TikTok’s Nostalgic ‘Strega Nona’ Trend Is the Stuff of our Witchy Kitchen Dreams

The story and style of Strega Nona

An Italian-inspired retelling of a German folktale, Strega Nona is an award-winning children’s picture book series written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. First published in 1975, the story revolves around its titular character – the name means ‘Grandmother Witch’ in Italian – who uses a magically refilling pasta pot to feed the townspeople of her Calabrian village, aided by her assistant, Big Anthony. One day, Big Anthony botches a spell to halt the cauldron’s pasta-making, and instead, an avalanche of pasta is unleashed upon the village, but Strega Nona arrives in the nick of time to save the town.

Like a witchy take on TikTok’s Coastal Grandmother aesthetic, it’s no surprise Strega Nona has taken off on the social network as one of fall’s trending styles, with one user’s tribute to the character garnering over 300,000 views. Brimming with dreamy illustrations of her pottering around her countryside kitchen, making mounds of spaghetti and preparing potions, the book speaks to both the inner child and adult in many of us. After all, who could ever say no to pasta and magic?

1. Combine earthy colours with jewel tones

As seen in the Strega Nona illustrations, the colours are mostly warm and earthy with a splash of semi-saturated jewel tones for a mystical quality. Build your base palette with terracotta, cream and woody browns in larger areas such as walls and cabinetry, then add accents via knickknacks in tones like turquoise, amethyst and jade.

3. Add a large pasta pot and saucepan (or five)

It simply wouldn’t be a Strega Nona kitchen without a deep, cauldron-sized pasta pot taking pride of place. And if one is making pasta, one must also consider the sauce. Scatter or hang several saucepans and wooden spoons – all the better to prepare a spicy spaghetti alla puttanesca or creamy cavatelli with green sauce – and you’re well on your way to feeding the townsfolk (or, you know, yourself).

5. Find magic in the imperfect and mismatched

Forget perfectly symmetrical setups. The magic (pardon the pun) to the Strega Nona look is in letting things be a little odd and mismatched. Try placing differently shaped and sized pots together, clustering kitschy, patterned tableware in a corner and putting your cookbooks (or spell books…) in a delightfully haphazard stack.