Pasta, Grains & Rice
Our pastas are from small, family owned Italian producers La Bella Angiolina, La Romagna Pasta, and Rustichella D’Abruzzo – all made by artisans who learned their craft at their fathers’ and grandfathers’ knees. What makes artisanal pasta better? And why is it worth paying a higher price? Well, for starters, the quality of the durum wheat is better and that means more flavor and better nutritional value. And then there’s the way it’s actually made. Our pastas are made using traditional methods and old fashioned equipment. Bronze dies are used to shape and cut the pastas, yielding a textured surface that grips sauce better than the slick pastas extruded through Teflon coated machines. These pastas are slowly air dried rather than oven baked, and that also makes for better tasting, more toothsome products. It takes a lot more time and attention to make pasta the old fashioned way, but you really can taste the difference.
It takes a lot more time and attention to make pasta the old fashioned way, but you really can taste the difference.
Our grains, rice and legumes also come from small producers who pay exceptional attention to the quality of their crops. From Tenuta Castello we get organic Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialone Nano rices for risotto, along with Borlotti Saluggini beans. We also have big, fat Corona beans and tasty little chickpeas; creamy polenta, chewy farro, and Arroz Bomba (the perfect rice for paella). Scrumtious stuff from around the world.
From closer to home, we bring in Heirloom Grits, Polenta and Carolina Gold Rice from Anson Mills in South Carolina. If the only grits you’ve ever had tasted like the cardboard box they came in, you need to try these! They’re chewy and creamy all at once and they taste like sweet, sweet corn. You’ll understand why Southerners get all mushy when they talk about eating grits from home. You might even get a little misty-eyed when you taste them…