Torcuato and Rolando Véspoli, the first owners of Trattoría. The story in the legendary version recalls that the Vespoli brothers frequented the house of the Persians, where the "nona" Rosalía prepared delicious round ravioli. There is no competition in the Sorrento's credit. Each family reserves a different merit: the recipe and the first place to sit down and eat them.