On the origin of Nonna Nights...
December 21, 2025
“Man is nostalgia and a search for communion.” - Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude
Early in the fall, Molly, Lauren, and I made dinner at Lauren’s apartment. Lauren made fresh pasta; Molly made tomato sauce; I made meatballs. We ate and drank and kvetched about work and relationships. It was a beautiful, organic collaboration of three friends whose love for food and cooking is shaped by farming and working in restaurants—which is to say, nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary, totally within the realm of possibility on an average weeknight, and also sort of miraculous for those very reasons. Someone called it Nonna Night, offhandedly, and we said we should do it again.
A few weeks later, we did, this time with an added Nonna: Lulu. I made gnocchi from potatoes I’d harvested that morning. The gnocchi turned out fine (I struggle with doughs), but something about that meal inspired us to begin plotting for a bigger dinner party. I think it was the feeling that we all had skills to bring—garde-manger, line cooking, FOH, baking, farming—and that we wanted a reason to use them together. We started sketching out a menu and a guest list on a big piece of draft paper. Every guest was assigned an oil pastel color and we played “seating arrangement”—a fun game for adults. The centerpiece would be three rabbits roasting on a spit over an open fire, and there would also be a paella set beneath the spit, catching the rabbit drippings: our take on paella valenciana. We even found the perfect Alice Waters quote to justify our endeavor:
Cooking a paella outdoors over a bed of wood coals is a magical, festive experience for a gathering of friends. Everyone is irresistibly drawn to the fire by the aromas and the sight of the generous pan of rice, the anticipation is the secret ingredient. I've made paella at all times of year, but the best might be the fall when there's a chill in the air.
We invited Avery into the mix and started planning in earnest.
- Orenna