A Journey called "Pasta"
A jump into the past, discovering the oldest pasta making family in the world
By Museimpresa
da Pasta Cuomo
Pasta CUOMO - Albero Genealogico (1699-2020) by SILVIO DE MAJOMuseimpresa
Cuomo's family tree
Cuomo's was one of the most important pasta making family in Gragnano since the very beginning. The first ancestor who started the pasta business was Michele Cuomo in 1820.
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Via Roma: the street of the wind and pasta factories
At the end of XIX century, on Via Roma, where the wind allows the pasta drying process, there were 100 pasta factories. Today Pasta Cuomo is the only pasta makers family that still operates in the old iconic area.
Pasta CUOMO - Nicolino Cuomo in a photo (1855) by AnonimousMuseimpresa
Nicolino Cuomo
Nicolino (1804-1885) was the ancestor who pushed the mechanical revolution to the pasta factory and the mill. He was mayor of Gragnano for ten years (1850-1859) and changed the face of the city, carrying out urban transformations in favor of pasta factories.
Cuomo pasta factory and the mill map
In the beginning the distribution of the spaces of the mill was different from what we can see today. In fact, the map shows a very structured system that preserved all the open spaces to take advantage the ventilation to dry as much pasta as possible.
Pasta CUOMO - Invoice De Blasio to buy the Pasta factory machines (1899) by Pasta CuomoMuseimpresa
1. Purchase invoice of machinery from the Pasta factory,1899
The Cuomo industrial pasta factory was founded in 1899 as shown by De Blasio invoice. Nicola CuomoII, the mayor's nephew, decided to invest in extreme industrialization, which led him to purchase new machinery for a larger steam pasta factory that could serve the US market.
Hydraulic press for long shape of pastas
The hydraulic press had a capacity of approximately 60 kg and had a vertical movement always powered by belts and wheels. It was called hydraulic because it exploited the flow of hydraulic oil to develop the compression force by making the pasta come out of the bronze die.
Pasta CUOMO - MIXER WITH REVERSIBLE CASE AND MIXING BLADES (1904) by STUDIO RAINMuseimpresa
Mixer with reversible case and mixing blades
The mixer with its pulleys was a relatively simple machine, which replaced the feet of the man who processed water and semolina inside a cabinet. Originally, in fact, water and semolina were mixed manually.
Pasta CUOMO - INVOICE Ganz Purchase of mill machinery Page1 (1901) by Pasta CuomoMuseimpresa
2. Purchase invoice of Cuomo mill machineries, Budapest 1901
The Cuomo Mill machineries were purchased on November 18, 1901 by the Ganz company in Budapest, as demonstrated in the purchase invoice.
Pasta CUOMO - INVOICE Ganz Purchase of mill machinery Page 2 (1901) by Pasta CuomoMuseimpresa
2.B Purchase invoice of Cuomo mill machineries,Budapest 1901
The Cuomo Mill machinery was purchased on November 18, 1901 by the Ganz company of Budapest, as demonstrated by the purchase invoice.
Pasta CUOMO - Grain Wash Machine right side view (1904) by STUDIO RAINMuseimpresa
Grain wash machine
The grain washer was the machine that allowed the cleaning of the grain through a method of washing with water to remove sand and dirt from the surface of the grain. This machine allowed for a coarser initial cleaning of the grain.
Grain Cleaner
The cleaner was the machine that removed from the grain all the foreign dust. The grain was poured into the central funnel, the cleaning took place through the passage between two rollers activated by the overlying cylinders moved by two belts according to a mechanical movement.
Grain brushing machine
It was used for better grain cleaning. It consisted of a compact cylindrical brush and a mantle with small holes which were used to carry out an initial cleaning, leaving out the first impurities of the beans. Pastificio Cuomo was a "Eureka model".
Zigzag "Tarara"
This device eliminated all foreign bodies present in the grain and was equipped with a suction apparatus that extracted impurities from the grain through a zigzag path under the control of a worker who eventually manually removed further impurities.
Crushers machine
The oil mill was the machine that broke and ground the grains of wheat thanks to very hard cast iron cylinders. In the past, the grain was crushed with stone millstones, in the case of Pastificio Cuomo the grain was gradually broken which preserved its quality.
Pasta CUOMO - Svecciatoi right side picture framing (1904) by STUDIO RAINMuseimpresa
Grain cleaners
Grain cleaners (svecciatoio) were used to extract the round seeds of other cereals or legume vetch from those of the wheat with which they are mixed.
Pasta CUOMO - Buratto frontal image framing (1904) by STUDIO RAINMuseimpresa
Centrifugal tumblers
The (tumblers) buratti were the machinery for sieving the wheat that were used to separate the semolina from the bran. The tumblers were cylindrical sieves with a diameter of mm. 3000x 900 mm. Their movement was both oscillatory and rotary and in the Cuomo mill they were 12.
The apparatus for the vertical transport of groats
The apparatus for the vertical transport of groats was equipped with elevators with belts and tin cups fixed with bolts. These were used for vertical transport of the raw materials (grain or durum wheat) between the different floors. In the Pastificio Cuomo there were 4 floor.
Grain Mixer
The mixer was a machine that was used to obtain a homogeneous semolina by mixing semolina from different durum grains.
CUOMO paste - Archimedean screw in sheet metal frontal image framing (1904) by STUDIO RAINMuseimpresa
Archimedean screw in sheet metal
Archimedes' screw was a large spiral that worked the dough making it as homogeneous as possible. The Archimedes screw was moved by the smaller wheel, that was connected with belts to the drive shafts.
3. Purchase invoice of steam engine - Fonderia Fratte - 1905
The steam engine had been purchased from the Fratte foundry in Salerno. It not only transmitted motion both to the machines inside the mill and to the pasta factory but also moved a dynamo which produced electrical energy to illuminate the spaces within the production.
4. Purchase invoice conical roller kneader machine - 1906
In 1906 Nicola Cuomo purchased this machine in order to mechanize the pasta factory system as much was possible, to work faster and to produce more pasta. He purchased it from Milan's best producer: Meccanica Lombarda.
Conical roller kneader
The conical roller kneader was used to work the dough making it more homogeneous, even more amalgamated, elastic and therefore such as not to break when it went into the press. The machine worked the dough with a series of foils, to obtain a much better result than in the past.
Pasta CUOMO - Cuomo pasta factory and mill ruins left side picture framing (1850) by AnonimousMuseimpresa
A dream that we would like to become true: Restoration 2.0
We hope in the future to be able to proceed with the reconstruction and restoration of the Cuomo family's old mill and pasta factory, now reduced to ruins, so that it can shine as it once did when it was used by our ancestors.
Thanks to our family and thanks to Prof. Silvio de Majo And to Dr. Francesca Caiazzo for having carried out the archival research to support the drafting of our main historical source, the historical book "200 years of pasta in Gragnano: the history of the Cuomo family".
