Fresh Pasta in USA
Wednesday, October 22, 2003; Page F07
Marina and Adrian Fochi at their Kentlands pasta shop with several varieties of homemade pasta that they produce on site. (Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
Suppose you had a recipe that called for authentic Italian bucatini -- or tagliatelle or pappardelle, and you wanted to use fresh pasta. Where would you find it?
that's where Adrian and Marina Fochi have set up Peperonata Pasta, a pasta shop so authentic it would look at home in just about any part of Italy.
For that matter, it would look just right in Buenos Aires too -- that's where the Fochis used to live, in the large Italian community that settled there around the time of World War II. "If you go to Argentina, you'll see many shops like mine," says Adrian Fochi, the self-described pasta technician. (His wife, Marina, makes the sauces and stuffings.)
Although the varieties of pasta shapes at Peperonata could confuse the novice, the Fochis are there to help you make the right match with one of their 14 sauces. The pappardelle are designed for Bolognese sauce, he explains. The fusilli are perfect with pesto, the ridged penne for marinara sauce or creamy alfredo -- one of their most popular. (The range also includes less familiar sauces like a sweet pea and bacon cream, a spinach and onion, and, of course, a peperonata with peppers, tomatoes and onion.)
The couple will make stuffed tortellini, agnoloti and cannelloni too, and lasagna just about any way you like it -- even fresh gnocchi, if ordered in advance. . Otherwise the Fochis do everything else, including handing out excellent instruction sheets on how to adjust cooking times for different shapes of fresh pasta.
And if you just can't wait to sample their food until you get home, you can dig into the Fochis' daily specials at a few small tables at the front of the shop.
-- Judith Weinraub
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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