I hate both of the people in this discussion.
One more than the other?
How about the Italian grandmother in the equation too?
Oh damn, I just made myself hated for asking that now too, didn’t I?
There is this nice little book by Alberto Grandi that looks at the history of Italian cuisine and finds out that many of those “old food traditions” were invented after WW2. It’s really a great read if you want to talk a look behind this italian food snobbery:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250227-is-there-no-such-thing-as-italian-cuisine

Me, on the lookout for fascist nonas, as I break my spaghetti
Uh… Lotta people in not Italy with Italian grandmothers are in not Italy because their Grandma fled fascism.
She was a child… But what does that have to do with spaghetti anyway?
My Italian grandpa escaped a Nazi camp and brought his wife and my mom to America. Now I need to escape my family back to Italy. Funny how that worked out
hello distant relation i would like to join you on your emigration please and thank you. i promise to buy a large enough pan i don’t have to break my noodles
Or make your own spaghetti [ o_O or noodles ] fresh.
Cook spaghetti in long cylinder instead, problem solved
Your wish is granted. Pasta Express Pasta Cooker As Seen On TV Recipe Book NIB 2005 by Tristar Product | eBay https://share.google/xl0DVkeuThct1uyY9
how much for an ass seen on the internet shrek pasta extruder
or maybe in a loaf pan? they make one that goes on the burner, right?
You need to escape your family? What makes your family so terrible?
Gonna guess fascists.
Parading the body of Mussolini through Italy by his ankles.
It’s 2025. There’s barely a person on Lemmy whose grandma’s were more than 15 years old in the early 1940’s.
My grandma was born in 1929, grandpa in 1926, so they’d be 97 and 100 next year, and were approaching their 20s in the 40s. But that’s just me. I’m not even 40. There are plenty of people on Lemmy over 40, 50, 60. 😛
Most people here are under 40.
Your grandma was only 16 when the war ended, so she didn’t do a thing in it.
Most kids are born before their parents turn 30, so for most people who are currently 40 years old their grandparents were too young to fight in the war.
Even if you’re grandma was older and your grandparents could have did anything in WW2, you’d still be in the minority for “most people on Lemmy”.
I am thirty. My grandfather fought in WWII. Just because I’m in the minority doesn’t mean we don’t exist, let alone that generalisations are valid.
My generalizations are perfectly valid, because they’re completely true. YOU are not most people, or most families. You are in a very large minority here, by being over 29, and being so young but had a grandpa who fought in the war. You’re well below 5% out of the federation here.
*Final note to add: I specifically said (along with the original post) “grandma’s”. Not grandpa’s. So your pawpaw fighting in WW2 isn’t any validation as a sound argument. An old man will marry and have kids with a young woman. It seldom goes the other way around.
Do you have evidence for these bold claims? I’ve seen many people in this thread alone who are evidence against all your claims, and yet your generalisations, supported here with no less than five claims and zero evidence, are supposed to be compelling? Also, you blaggard, my grandmother was three years older than my grandfather.
Get thee gone.
Most people here are under 40.
Uh huh, uh huh. But you didn’t say that at first.
You said:
There’s barely a person on Lemmy whose grandma’s were more than 15 years old in the early 1940’s.
And I’m saying there’s plenty of them. Especially since the older you are, the older your grandparents are/would have been then. And I said I’m not even 40. So for those who are 40 and up, their grandparents would likely have been even older.
I just think you exaggerated a bit in your first take, that’s all. And that’s fine.
some families just have spread out generations, too. my bio family has 5 generations in the same span my wife’s has 4. i’m the second oldest of the grandchildren on my side of the family, my wife is the second youngest of the great-grandchildren on her side of the family.
Sure, but 5 generations isn’t exactly an average situation. Maybe not even 4. So on average I still maintain my assumption that there are plenty of people here on Lemmy with grandmothers who were older than 15 during the early 40s. ✅
5 generations in 120 years is unusual?
I thought you meant you have 5 generations alive right now. That’s unusual. 4 is less unusual but also not the majority, I imagine.
But yeah, that’s not what you meant so nevermind. 👍
7 would be unusual, 4-6 seems normal
Your grandma was only 16 when the war ended, so she didn’t do a thing in it.
that’s a pretty big assumption. my wife’s grandfather enlisted in the navy at 14 during WW2
Americans love to pull up this kind of bullshit, but it really falls even flatter after 2024. You can’t do “nazi bar” rhetoric while you have an unmarked militia disappearing people off the streets and doing fuck all about it
Normalize scrolling past threads unrelated to US politics if that’s all you want to post about.
