The man who brought fresh, homemade and handmade pasta to South Jersey has died at age 87. Joseph Severino of Westmont, the founder of Severino Pasta Company, died Dec. 19, his family said in a published death notice. Anthony Iannone, the chef and owner of Anthony's Creative Cuisine in Haddon Heights, recalled Severino as "the first person to introduce handmade, fresh-cut pasta to South Jersey."

"He brought this wonderful, beautiful-tasting pasta to an area that didn't really have it," Iannone said. Severino was born in San Roberto, in the Italian province of Calabria. He left middle school to begin doing masonry work with his father, Luigi, his daughter Carla wrote in the notice. "Proudly they worked together building cemeteries on mountaintops, and town monuments," including one in their hometown.