It began generations ago in Italy with the love of family, friends, and food. Today, old-world traditions are revitalized on Mississaga Street East as the Paluzzi sisters - Lisa Particelli, Gina White and Carla Paluzzi - quietly introduce Orillians to the flavours and aromas of their Italian culture through tre Sorelle, a take-home Italian eatery on Mississaga Street East.

Since opening last November, the pasta shop and catering business has earned high praise from a growing list of loyal customers who have long waited to enjoy fresh pasta, sauces and other homemade Italian delectables.

"I thought Orillia needed something like this, a little shop where you could get your fresh pasta; you can take your take-out Italian food home," says White.

"I find that people are gravitating more to getting their food and going home now; bringing their food to their table and spending time with their family. That's what we're all about."

White and her older sister, Particelli, have come a long way from selling meatballs and sauce at farmers' markets and out of their home kitchens. They turned their dream of one day opening a shop into a reality with their sister Carla and the support of their husbands, brother and parents.

Step into the 600-square-foot eatery that boasts Italian food made simple, and one has the distinct feeling of being in an old Italian kitchen.

Cherished family photos and memorabilia dot the walls and shelves, along with canned tomatoes, jars of antipasto, and favoured gourmet snacks like roasted fava beans and biscotti.

"Our hope was that our customers will gravitate to the back where they can see what we're doing," notes White.

"That's why we kept the open kitchen, so they can see when we're making ravioli; when we're making gnocchi; when we're doing all the pastas."

Recipes handed down by their Nonnas (grandmothers) and great aunts - often in Italian and rarely in typical measurements - are carefully used to produce the most authentic tastes possible.

"The antipasto, I don't even know how old that recipe is," laughs Particelli, pointing to the jars arranged neatly on a nearby shelf.

"My mom has the original recipe and it's not even a recipe, it's like 'a handful of this and a little jar of (that)', all in Italian ...

"When it comes to my grandma's recipes, we want it to be the way she used to do it so we have to follow it, but look at these recipes: the meatball recipe (is) the same thing. 'Two handfuls of cheese'. Whose hand? My grandmother's or mine? It's funny. I like it though. I think it's great."

Reminiscing at one of the shop's two bistro tables, the two sisters talk over each other in their excitement to relay their stories.

As memories emerge, they laugh and savour every morsel of their family's culinary history.

'My grandmother had the traditional basement kitchen and that's where she made her gnocchi and that's where she made her ravioli," smiles White.

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She is the middle daughter of Domenic and Diane Paluzzi."We'd get together as a family - extended family all together - making the big slabs of polenta.

When she made a big batch of pasta we'd all be there to eat or she'd send our own individual portions to our house."

On this day, the aroma of chicken manicotti lazily wafts towards the front door of the intimate shop, where everything is produced from scratch with no preservatives.

Spaghetti, fettuccine and lasagna sheets slide out of the countertop pasta machine and while the hand-cranked gnocchi maker helps the process along, everything else is hand chopped, cut or sautéed.

"My mother still does a lot of the pasta," says Particelli, pronouncing it 'pahsta'."We're really good on our own but she's still in there making raviolis for us. It's a honed skill perfected over decades - and she's quick."

Their father has also taken to making pasta for the shop. While he was born in Abruzzi, Italy and moved to North America when he was 16, their mother grew up in an eclectic Italian Detroit neighbourhood, where many different dialects were spoken.

Her experiences in the close-knit community give her an advantage when determining how to prepare the favourite recipes of Italian customers who yearn for the taste of home. Suppli (rice balls) has become a popular item since a number of people requested it and Diane, never having tasted it, perfected the recipe.

While the small eatery offers two tables for dining in, and a selection of lunch items, the focus is on featuring a variety of prepared dinner entrees to take home each day, such as Italian roasted chicken, veal/chicken piccata, more than five varieties of lasagna and stuffed pastas sold by the pound, meatballs and sauce, Rigatoni al Forno and assorted salads. They also offer a small assortment of baked specialties such as traditional cannoli and Parmesan muffins.

You don't have to be Italian to appreciate the food. Stop in at 132 Mississaga St. E. or call 325-8507 to order ahead.