The gargantuan task of preparing a homemade spaghetti dinner for almost 2,000 people starts two weeks before the annual dinner is held. That's when the Ladies Altar Society begins the arduous task of making 3,500+ meatballs - and all in one day!
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Janie Sampolesi shapes her share of the 3,500 meatballs.
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Rosemary Reginelli's capable hands work at warp speed - and have made tens of thousands of meatballs over the course of 40 years in the Altar Society.
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Hundreds of perfectly shaped meatballs await the deep fryers.
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Patty Zieman (foreground) and Anita P. Norcross are in charge of the deep fryers and are experts at knowing exactly when the meatballs are perfectly done.
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It only takes about 8 minutes for the meatballs to cook, around 90 at a time.
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Golden brown, moist and divinely delicious, the next step is allowing the meatballs to cool completely.
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The meatballs are then stored in hundreds of air tight containers and frozen until the day before the dinner.
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Next up - making the dough for the homemade pasta! Over 150 dozen eggs (that's 1,800 eggs!!)...
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...and almost 250 pounds of flour are used to make the pasta dough!
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To make perfect pasta, Cecelia Jasey first kneads the dough - a small amount at a time - over and over until it's smooth and elastic.
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Then Gino Olivi, Bob Mazzanti and other volunteers roll and press the dough into long, paper thin sheets.
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Betty Rossini and Bea Mazzanti lay out the pasta and allow it to dry briefly.
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Then Ida Rossini gathers the delicate sheets, never once letting them tear. Amazing!
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More volunteers put the thin sheets through cutters and viola, spaghetti!
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The spaghetti then dries overnight on dozens of cloth-covered tables.
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