Papa’s Knife

The other day I helped a family with their annual passata tradition. I had an ulterior motive: making passata has been on my bucket list for years, and I wanted to learn how they did it.

While we were working, I remembered seeing a Facebook reel about the “Nonno Knife” and thinking it was amusing.

Why are you telling me this, Papa? Well, the Nonno in this operation used a cheap supermarket paring knife.

What do you know? It looks like the reel was true! He was literally using a “Nonno knife.”

So I get home, and guess what? Despite owning a roll of stupidly expensive professional knives (including a $100 paring knife, but NOT a Japanese knife, at least)—the knife I’ve used for most tasks over the last 25+ years is a cheap one I got for free from a kitchen renovation.

Somehow, after all these years, I have a Nonno knife.

But since I’m not a Nonno (yet), let’s just call it “Papa’s Knife.”