Strega Nona is a children's book written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola about a elderly witch who helps her fellow villagers out with their troubles, most notibally by curing headaches, helping single women find husbands, and ridding of warts. This article is part of the Witchcraft series. ...

Story

The story begins with Strega Nona, due to her old age, seeking help from someone in both outdoor and indoor chores. The first to respond to her advertisement is tall, clumsy Big Anthony.

Strega Nona assigns Big Anthony to various chores around her house, but she also warns him not to touch her magic pasta pot, an enchanted pot that produces pasta at the command of a spell. In the middle of one of his chores, Anthony spies on Strega Nona conjuring pasta from the pasta pot. He also watches as she commands the pot to stop producing pasta. Anthony does not observe Strega Nona blow three kisses after commanding the pasta pot to stop producing pasta. Pasta is a type of food made from flour, water, and sometimes eggs, which is mixed, kneaded and formed into various shapes, and boiled prior to consumption. ...

When Strega Nona spends a day to visit her friend Strega Amelia, Big Anthony uses the opportunity to spread the news of the pasta pot and serve everyone pasta. However, because he did not know how to properly stop the pasta pot from producing pasta, the pasta continued to flow, flooding the town with pasta.

Fortunately, Strega Nona returns from her visit and commands the pasta pot to stop producing pasta, blowing three kisses after issuing her command. Big Anthony ends up having to eat all of the pasta that flooded the town as punishment for disobeying Strega Nona.