The Pasta Mammas

This is Howard and Velia. Velia is one of my best friends and meeting her really changed my life. Nearly ten years ago Velia was greeting folks at Walmart when I asked her if she would teach me to make pasta. (The only thing I knew about Velia was that she was Italian, lived in Pingree and that she and her family made pasta.) A few weeks later she called and told me to go out to St. John's and help make pasta. She said she had to work but I was to tell everyone I was her friend and they would sort me out.
My husband Ralph is from Pingree, that explains a lot if you know Pingree and if you know Ralph. He went to school with Velia's children and so I asked him to take me out and be my introduction.
St. John's is a small log chapel, built on land donated by Velia's father-in-law, built by just about everyone in the community. It was a-buzz with energy and the sound of food processors whirring. After a brief introduction I was put to work and Ralph lit out. He returned for me in an hour but I was loathe to leave. Returning early the next day Velia was there and she put me to work in the kitchen with Annzie.

This is Annzie and if you are very lucky, you will meet her.

Annzie is Velia's aunt, she is not quite five feet tall, works tirelessly and was nearly ninety when I first met her, she will be 99 this March. She taught me how to mix the dough and that is what I did for the next several hours and have done for the past nine years. Every November I get a call from Velia, "Honey, we're making the noodles, can you come out?"

Making pasta is really simple but on a large scale it takes many hands. There are several steps (the dough is handled fourteen times) so the chapel is divided into work stations and everyone pitches in.

It all starts in the kitchen with the eggs. Last week we turned 600 eggs into 128 pounds of fettucini. RT cracked all the eggs and many of the jokes.

Muriel and I stand side by side and man the food processors, mixing the eggs and flour into dough for pasta.


After the dough is mixed up (step one) it is kneaded and then it rests allowing the gluten to form. (Gluten is created when flour is combined with liquid--in this case eggs.) In twenty minutes the gluten has begun to form and the dough is kneaded again, lengthening the gluten strands. Long gluten equals long silky pasta.

Marlene (in the photo above) and Rosemary have kneaded dough for the past two weeks, it is the hardest job, but they joke and carry on and make it look effortless. It is NOT--it is a back-breaking, wrist-aching job!


Annzie checks the dough and moves it to the next station where she divides each batch of dough into equal portions. Each portion is dusted with flour, shaped, flattened with a rolling pin and then handed off to the rollers.


The first roller, usually Howard, puts each portion through his pasta roller on the widest setting, making each portion about an eighth of an inch thick. Howard sends his portions to the next person whose pasta roller is on a medium setting. The pasta now resembles a long oval and has been lovingly handled six times and is much thinner.

The second roller hands off to a third roller and the pasta becomes the perfect thickness and is ready for hanging.

Last year RT was a "second roller" and Velia's grandson, Jeff, on the right, was a "third roller".

As sometimes happens with "boys" rolling turned competitive--RT and Jeff were really trying to out "crank" one another! Which was great because there is a lot of dough to roll but Ashley, the blur in the background, was really running to keep up.

It was her job to hang the rolled pasta on the racks to dry a bit before cutting. (Actually, I was shooting with out a flash so my camera extended the shots, capturing the motion. I love these photos because they really caught the energy and vibe of the day.)

When the dough dries to a leather-like consistency it is ready for cutting. Last year we tried an electric cutter attachment--it rolls at a constant speed and no one has to turn the handle, leaving the operator two free hands to catch it. A good cut and a good "catch" is essential for the next step (that's ten, if you're counting).

Marion is feeding the dough into the cutter and Velia is catching and transferring the noodles to a wooden dowel for drying.

A good cutter feeds the dough in evenly and a good catcher receives the freshly cut noodles with an open flat hand, between the thumb and forefinger--no grasping or grabbing. Ideally, the dough falls into the hand with no overlapping noodles and then is easily transferred to the drying racks. If the noodles overlap and are compressed onto each other in a clumsy "catch" the pasta "hangers" have to untangle them. (I am an excellent catcher--and usually catch and hang after I have finished mixing dough.)


The "hangers" literally hang each noodle on a wooden dowel--each noodle must be hung at its middle and can touch, but not over lap.

The noodles dry into the evening until the night shift--the poor souls that live nearest and have the most experience--return to move all the noodles from the racks to the tables. It can take days for the noodles to dry completely so they are frequently checked. Finally the pasta is ready for weighing and packaging, steps thirteen and fourteen!

The noodles are featured at the holiday bazaar fundraiser held at St. John's Catholic Church the first Saturday of December. There are other items for sale, homemade pies, Italian bread and cookies, candies and hand crafts. An excellent lunch is available too and the chicken noodle soup is made from free range chickens and some of the handmade noodles. The doors open early but purchases are not allowed until the noon bell rings when there is a dash for the packages of pasta. One of my jobs has been to restock the pasta packages and I am often done long before all the lunches have been served!

If interested, you are all invited out to St. John's, Saturday, Dec. 3. Doors open at noon and lunch is served until just before mass at 5:00 pm. St. John's is in Pingree, head out highway 39, pass through Rockford and continue out about five more miles to Sheep Trail Road--seriously--for the past three years I have had to wait for sheep in November--turn right and you will see a little log chapel on the right.