Fifteen members of a fiery local family descended on a Christmas
in Italy cooking class, getting back in touch with their hometown
and far-away roots.
Fifteen members of a fiery local family descended on a Christmas in Italy cooking class, getting back in touch with their hometown and far-away roots.
Sicilian Maria Luisa Manca teaches Italian cooking, including this holiday feast lesson, at the Community Adult School. But that night in November, Manca was just one of the family.
“She was just like family we hadn’t met yet,” said Gina Elliott, who organized the event. Elliott is the youngest of six siblings, five of them daughters. The five daughters, their mother and nine others took the class.
The six siblings were the product of a marriage that brought together two of Morgan Hill’s oldest families, the Marianis and the Bondis. The Bondis came to Santa Clara County in the 1920s, and the Marianis in the 1930s. The families immigrated from Sicily and Croatia, respectively. The Bondis are known for their barbering in south Morgan Hill while the Marianis are known for their orchards in north Morgan Hill.
All but a few of the family members still live in Morgan Hill. The family gets together regularly for birthdays, graduations, holidays, and ladies nights out. The cooking class was one of the latter.
The family laughed and joked as they nibbled on scacciata, a peasant version of a calzone with broccoli and sausage; baked polenta with mushroom sauce and cheese; and a penne and eggplant timbale, or mold; and four other recipes fit for a feast.
The family ooh’ed and aah’ed at preparation and assembly for each, and took turns helping Manca as she sliced, sauteed and steamed her way through the seven dishes.
The matriarch, Victoria Bondi, sat at the front table, observing. She marveled at her younger relatives’ cooking skill and commented on the dishes being made. She claimed to have made all of them before; her daughters rolled their eyes and laughed good naturedly, as though they didn’t believe her.
It was 16-year old Allie Bondi’s first outing with the ladies of her family. She shrugged when asked what it was like to be in a big, close family.
“It’s kind of fun,” Allie said, smiling.
Gina Elliott said the family has a good time together.
“We are close, and we do enjoy each others’ company,” Elliott said. “We always say we can throw a party at a moment’s notice.”
Between immediate and extended family, the group planned to have more than 40 guests at “the ranch,” the Mariani Orchards and Andy’s Orchard property north of Live Oak High School, for Christmas. They had “a small crowd” of about 20 for Thanksgiving, Elliott said.
Feeding that many is a job unto itself. But in this clan it’s all part of the affair.
Everybody brings something: Elliott will bring a turkey; Bondi, spare ribs and sauerkraut; a brother and sister-in-law, a ham; a sister, Bavarian cream; and on and on.
Dishes from class may resurface at the Christmas dinner, Elliott said. The Bondi women learned dishes from their homeland and were surprised to see the differences, which included copious amounts of olive oil and scant use of garlic.
But they were more interested in the nostalgia in the room than the nostalgia on their plates. Since the Community Adult School is now located at Britton Middle School, courses like the cooking class take place in the home economics room. These lifelong Morgan Hill residents had taken home economics there themselves as youth, when Live Oak High School was housed at the Middle Avenue campus.
The women underplayed any remarkability in the fact that their entire family, save a relative here or there, still resides in Morgan Hill.
“I can’t even imagine not having everyone there,” Lydia Palmer, Gina Elliott’s sister, said. “We’re always doing things together, birthdays, graduation, everything. I have to say, for me, I’ve just had my three children get married. You just can’t imagine not having family there to help you.”
But, they said proudly, their ubiquitousness in the community doesn’t go unnoticed.
“If you’ve seen one of us, you’ve seen us all,” one sister joked.
And if you’ve seen all of them at one time, then you’ve been to a party.
