My pot lid holder is called Mr. Large Foldback Clip. He came from Staples. His identical siblings seal cellophane bags and keep the tubes of toothpaste and anchovy paste rolled up. Sometimes they have a family gathering where all 4 of them hold parchment in place on a sheet pan for baking cookies.
I have my mother’s unmarked pepper mill, probably from Germany and about 80 yrs old. Small carved-out wooden barrel, with a steel grinding mechanism that still does a perfect job on fine grind, which is the only way Mom used it. It might be possible to adjust for a coarser grind but I don’t want to risk breaking something. I had a grandfather who carved. He died when I was an infant; it’s possible he made the mill.
this is my Great Grandma Anna’s Chitarra. She emigrated from Abruzzi in the early 1900s leaving her beaux and her beautiful mountain fortezza hometown for marriage to an older Campagnese Man in the Bronx. but this must have come later. Perhaps a relative brought or sent it. It sits on a shelf in my kitchen with his tin cafe neopolitano but I have yet to make Maccheroni alla Chitarra but i will. Before this surfaced i had bought my mom a new one from Fante’s they are remarkably similar but this is nickled cast iron the modern one is cast aluminum. For scale it is 21 inches long.
Yes. You have to roll the sheets of pasta first. presumably by hand although I am sure I can use the atlas, the press them through the strings with the roller. The metal plate slides out. There are different thicknesses on each side. The resulting pasta is square in profile. Mom says when she was growing up they would cover a bed with plastic to lay out the pasta and would make it all day for the Easter feast.
OMG those old Italians kept everything immaculate, squeaky and polished I am sure there was not a grain of semolina left as evidence but personally sleeping in a bed with the lingering essence of freshly made pasta does not sound too bad
Been trying to make the style you have, tho they keep cracking. My latest is cut into 1/4’s and I need to re-assemble…here’s the start process before going to dry:
Quite cool, however, and a cultural heirloom to boot.
