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.

Cooking Classes: Pasta

Pasta

Pasta is made from the most simple ingredients--flour and eggs. Join me Monday evening, Nov. 7, from 7 - 9 pm. when we resume cooking classes. I will show you how to transform these two ingredients into the most delectable noodles you have ever eaten! Seriously, if you have never experienced freshly made pasta with a simple sauce you are in for the treat of a lifetime.



We will start with fettuccini, a simple flat pasta delicious with all kinds of sauces or in soups. Fettuccini can be made with a pasta cutter or a rolling pin and knife.

We will also make capellini, angel hair pasta, a very thin delicate pasta that allows the sauces to really take center stage.

Out in the middle of a natural forest deep in the Piedmonte region of Italy, miles and miles away from nowhere, I saw an open trattoria. We only stopped for a drink but they were just starting the lunch service and it only took me one whiff to know where I was having lunch. I was served a gorgeous wild mushroom sauce served on freshly made cappellini! I can still taste the mushrooms and feel the "bite" of that pasta under my teeth--fantastic!

We will also make some ravioli, a simple filled pasta, a little pocket full of heaven.

This class is full of hands on activities because "many hands make pasta easy." If you love pasta and have never made it from scratch please join me. You will be surprised at how easy it is and how much better fresh pasta can be. Bring an apron and your appetite.

To reserve your place in class please email me at: jasabinart@aol.com.
Monday, Nov. 7, 7-9 pm.
Meridian Center
Blackfoot
$15 per person

This Moment...in Italia

The richest moments of life are found when fully engaged in something, lost in the wonder and beauty of an event. Fully present, senses piqued--inundated with sights and scents and sounds--feeling at once apart from and a part of everything! Unable to take you to Italy with me I offer these entries for your exploration.

Benvenuto--welcome to La Traversina, an agriturismo in the heart of Piedmonte.

Our first days were spent at La Traversina, set in the woods high above a tiny village. The house has been in the same family since 1714. Three foot thick walls, stone floors, wooden doors, shuttered windows thick with ivy, draped in lace the house offers refuge, breathes tranquility.

Trees and arbors are hung with candles, an open invitation to linger in the moonlight. Long after the candles have gone out pots of white impatiens hold the light continuing the dreamy scene.

Through the open door, up green marble steps, sloped and worn soft by three hundred years of footsteps, we are on the left.

The "Blue Room", our sanctuary. We wake early to birds and sunlight. Breakfast with people from the world over, share maps, restaurant suggestions and itineraries, then head out to explore the surrounding country. We spoil ourselves with massive lunches, long walks, deep discussions and return to La Traversina for un buon pisolino--a little nap.

The cares of the world, everyday worries and stress from our busy season lift with every exhalation, drift towards the open window, slip through the lace curtain and disappear.


We regroup and refresh in the courtyard with wine and beer, fruit and cookies. RT reads and thinks in the quiet and I move about the farm painting and sketching. We are healing, repairing, returning to our best selves.

Bindweed in Italia!

We have just returned from an all too brief holiday in Italy. I have missed blogging and communicating with you all but we wanted to step out of our everyday lives and really sink into the Italian Experience..."o dio"...did we ever! I have a zillion photos, okay actually not quite 700, and so much to share which I will do as my English language skills return and the jet lag subsides.
We encountered warm beautiful people, traversed incredible country and shared amazing meals. We stayed on a farm in the "Piedmonte", did yoga at sunset with a young man from Nepal, wandered for days in Venice eating in cafes along the canals, drinking in the architecture, art and culture. We hiked through vineyards and olive groves high above the sea, swam in the turquoise waters of the Italian Riviera and stood before DaVinci's "Last Supper". We ate regional cuisine from Piedmonte, Sardinia, Venice, Sicily and Milan. I watched, tasted and consulted with culinary magicians and cannot wait to share recipes, philosophies and techniques.

But..the last of the tomatoes must be harvest and prepared for winter, the peaches are waiting to be turned into jams and chutneys AND we are busy preparing for 30,000 tulip bulbs arriving any day now that must be planted for next spring...so for now, I send you a "Buon giorno".

What's Fresh September 12

Does this Lysimachia "Firecracker" look familiar? Look back to my blog dated August 8 . I did several arrangements with "Firecracker" and at the end of the week I took everything out except the lysimachia. Each week I refreshed the water and marveled at the longevity of this little plant. After four weeks I find it freakishly strange!

The bad news is that we have ended deliveries for the season--the good news is that our good friends at Go-fer it are happy to make deliveries right to your door. This week we are in a bit of an uproar getting ready for tulips and prepping a new greenhouse for rannunculus and anemonies. So my blog this week is down and dirty--photos of flowers right out of the field.

First up: Amaranth "Hot Biscuit"

Bells of Ireland

Blood flower AKA Scarlett Asclepias
and
Sea Oats

Delphinium and orange bits in the front of the bucket are Orange Asclepias

Euphoriba "Marginata"
Seriously this is another foliage plant with longevity. I deliver a bouquet each week to a doctor's office in town. Three weeks ago I made a monochromatic bouquet with this euphorbia, white phlox and Highlander millet. Last week my client asked me to leave the bouqet because it still looked good. This week I did take the arrangement away because the phlox was very tired but the euphorbia, and of course the millet, looked fantastic. Freaky!

Ornamental oregano, yarrow and more delphinium.

"Pee Gee" Hydrangea--we are still cutting "Lime light" and the "Pee Gee" has just started.

Snow berry and Coral berry--we did not cut it back this year and so the stems are branching multiples instead of one long arching stem. I think it is easier to work with.

We are still greeting the dawn with shears in hand and start each day cutting what ever is ready. Due to the prolonged cool spring, the list is surprisingly long. Please check your fax and email for full availability and if you are especially interested in something just call us. We will be happy to send it to you.

What's Fresh September 5

The days are shorter, the nights are longer and cooler and the fields are becoming empty. The grain field on our north side was harvested weeks ago and the potato harvest has begun a few miles south...it is fall. Before it is all over I wanted to share a bit with you.

Such an odd year...it is not unusual to get a second bloom from this clematis, but unheard of to get one so late. It looks fantastic with the ash berries in the background.

We continue to harvest each morning but the pace is much more relaxed--there are fewer varieties to harvest and it stays cooler longer. What a tremendous difference a few days can make, just last week we were scrambling to get everything done before the killer heat at noon.

These rows are just gorgeous...in the early morning it looks as if it has snowed on the euphorbia.

Finally the sunflowers are blooming as they should, they are unstoppable.

Lime Light hydrangea row in full bloom.

Our last view of the sweet peas--I have been putting RT off for a week now--this row needs to be torn down so the ground can be worked in readiness for tulip planting, but they are just so lovely. In the evenings their fragrance covers the farm.

It is unheard of to have sweet peas in late August, a miracle to have them in September!


Ready for delivery tomorrow:

Celosia in multiple color variations--lime green is my favorite.

We also have yellow and orange combinations and fuchsia.

Lime Light Hydrangea--the extended cool period was excellent for this hydrangea. The heads are full, huge and because they have not been bleached out by the sun, are very lime green.

We finally have more suns than we need--surprise!

Hot Biscuit (Gold) Amaranth

We are celebrating the fall season with grasses--we have two new varieties this week.

Lime Light Millet

This millet is very similar to our Foxtail millet except the heads are much larger.

Switch Grass
Not new to us, just new on the truck.

Tapestry Grass

Large golden heads, curiously woven on a strong stem.

Please consult your fax and email lists for full availability.