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Now That's Italian: 1955

1955. "Opera singer Ezio Pinza and his wife Doris at home cooking a family meal with their children; the family enjoying a candlelit meal in their dining room. Includes the family making pasta." Photos by Kenneth Eide for the Look magazine article "Ezio Pinza's Old-Country Food Goes American." View full size.

1955. "Opera singer Ezio Pinza and his wife Doris at home cooking a family meal with their children; the family enjoying a candlelit meal in their dining room. Includes the family making pasta." Photos by Kenneth Eide for the Look magazine article "Ezio Pinza's Old-Country Food Goes American." View full size.

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The bowl

The green bowl is Fire King jadeite, very collectible. You could purchase them separately or in a set of three, graduated sizes.

Hey! I've got that machine too!

I thought from the shape of the pasta, they were making cappelletti. But cappelletti has meat in it.

Doris must have not been Italian. My grandma wouldn't have used a machine to roll out the past'. That's why she had arms and shoulders like a wrestler.

And Peter, if your machine is messy, your pasta dough is too wet. The only thing you should have to do is shake or brush out the flour. Try running a piece of bread through it.

Inquiring minds want to know

Never used a pasta maker so excuse me if I'm missing something obvious: is there a reason (other than the what looks like the sheer fun of it) to 'output' such a long ribbon of pasta at once? Seems like it would be easier to handle if shorter lengths were used; looks like it has to be cut into at least three or four pieces just to fit on the table. Chefs?

Pinza names

Such a nice picture of a remarkable artist and his family. Curious, I researched their given names. Clockwise, they are: Ezio Pinza, Doris (nee Leak), Clelia, Gloria, and Pietro.

Pasta machine - oh yeah

I have the same rig. Instructions (istruzione) came in Italian - ha! I'm Italian and can't speak a word of it. Good thing my parents can because I would have accidentally made drywall plaster or shingles had I winged it.

Some Enchanted Evening

But Family Style, no strangers in sight. Wonderful voice.

Still the same machine!

I just recently purchased (from a restaurant supply house) a pasta maker that is almost identical to the one in this picture. The hand-operated device is secured with a suction clamp to the edge of a counter or table to keep it from moving during the procedure (hence the position on the Pinza table).

After flattening the dough to the proper thickness, they have cut it into squares, filled it with ricotta cheese, folded them into little triangles, and placed them on a tray ready to be dropped into a pot of boiling water, and cooked.

BTW - it was NOT considered "unmanly" at that time for men to wear an apron in the kitchen. My dad always did when he helped mom.

Not much has changed

It may be true that Technology Marches On in most forms of human endeavor, yet the pasta machine the Pinzas are using looks identical to the ones being sold today. Now, if someone could invent a pasta machine that isn't an absolute nightmare to clean, well that would be a big development!

Ezio Pinza was born in 1892 and was 62 or 63 in this photo, within a couple of years he would be dead. Doris was 26 years younger than her husband, making her only 36 or 37 in the picture, though she looks quite a bit older than that. She lived until 2003.

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