Nonna Dora's

Addolorata Marzovilla, or Nonna Dora, has been making pasta for about 70 years. After emigrating to the United States in the 1970s when she was 34. For several years she worked as a seamstress to support her family which was a familiar setting for her as she had been working in factories since she was in the fifth grade. After her children grew to adults in the United States her son, Nicola, opened an Italian Restaurant where she offered her pasta making skills and “left the needlework for noodles.” Her expertise in making Puglia-style pasta has given her the nickname “the pasta machine.” Nonna Dora is the first thing you see when you walk in to i Trulli, working at the family restaurant five days a week for five to six hours a day hand making pasta. Some of the more popular pasta dishes she makes include orecchiette, cavatelli, and malloreddus. Dora came to the United States from Puglia where she learned to make pasta from her mother, mother-in-law and sister; her whole family, really. Nonna Dora’s favorite dish at the restaurant is Orecchiette with rabbit ragu because it’s native to her home region of Southern Italy. ““My life is better... My husband passed away 30 years ago and to stay by myself — it’s not good,” she told The Daily Meal. “I get out, I come over here, I help my son, I am happy.” Nonna or not, we all deserve great noodles in our lives.”