accolades
Knife and Fork: The Insider's Guide To
Atlanta's Restaurants
March 2003
If there is anything easier and nicer to fix on a moment's notice than fresh pasta, we want to hear about it. Done almost as soon as the water boils, compatible with almost anything you may happen to have around (butter, olive oil, ground pepper, and even, in case of emergency, sunny-side up eggs dumped unceremoniously on top), fresh pasta is the bomb.Until now, though, short of making your own (a time consuming and space-wasting project), you couldn't get much satisfaction out of the few products available. The pasta felt thick and lifeless, as likely to disintegrate as it was to remain rubbery and, uh, pasty.
Enter Elisa Gambino, formerly an Emmy-Award-winning field producer for CNN with worldwide experience in the coverage of combat zones and a pasta zealot. Gambino has lived in Italy for years on end and was known among her colleagues as someone who traveled with her own supply of Italian food products.Last year, she went to Rome to apprentice with one of Italy's most reputable fresh pasta makers and decided that the city too busy to eat well could use a small artisinal pasta shop making a hand-formed product on a daily basis. At first, Gambino only sold wholesale to a few exclusive restaurants (Aria, Bacchanalia, Floataway Cafe) and gourmet shops (Star Provisions, Salumeria Taggiasca, Vino!).
The good news is that Gambino has opened her pasta-making facility, a replica of the Roman store she favors, to the general public. The bad news is that the hours are limited and that, unless you place your order 24 hours in advance by fax, e-mail, or phone, you can only buy the selection of the day (utterly charming tortelloni filled with ricotta and fresh lemon, in our case, but Gambino also sells half-moon shaped ricotta and spinach mezze lune and elegant tortelloni with asparagus, roasted winter squash, sweet potatoes, porcini, and Swiss chard fillings) and whatever cut pasta (fettuccine, tagliolini, tonarelli, tagliatelle, pappardelle) happens to be around.
Never frozen, made with such ingredients as eggs from free-range chickens, the finest organic flour and imported semolina available, seasonal vegetables, and incomparable whole milk ricotta, the pasta is of the highest order. It also sells fast, even at prices ranging from $7 to $15 per pound. Cooking instructions are handed out with the orders. A few sauces and condiments locally made by Bella Cucina can be gathered from a single shelf in the near empty and clinically clean store decorated with Italian pottery plates.One of the things we love about Via Elisa is the way the pasta is packaged and dusted with semolina on individual trays wrapped in butcher paper held closely by a big red rubber band. The pasta freezes well, but why buy fresh and then cold-store a product best enjoyed barely out of Ms. Gambino's hands and equipment.
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