Any restaurants making homemade pasta?

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by irishvan

Yes but doesn't it taste best in the fall.

I don't care for butternut squash ravioli, actually, any time of year. I like to make both soups and purees using butternut squash, and I love making ravioli in most of its many formats. But mixing the two, not as much as either on its own. I think it's mostly that I dislike the combination of Parmigiano-Reggiano and butternut squash. I know, the squash doesn't have to be sweet, but I do prefer it more with brown sugar or maple syrup than more savory foils.

I tried the pasta place in Squirrel Hill today. It was basically good. They make not only ravioli (six types, IIRC), but fresh versions of typically "box" pasta, like fusilli and angel hair.

I had angel hair cooked al dente (they ask your choice of "al dente" or "well done") with a crab/tomato/cream sauce. The al dente-ness was just a couple of seconds too soft, but it was good; the sauce, which contained no chunks of crab, was tasty. I definitely got the crab flavor. It was $7.99 because it was a lunch-sized portion. After 3 PM, it's $9.99 per portion.

I'll go back again. It's wonderful to have access to fresh pasta, even if, as the first poster said, it's kind of a pizza parlor atmosphere.

The people who work there were nothing but nice. Two of the order takers stopped by my table to ask how I liked things. I suggested they put more salt in the pasta water (seriously), and the manager came out to explain to me that they can't do that, but you can add salt at the table. I am of the "salt goes in when you cook, not on when you eat" cooking school, but that's my only gripe.

They're going to be selling bulk pasta and sauces to carry out, and I think that's going to be where they make a lot of money. I prefer fresh pasta, and I don't always feel like rolling my own, so this'll be a good thing. He told me they were studying what to do, and that it should be up and running in 90 days.

[Tirade]

Originally Posted by jay5835

The people who work there were nothing but nice. Two of the order takers stopped by my table to ask how I liked things. I suggested they put more salt in the pasta water (seriously), and the manager came out to explain to me that they can't do that, but you can add salt at the table.

Well, this place just lost all credibility in my eyes. Why wouldn't you add salt to the pasta water? That's pasta cooking 101!

[SoButCounty]

Lobello's Speghetti House in Coraopolis as seen on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". All pasta is made fresh daily and the sauce is wonderful.

Out of this world southern Italian.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Tirade

Well, this place just lost all credibility in my eyes. Why wouldn't you add salt to the pasta water? That's pasta cooking 101!

ICAM. "Like the sea," the water should taste. And it was obvious on first bite that this pasta water didn't. I'm guessing the reason they "can't" make it appropriately salty is that the store is part of a chain. A small chain. A small chain from Massachusetts. But a chain, nonetheless.