St. Louis pasta lovers, take note: There’s a new hand-made pasta company in town, Vicini Pastaria.
Chef Dawn Wilson recently relocated her kitchen from Chicago to St. Louis, where she'd eventually like to open a café and Italian market. She currently sells her pastas at farmers' markets and select shops, as well as maintaining a presence in Chicago.
Though Wilson had worked in restaurants for years, her Italian adventure began in 2011, when she moved to Tuscany. “Within three weeks, I’d gotten a passport, a visa, and a place to work," she says. Wilson found a job at L'Officina della Cucina Popolare in the Tuscan village of Colle di Val d’Elsa, where she learned to make authentic Italian foods. "I had been making handmade pasta for a while, but there were many surprises in store for me," she says. "Everything is handmade in Italy—there are no mechanics."
Among the lessons she brought back to the States: how to make pici, a hand-rolled pasta some describe as "fat spaghetti." "The textural differences—how the uneven hand-rolling gives this pasta its thick and thin shapes—is what sets it apart," she says. "The mouthfeel changes bite to bite, tender and firm in the same strand." The thick strands hold up to Wilson's hearty sauces, including a rosemary orange pork ragu and brisket-and-mushroom ragu with red wine, each braised for 18 hours.
Wilson also turns out seasonal takes on such pasta standards as hand-cut saffron farfalle and pappardelle—all made and cut by hand. “I do roll out sheets," she says, "but I only use a cutter for the linguini."
Stuffed pastas include ravioli, tortelloni, and culurgiones. “You don’t see culurgiones very often,” says Wilson. “They’re more of a dumpling, pulled closed with a braid pattern that resembles the top of a wheat stalk.”
Other specialties include pestos, with arugula and almond pesto anchoring the selections. Look for kale/walnut and roasted red peppers in the cooler months, with selections changing with the season. “Our pea shoot and mint pesto is popular in the spring,” she says.
Wilson works with her mother, Beth Ann Crow, who turns out desserts, including "gluten-conscious" items. “We say 'gluten-conscious' because we make other products that contain gluten in the same kitchen,” Crow says. Among the offerings: tiramisu, shortbread, cheesecake cups, and cookies.
Pasta lovers can also join the Pasta Amore club, which Wilson likens to a CSA for pastas. Subscribers can sign up for Carne (meat) or Vegetariano packages with pick-ups at farmers' markets or select shops.
Vicini Pastaria products are available at The Women’s Exchange and Larder & Cupboard, as well as the Schlafly and Midtown farmers' markets. This Saturday morning, Vicini Pastaria will be among the vendors at the Schlafly Winter Farmers' Market at Bottleworks in Maplewood.
