Pasta fresca is a way of life at Peperonata Pasta
 

by Bernice August

Mar. 19, 2003

Adrian Fochi, dressed in white, greets customers at his 2-month-old fresh pasta carryout in The Kentlands. The white hides the flour and is a mark of cleanliness, he explains. Peperonata Pasta, which he runs with his wife Marina, is all about pride in a tradition, enjoying real food -- and convenience.

Walk into the shop at 400 Main St. (301-869-5555, fax 301-869-5533) and feast your eyes on the "pastabilities" in the showcase. The eye-catching dry pasta display on the counter doors is their handiwork also.

"We make the best pasta sauces in America," Fochi boasts. To back up his words, he invites customers to try them. Nonna's (grandmother's) sauce comes straight from Marina's family as does the eponymous peperonata, a Northern Italian sauté of red and green peppers, onions and tomatoes.

In a division of labor, he makes the pasta and she does the sauces, fillings and desserts. They make a gallon of pesto a day as well as five gallons of Boulognese sauce. On the sweet side, the couple make panqueques (pancakes or crepes) filled with dulce de leche, a caramel filling, like his nonna used to do.

The Fochis, you learn, have pasta making in their blood. Their parents ran competing businesses in Argentina where eating pasta is big, they say. You can watch how it is done at his parents' shop on a video. The couple imported their equipment from Argentina and can prepare four different sizes of ravioli, six different shapes of pasta (more are in the works) and several widths of noodles. Two big pots of boiling water are always on the stove. Four quarter-round stainless inserts allow four orders to cook at one time in each pot.

"Word of mouth has been so strong," he says, and the feedback has been good from local residents, businesses and the Argentine community.

"We want to be a place where you can find customized food. People like the idea of having something fresh," Fochi says.

"It's like our kitchen. It's like I'm cooking at home, but in larger quantity," his wife says.

"It has become our home," he adds.

The couple live in Germantown with their 14-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, "the American citizen in the family," says his dad.

"It's a new world for us," says Fochi. And a good one, too.

"Americans are very open to trying new things," Marina Fochi asserts. "People are happy with the product and we're happy.

"It's hard work but it makes you feel good when people tell you they like it. [When you] introduce new things, you are sharing a part of yourself with the customer."

To make pasta a pleasant, foolproof meal, their user-friendly approach includes cooking handouts for the various pastas, a Web site, www.pepronatapasta.com, and e-mail, order@peperonatapasta.com for questions and orders. "One more way to improve service," Fochi says.

March Madness Wine Fest: Sample 12 wines from the Southern Hemisphere Saturday, noon to 4:30 p.m., at finewine.com (20A Grand Corner Ave., Gaithersburg, 301-987-5933).

Send restaurant news and comments to Table Talk, The Gazette, 1200 Quince Orchard Blvd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878, call 301-670-2046, fax 301-670-7183 or e-mail baugust@gazette.net.