Nunzia Caputo is a famous pasta maker in Bari. She started making pasta when she was five years old. Her grandmother stopped her from playing outside. The grandmother said, ‘You must learn to make orecchiette.’ Orecchiette is a special kind of pasta. It looks like small ears. This pasta comes from Bari, a city with a big port.Nunzia cried at first. Her first pasta was not very good. But soon she learned how to make it well. She learned to make the pasta dough into long, thin rolls. Then she cut small pieces from the rolls. She used her thumb to make each piece into the special ear shape.Nunzia is now 67 years old. She has made pasta every day since she was young. She is part of a special group called ‘pasta grannies.’ These are old women who make and sell pasta. They work on a street called Via dell’Arco Basso. This street is in the old part of Bari.In the past, this street was dangerous. People would steal from others there. Now it is very different. Tourists love to visit. They like to see the pasta grannies work. They also like to see clean clothes hanging from the balconies. This has made the street and the women famous.But now there is a problem. In August, police officers came to the street. They were not wearing police clothes. They took away lots of pasta and pasta-making tools. They said some women were doing something wrong. These women bought pasta from factories. Then they said it was their own homemade pasta.The police gave three women a big fine. Each woman had to pay €5,000 (about £4,400). The women were very angry. They stopped making pasta. They blocked the street to show they were unhappy.The police started looking into this problem last year. They wanted to know if the women really sold factory pasta. More tourists started coming to Bari after Covid-19. Many tourists came from big ships that stop at the port. Some tourists thought the women were not honest. They made videos about it and put them on the internet.

Part 2

The police found empty boxes from factory pasta. The boxes were in bins outside the old town. Some women had bought pasta from factories. They put this pasta in clear plastic bags. Then they sold it as their own homemade pasta.Nunzia Caputo is still very famous. She teaches people how to make pasta. She travels around the world to show people about orecchiette. She knows many famous people. The TV chef Jamie Oliver is her friend. She once met Pope Francis and gave him some pasta. She has pictures with important people on her walls.The police did not fine Nunzia. But she was very scared when they came. She said it felt like they thought the women had guns or drugs, not just pasta.The pasta grannies helped each other after the police came. But they also have problems with each other. Most women don’t want to talk about the investigation. But one woman said she did sell factory pasta. She said, ‘Yes, I got a fine. But I had to do it. Too many tourists wanted pasta. I couldn’t make enough by myself.’She also said it’s too hard to make pasta for all the tourists. She said, ‘Look at them taking photos of me like I’m in a museum. It was not like this before.’Pietro Petruzzelli works for the city government. He said they like the pasta tradition. But he said, ‘They cannot sell factory pasta. They must follow the rules. We are making sure they do this now.’The problems might not be over. A man called Gaetano Campolo started the investigation. He runs a company called Home Restaurant Hotel. This company helps people find home cooks. He is angry with the city government. He says they should not make tourist attractions that are not legal.Campolo said, ‘This is dangerous. It is not fair to honest people who follow the rules.