2008 Sarasota Florida

DINING

Cheap eats, worth the money, family-friendly

By ABBY WEINGARTEN CORRESPONDENT

Published Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008 at 9:31 a.m.

You don't have to be in Brooklyn or Manhattan to fix your street food craving. In Sarasota, you just have to get up early on a Saturday morning and visit the downtown farmer's market.

It bustles from 7 a.m. to noon at Lemon Avenue and Main Street, a congregating place for hungry patrons looking for good, sometimes ethnic, out-of-the-ordinary stuff. Here's a sampling.

Pasta fresca

How about some handmade pasta? Marina and Adrian Fochi, Italian immigrants from Argentina, moved to Sarasota to produce and peddle fresh noodles with their venture, Peperonata Pasta. Their pasta is a longtime family tradition, and the Fochis apply their skills to 27 varieties. They specialize in stuffed ravioli with 20 possible fillings, calzones, pizza crusts and cannoli. The couple not only sell concoctions at the farmers market, but also to area restaurants, including Bologna Café, Ophelia's, Fred's in Lakewood Ranch, La Toscana and Broccolini's.

Peperonata Pasta, 4463-F Ashton Road, Sarasota; 870-2729.

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2007 Sarasota Florida
SARASOTA MAGAZINE
10 Best
Homegrown heaven from artisanal foodmakers.
Su Byron
Making handmade pasta is a longstanding family tradition for Marina and Adrian Fochi. As owners of Peperonata Pasta, they turn out 27 different types of pasta, stuffed ravioli (20 different fillings!), calzones, cannoli and pizza crusts. Happily, the Fochis sell their pasta creations to area restaurants, including Broccolini's, Bologna Cafe, Fred's at Lakewood Ranch, La Toscana, and Ophelia's. They also hold court at Sarasota’s downtown Saturday Farmer’s Market. 4463-F Ashton Road, Sarasota (941) 870-2729.
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2006 Sarasota Florida

By Bob Ardren

YUMMY FRESH PASTA AT FARMERS’ MARKET

Want a treat? Try the new fresh pasta being offered at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. Last Saturday one of my neighbors came walking down our street, arms full of packages, and announced he was doing dinner for eight and had just bought enough great fresh pasta at the market to carry it off.
Funny, he didn’t invite me. Oh well. At least he did tell me to go buy some of my own.
Seriously, this stuff is a big step up from your usual supermarket dried stuff and if you’re a fan of pasta, this is worth a serious try.
Although it looked a bit like a fruit basket upset last Saturday as they reorganized the market a bit, I guess, you should be able to find the fresh pasta on the east side of Lemon, just south of Main. That would be beside the old Burger King.

Thanks Bob Ardren and the Pelican Press for the good words
Marina & Adrian

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Thanks The Washington Post & Judith Weinraub for the article of October 22 2003 at the food section

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)

FORAGING
Fresh Pasta in USA

Wednesday, October 22, 2003; Page F07

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

2006 Sarasota Florida

By Bob Ardren

YUMMY FRESH PASTA AT FARMERS’ MARKET

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Thanks The Gazette & Bernice August for the article of March 19 2003

Thanks again for the article of February 2003 edition at "THE LAKELANDS LEADER".

Thanks for the article of December 2002 in "KENTLANDS TOWN CRIER".

Thanks for the article of August 2002 edition at "THE LAKELANDS LEADER".

Peperonata Pasta

Peperonata is an Italian dish or sauce that was one of my grandmother’s favorite dishes to prepare. The main ingredients for Peperonata are green, red bell peppers (not spicy) and onions, cooked in a casserole dish. It can be a side dish or a sauce for a very tasty Pasta meal or just the stuffing of a delicious sandwich.

Our Dream
A few months ago my husband Adrian Fochi asked me, "Do you think our family business can have a place in the USA?" I answered, "Absolutely! The system is different but people here love traditional food, especially PASTA." that day Peperonata Pasta became part of our American dream.
His Family and my family, the Sahores-Picaluga, have been in the FRESH PASTA business for a very long time. Our family recipes have been passed down from generation to generation. My Nonna (grandmother) Paola and my husband’s Nonna, Titi, used to cook for the whole family every day. Their love and creativity on enhancing flavor in their dishes inspired us to do the same. We believe that every time we recreate their food, we also recreate our childhood memories. I can still remember when my sister and I used to sneak out in the kitchen and stole pasta from Nona before food was served. I also remember getting a piece of bread and dipping it into the most incredible and delicious pasta sauces. These magical moments keep the people we loved the most close in our hearts.
Peperonata Pasta is not just a pasta business. It is a life style that follows a hard working family path preserving all the food traditions as a treasure.
We guarantee that our traditional, fresh pasta done with the same recipes that our Nonnas created will be our key to provide you THE BEST PASTA YOU HAVE EVER TASTED.
My name is Marina Fochi and I would like to start my story here.

Many thanks to all the people who take the time to visit our website.