Making Pasta Their Own

From just four common ingredients—flour, egg, oil and salt—chefs craft myriad shapes and sauces to get us through the hardest time of the year for local food. House-made pasta offers up the comfort we seek. Think hearty ragus or carbonaras for sustenance or for a little hint of spring, pasta and early season greens fresh from the hoop house while we anxiously await overwintered spinach, ramps, asparagus and sorrel that herald the beginning of the growing season across our region.

In our first back-of-the-house feature since the pandemic, we’re showcasing the work of three chefs (many in the Madison area) who include outstanding housemade pasta dishes on their menus. Kyle Beach from Homecoming in Spring Green, Giovanni Novella of Bar Corallini and Sean Pharr of Mint Mark, both in Madison. They gave us a peek behind the scenes to show us their technique and share their rationale for house-made pasta. To that we say, “Yes, please.”

HOMECOMING

Located in a white former schoolhouse in the center of Spring Green, Kyle Beach is learning his way with hyper-local pasta made with flour milled by Meadowlark Organics using local grain.

“When I started making pasta I was using Meadowlark’s all-purpose flour blended with double zero flour that I’d sourced from elsewhere, but now Meadowlark has a new flour called Snowbird. It’s 100% high protein offers a little more elasticity and it’s way easier to handle and it’s more consistent when we’re cooking it.” Kyle says.

“In the hard season of late winter/spring we’re leaning into more of our local proteins sourced from Enos Farms, Cates Farm and Seven Seeds, with cellared roots and fresh local greenhouse greens from nearby farmers.”

In the sunny open-air kitchen, Kyle and his team are constantly experimenting with a rotating menu. This winter they created an Italian/steakhouse vibe, and in February did a pop-up concept as Little Tiger, featuring the flavors of Asia, including ramen, dumplings and drunken noodles. Come spring Homecoming will return.

“I’m just curious and hungry, and I’m no pasta expert yet, but we’re having some good success," Kyle says.

BAR CORALLINI

Chef Giovanni Novella grew up along the Gulf of Naples, Italy and by our good fortune, landed in Madison at Bar Corallini, part of the Food Fight Group. He’s trained in Italian pastry but he holds a deep passion for pasta. “I could make fresh pasta all day,” he declares as he throws flour along a freshly rolled sheet of pasta.

In Italy, just one millimeter changes the name of the pasta and how it should be served. Each region has its own signature pasta. Currently, the restaurant regularly offers six varieties of pasta, including gnocchi.

He offers this advice to the home chef making pasta: “I cook pasta three quarters of the way, then the last quarter of the way, I finish the pasta cooking in the sauce. This helps the sauce connect to the noodles, so that butter or cream aren’t required to bind the pasta to the sauce. This process marries the flavors and creates harmony to the dish”

MINT MARK

Just a hop, skip and a jump down the road from Bar Corallini, Sean Pharr at Mint Mark also holds a passion for making pasta from scratch. Pasta is regularly on the menu with rotating specials to highlight seasonal ingredients.