Pasta Pals

Making pasta in the New World with a hint of Old World Tradition. Meet the ladies of Cipriani's Pasta & Sauce.

By Steve Sanders
Anchor/Reporter

October 8, 2007

Columbus Day -- It's been 515 years since Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. So, on this Columbus day ... we salute some south suburban Italian-Americans who prosper in the New World by giving us Old World tradition.

It's loud... it's windy... and at Cipriani's pasta factory in Chicago Heights... it's all about great food and family.

Eleanor Sinopoli is still standing on the pasta line at age 82. "My mother was a Cipriani."

Eleanor: "When I'm doing it... I don't really talk. We had one here she'd just talk talk talk... and one time I tell her shut up." (laughs)

You'll find no wallflowers here.

Cornelia Johnson/Cipriani's Employee: "Of course I got a big mouth too everybody knows it."

Cornelia Johnson... "Nell" for short. She'll be 80 next month.

Nell: "I get along with these ladies cause they feel like they're my sisters, my aunts, my cousins, all put together."

Carmela Burgio/Cipriani's Employee "Everyone 80-84 I'm the baby. Laughs"

Carmela Burgio is celebrating her birthday this Columbus day.... the "baby" at 67.

By quittin' time ... the Ladies of Cipriani's... with a little help from their friends .... will grab, fold, and toss almost five-thousand pounds of pasta.

Eleanor: "You kinda judge what you need in a bunch and then you kinda just fold it over."

Hour after hour... they stick close to the conveyor belt... snagging just enough noodles to make a nest.

Carmela: "It's a little hard to makea the good nest..."

Their nests get tossed into old fashioned drying racks -made of well worn wood and wire.

John Cipriani/Pasta Maker "We used to have a saying throw it like your hand is burning... you actually have to throw it to open it up."

John Cipriani has been making pasta since he was ten. His parents brought their Italian recipes to Chicago Heights in the 1920's.

John: "We have vermacelli, fettucine, linguini. One of the secrets to the pasta is that we have that old cutter and it makes that pasta very nice and smooth, it has 500 pound rollers in it."

Eleanor says: "John knows just what to do."

John: "It dries naturally by air, and it's the oldest way to make pasta. "

Though he doesn't get much sleep on drying days...

John: "I have to get up every 3 hours when I have a batch like this and I have to turn these racks. "

John has always loved *making pasta. it's the *marketing he could live without.

Annette Johnson/Cipriani's Owner....."love at first bite... yes"

Enter Annette Johnson who bought the Cipriani factory four years ago... and jumped into pasta making with both feet.

Annette: "I'm Romanian, but it happened to be that my grandmother made noodles exactly the same way."

She also hired her mom. Nell is annette's mother... the self- proclaimed big mouth with the Snoopy socks and sensible shoes.

Nell: "I said God I wish Grandma was alive!"

Their teamwork has turned Cipriani's into a million dollar-national brand. Johnson says she owes it all to her loyal employees.

Annette: "They are 100% my success!"

The ladies will be here as long as Annette needs them.

Eleanor: "Maybe I'll work another ten years-big laugh"

So, with the ladies, old Italian recipes, and a couple of Romanians... they're hopeful Cipriani's pasta and sauce will be passed around the dinner table for generations to come.

John: "It might not be Prince spaghetti, or Kraft Foods, or whatever but it's the way to make pasta." CARMELA..."la pasta buonissima!"

Cipriani's got another boost recently when Former Bears Coach Mike Ditka picked the company to make his new line of "Hall of Fame" salsas. A portion of the profits will benefit Ditka's "Grid Iron Greats" program.

For more information:
www.ciprianispasta.com
gridirongreats.org
mdfoodsllc.com