If you understand somebody who’s deeply engaged in numerous actions and wields important affect and authority inside a selected sector, you’ll be able to say that she or he has le mani in pasta which accurately interprets to “to have one’s fingers within the dough”.

The expression tasks the picture of an individual who not solely is aware of the best way to deal with the “dough” (representing a enterprise, exercise, or affair) however can even affect how the ultimate product is crafted. It conveys a way of lively involvement, affect, and a hands-on strategy in shaping the end result of a state of affairs or endeavour.

Though this idiom can be utilized in a optimistic context, it usually describes somebody engaged in questionable or dishonest affairs. The reference to the soiled state of 1’s fingers after kneading dough attracts an allusion to being engaged in unscrupulous enterprise. Notably, the Italian adjective sporco (soiled) additionally conveys the figurative meanings of shady or dishonest.

There’s an English idiomatic expression that carefully aligns with the Italian one: to have a finger in each pie. Nevertheless, it lacks the messy imagery of an individual with their fingers lined in sticky dough.