DEEP DIVE INTO PASTA
Comfort food at Luigi's
Pastificio di Luigi translates to Luigi's pasta factory and while not exactly a factory — it's located in designer digs at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel — it is part of a growing chain under the Kitchen Table group of restaurants, parent to Caffe Di Beppe, Pizzeria Farina, Pourhouse, Giovane Cafe and Farina a Legna.
And let's not forget Ask for Luigi, namesake and inspiration for this most recent offspring.
The Italian links thrill chef Alessandro Vianello to no end as his family's roots trace back to Venice. Before becoming exec chef for Kitchen Table, Vianello was chef at Gooseneck Hospitality overseeing Wildebeest, two Bufala pizzerias, Lucky Taco, and Bells and Whistles.
“It's the first time I've done a deep dive into Italian cuisine, even though it's my heritage and I grew up with it and worked in Italy for a bit as well,” he says. “We make all the pasta here, all the sauces. They're traditional and the focus is on quality.”
The two Luigi locations are quite different. Ask For Luigi is in edgy Strathcona in a cosy little house with a full dining experience whereas Pastificio di Luigi is, well, pandemically perfect — you have the choice of dining in or taking home ready-made meals. Both specialize in comfort in the form of good pastas.
The pasta factory idea began as a pop-up out of Pourhouse last spring. Then, after Kitchen Table took over the Giovane Cafe space at the Fairmont, it hopped over
there and shares the dining area. That is, until Pastificio di Luigi's next move to a “permanent location” with a slightly different concept in the next six months, Vianello says.
When I visited, there were a lot of choices. The daily feature pasta was braised beef shank tagliatelle with chanterelles in garlic ricotta butter sauce. But since I didn't expect to be eating it that day, I went for the cook-athome option to make later.
The skilfully constructed fresh culurgiones caught my eye — it's a stuffed Sardinian ravioli with a pleated edge, plump with a potato, pecorino cheese, onion and mint filling. It looked more like a dim sum dumpling than a ravioli. I bought some. And from the freezer section, I got some squash ravioli and a bolognese sauce with veal and pork, veggies, white wine and cream to use with
both pastas. There are also grocery items for an Italian larder.
The culurgiones were delicious with a soft, tender dough that I feared would burst when I boiled it — but it would not be bullied. I lightened the bolognese sauce with tomatoes as it was very meaty, meant for a hearty pasta.
The squash ravioli were cut into tidy triangles with a thin border of dough — again I feared it might break open in the boiling water but it, too, survived the heated turbulence. Since pasta dough plays a major role, the flour is a big deal and after testing several from Italy and Canada, they went with Chilliwack's Anita's Organic Mill, mixing fine 00 and durum wheat flours.
“Anita's is moister, fresher and requires less water and doesn't dilute flavour,” Vianello says.
As well as the daily features and freezer offerings, there's a
regular menu of starters, pastas and desserts.
There, I came across the Roman street food, Suppli al Telefono — think arancini except with spaghetti noodles instead of rice.
You crack it open and stringy melted cheese looks like telephone wires.
Ragu guardaporta shows you Italy's lively mind when it comes to naming food — this Neapolitan pasta is named for hotel doormen who slowly braised a stew or ragu made from cheap cuts of meat in their living quarters while they worked. Here, the ragu is made with pork neck, beef shank, sugo (tomato sauce) and pecorino.
Desserts cling to the pasta theme. Torta ricciolina, an Emilia Romagna dish, is an almond pie with a taglierni (a skinny tagliatelle) top. Damn, I wish I'd tried that but dessert just slipped my mind!
Pastia is an egg custard dish with ricotta and noodles and ravioli al cioccolato is, you guessed it, chocolate ravioli.
There's a small list of Italian wines and bubblies, local beer and cocktails for a sit-down meal.