Pasta Perfection

Forget paleo. Forget keto. Forget gluten-free. Despite the inroads made by those special diets, pasta perennially takes center stage on restaurant menus, from fast-casual to finedining. Whether extruded from precision

If you need to be convinced of the virtues of putting pasta front and center on a menu, talk to Chef Jeff Michaud , owner of the almost 16-year-old Osteria in Philadelphia, where he runs a highly successful house-made pasta program. “Pasta made in house can’t be beat,” he says. “We offer seasonal pasta-based dishes family style that become the centerpieces of our menu.” machines in a restaurant kitchen, mixed and rolled by hand or purchased from an artisanal pasta maker, this comforting favorite appeals to restaurant owners and the dining public alike.

To keep abreast of trends and instill a love of Italy for those lucky few who travel with him, Chef Michaud leads food tours, focusing on different parts of the country — from the Piedmont region to Lombardy, Friuli and the Italian Alps.

“Inspired by these food trips, I bring back new ideas for dishes using our in-housemade pastas such as fazzoletti, which are incredibly thin sheets of dough like handkerchiefs topped with a guinea hen ragu and caramelized pears,” he says.

“We have also made tiny, ring-shaped anellini with a saffron besciamella (bechamel sauce) and poached mussels. From Lombardy, I was inspired to recreate casoncelli bresciani, large rustic ravioli-like pasta filled with sausage, honey, butternut squash and sage.”

Another popular dish includes the specialties of two regions: Campania for the pasta and EmiliaRomagna in the north for the sauce. “This mashup works well in cooler months when we make candele (long tubular candleshaped pasta) with a cinghiale (wild boar) Bolognese sauce,” says Chef Michaud. “Spring has its own pleasures, with lighter, vegetable-forward presentations with fresh peas, asparagus and other jewels of the season.”

Chef Michaud always creates his pasta dishes being mindful of how the shape of the pasta holds or absorbs the sauce with which the dish is served.

“Using flour from nearby Castle Valley Mill, which uses a stone mill to process Pennsylvania-grown grain, we can create a reliably consistent set of pasta shapes,” he says. “We dedicate a few people to the pasta-making section of our kitchen, which is outfitted with equipment that allows us to produce a great variety of shapes, both filled and flat.”

Fueling this in-house pasta-making trend is Emilio Mitidieri , owner of Emiliomiti, which provides a wide range of machines including extruders, sheeters, pasta dryers and ravioli makers, among others, all of which are made to fit into a kitchen’s batterie de cuisine. “Dishes including pasta have a certain added pizzazz when in the hands of American chefs such as Michaud, Marc Vetri , Jonathan Benno and many others,” Mitidieri says. “These genius chefs add a certain something even to the traditional dishes of my homeland. I am inspired by the passion of chefs who wish to incorporate authentic pastas onto their menus. I design machines that can facilitate the making of small and large batches of pasta from a wide range of American-grown wheat varieties. Working with flour when making pasta is a science that we take seriously. It’s part of our culture, and I try to transmit that information to curious and enterprising chefs who are committed to presenting the great pasta dishes of all parts of my country.”

For the past eight years, Leah Ferrazzani, “pastaia,” or pasta maker, and owner of Semolina Artisanal Pasta, based in Pasadena, California, has provided freshly made pasta to local chefs and consumers alike. Ferrazzani turns out about 150,000 pounds of pasta per year; all of her products are certified organic and dried at low temperatures, only using precision bronze dyes to create a rough surface texture that holds sauce just so. “We are still very hands-on and therefore responsive to the changes seasonally in the flour,” she says. “Using 100% Americangrown milled wheat from North Dakota and Montana, we focus on making [pasta] that’s high quality, flavorful and actually tastes like something instead of merely being a sauce delivery system. We strive for that wheat-driven nutty aromatic quality that adds one more layer of complexity to a dish.”

Instagram star Linda Miller Nicholson , founder of Salty Seattle, a boutique pasta producer, and author of “Pasta, Pretty Please: A Vibrant Approach to Handmade Noodles,” creates rainbow-colored, ricotta-based gnocchi, which she calls crocchi due to its micro-croissant shape. “Depending on its type (flour, potato, ricotta) and its place of origin, the humble gnocchi could arguably be included in the broader category of pasta,” she says. “I don’t split hairs and instead focus on weaving vegetable-based colors into the gnocchi mix. Using real vegetables including kale, spinach, beets and spices such as turmeric and annatto, among others, our pasta is nutrient-dense and holds its vibrant color with quick boiling directly from the freezer.”

Endlessly diverse and appealing, whether served simply sauced or filled, made in house or outsourced, pasta dishes offer a taste of history and tradition in one bite.

4 Pasta Books

Considering making your own pasta in house? Check out these helpful books.

“Sauces