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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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Love it, love it, love it. I miss those pasta nonnas!
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