Man, this meme sure was spot on…
What if she ain’t Amewican?
Nah. Only Americans have Italian grandmothers.
I personally don’t break spaghetti, but a friend of mine once asked what difference it would make for taste and consistency, and i didn’t have an answer.
From the cooking standpoint: none. But it might make a physical difference, since shorter spaghetti are hard to roll up on a fork, and might hold sauce differently.
I have answers for both, Pasta cooks according to thickness, not length. If breaking the Pasta allows it to be submerged entirely, it will only aid it in cooking evenly.
Next break a fucking donut in half and ask if that changes the flavor.
Yeah, but it feels wrong.
Valid, I’m not gonna tell you how to feel and I want you to do what feels right.
like pasta, i guess it depends on the donut. like, breaking an eclair in half the wrong way so all the bavarian custard falls out. that would make me sad and change the flavor (too much salt)
If it fits in the pan, no break
If it doesn’t fit in the pan and you don’t have a tall pan, break
If you have a tall pan, and you have no compulsion or impairment preventing you from enjoying full length noodles, get your fucking life together what were you thinking trying to break the pasta like that?
You don’t have to break it. Just place it in the boiling pot and slowly push down on the pasta. It starts to go soft faster than you think.
They don’t taste different when you break them
Me too
Full-length noodles are a pretty severe trigger for me, ever since…well. You know.
i thought we didn’t talk about that, calvin
If he didn’t then we wouldn’t know.
Shooting fascists and risking everything for liberty. We should all follow her example. That also means you don’t break the pasta.
Didn’t we fight fascism for the freedom to not give a fuck about “conservative” and “traditional” “values”… most of which are based on nothing more than opinions and feefees?
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because of any specifically fascist culinary habits.
Broke spaghetti last night while cooking for dinner. I also threw it against the cabinet to make sure it was done cooking.
I have a toddler so cooking “rules” go out the window for laughter.
I also threw it against the cabinet to make sure it was done cooking.
So you don’t have a mouth?
I don’t. I absorb spaghetti via osmosis.
just because your have a toddler doesn’t mean you have to cook like one
Lmfao… Maybe I’m actually 3 toddlers in a trench coat.
this is lemmy where the epitome of cooking is garlic and onions
Grandma was supporting fucking “gugu gaga” movement in the 1940, did you think she was born in fucking 1918?
People’s average age is about 44 in Italy, while a generation in the second half of the 20th century lasted about 29 years there.
So for two generations:
44+2*29=102So the grandma of the average Italian would have been 17 years old in 1940 and thus was not born in 1918, but in 1923.
No “gugu gaga”, but still quite young.
On average.Mine was born in 1939, definitely in “gaga gugu” age at the time, and she’s considered old as grandmas go. When talking to someone somewhere around my age (the likes of which I’m more likely to have a conversation, especially about cooking), I can expect their grandma to be less than a decade older than mine. So still very young at the time.
My grandmas were bom in 1914 and 1908.
So together with your value, 1923 sounds somewhat realistic.
I am not Italian, tlough. :-)1915 and 1907 here, and I’m mid 30s
How old are you? I’m late 30’s and my dad was born in 1943. Not sure when my grandma was born but she must have been in her twenties when she had my dad, because he’s the youngest of five. So there are definitely people in their thirties or forties who have a Italian grandmother who actively supported the fascists.
Your dad had you in his mid 40s which is pretty late to have a kid, especially the further back you go. I’m early 30s and my grandmother was born in '46
Sure. I didn’t say it’s common. Just that someone who is in their thirties or forties and have a fascist supporting Italian grandma surely must exist.
My Italian grandmother taught me to break the spaghetti. Also, my Italian grandfather fought for the Allies in WW1, coming to the US in 1923 the last year before the xenophobic, 1924 anti-immigration bill was passed essentially cutting off immigration. He came with his pregnant sister through many trials on a long boat cruise to re-unite her with her husband who was already living in the US. So by 1940 my Italian grandmother was supporting the US where she had lived for over a decade. Please do not make assumptions about people’s Italian grandmothers.
BTW my grandfather was a bit of a bad-ass, he served in the Arditi, Italian shock-troops who specialized in explosives and close quarter combat with edged weapons. He taught me to shoot a rifle when I was 7!









