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MiniMoFo: The Pasta Factory, Manchester
4 March, 2017Read More
March’s MiniMoFo prompt is for filled or stuffed food. It seems like the ideal time to share a meal that consisted of both sweet and savoury ravioli! I don’t know about you, but for me the name The Pasta Factory conjures up a fast food place: cheap, cheerful pasta dishes. In reality though, it’s a lovely restaurant just outside the Northern Quarter in Manchester, with fresh, delicious Italian food and a very respectable vegan menu. It’s also a bit pricey, so be aware of that before you go. Also note that not all the dishes from the online menu are available on the day, so don’t pin your hopes too much on one specific dish in advance. There were vegan options on both the lunch menu (cheaper, but less exciting dishes – things like arrabbiata) and the main menu, which had three good options, and a veganisable starter platter. I only had a main this time, and this mushroom ravioli jumped off the page. It was absolute perfection: earthy mushroom flavour, perfectly cooked pasta, truffle and oil for taste. Oh, and vegan parmesan as well! Good news on the dessert front: there is a chocolate ravioli dish on the main menu which is vegan, and always a vegan sorbet on the board (it was coffee and amaretto when we visited). You can never have too much ravioli, I always say, so I got this as well. The chocolate pasta was nice, and there was a nice fig filling and coconut chips, but honestly all the flavours could have been stronger. Still, this is a small complaint: it was lovely. I very rarely order pasta when I eat out, so a pasta restaurant was an unusual choice for me. I think it’s hard to be bowled over by pasta, but this place really did the trick. It was very impressive. Even more impressive: all the wine and beer was vegan. Cheers to that! https://herbivoresheaven.com/2017/03/13/minimofo-the-pasta-factory-manchester/
Grantour Cycling and Events in Italy
19 October, 2016Read More
Did you like the food and wine from Piedmont that you had at The Pasta Factory?
Are you interesting in better understanding our culture and our food? In collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK we are glad to promote an ecological and sportive way to do it!
GRANTOUR CYCLING AND EVENTS IN ITALY
Langhe, Roero and Monferrato
Barolo and Barbaresco wines, Truffles, Slow food: The land of gourmets
ABOUT THEM:
Former professional cyclists, event planners, travel designers, tour guides; all of us come from different experiences, different backgrounds and different regions of Italy. One thing we have in common: the passion for cycling and for good living. We live in a country of great beauty and Gran Tour Events has become our home, the starting point of our adventures on two wheels. Come and discover Italy with us, avoiding all clichés.
THEIR PHYLOSOPHY:
SUPER LOCAL
Many cycling operators offer beautiful tours of Italy but ours feature one distinctive difference: they were conceived by locals, in 100% local spirit and style.
WELCOME HOME
We favour vintage villas and family-run farms representing the local culture over lavish but soulless 5 star hotels. The selection was carried out taking into great consideration location, charm, quality of service and, most importantly, the friendliness of the managers!
ONLY SMALL GROUPS
We have decided to limit the number of participants to ten people. Thus we can guarantee the highest quality and safety standards, providing customized services of the kind you will only find on personalized tours.
AIMED AT REAL CYCLING ENTHUSIASTS
Tours are designed to deliver excitement so they require confidence with a bike and a good level of physical preparation. This does not mean they are gruelling stage tours for professional cyclists: our aim is the pleasure of cycling, and we have the experience to manage different levels of speed and proficiency.
GUIDED BY WINE AND CULINARY EXCELLENCE
It is well known that Italy is the motherland of good cuisine. Our tours will take you through wine tastings in the cellars of renowned producers, visits to organic farms and slowfood points: yours will also be a journey through the world of flavour and well-being.
PROFESSIONAL GUIDES
Grantour guides are trained to keep you entertained throughout the entire tour. Beyond their specific technical skills they are also knowledgeable about local culture and true connoisseurs of the area’s wines and foods: they will be the best travelling companions ever.
ALL INCLUSIVE
We believe holidays should be about relaxing and having fun, without worries of any kind. That is why we offer an “all inclusive” formula, where every small pleasure, a cappuccino at the bar, or a good bottle of wine for dinner, must not be considered an extra.
Check next tours available at www.grantourevents.com/en/tours
Thanks to the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK for the link and support
THE PASTA FACTORY: Manchester’s Independent Italian Pasta Masters
16 May, 2016Read More
Take a random sample of people and it’s more than likely that 99% of them will enjoy Italian food. There’s no shortage of restaurants offering an ‘authentic’ taste of this gastronomic giant, but I’ve never been convinced. You won’t find lasagne and carbonara, but traditional family recipes that even the Italian community in Manchester are tasting for the first time. “There are a lot of Italian restaurants in Manchester. The majority of them tend to be chain restaurants which, in my opinion, offer very similar menus,” says Paolo Gaudino, one of the four owners of Shudehill restaurant, The Pasta Factory. “For example, most of these restaurants offer lasagne, pasta carbonara, pizza, risotto, tiramisu and so on. Many of them also serve dishes like fettuccine Alfredo and pasta with chicken, which do not actually exist in Italy.” Paolo and his co-owners grew up and went to school together in Turin before moving to Manchester five years ago, working in the cities bars and restaurants. They opened The Pasta Factory six months ago. “Our philosophy is to focus on one thing and deliver it to the best of our abilities. Instead of trying to do a little bit of everything we wanted to do one thing – fresh pasta – that has to be the best pasta in town.” The first noticeable difference when you walk in is the deli section stocked with freshly made pasta and sauces – something which is the norm in Italy, but unfortunately a luxury here in the UK. As you peruse the menu you can’t help but notice how refreshingly short it is – very few restaurants can claim to excel at pizza, pasta, fish and steak. It’s a serious pet hate of mine. You won’t find lasagne and carbonara, but rather Reginette al Barbera con ragù di cervo and ravioli di prosciutto alla toma di Lanzo – traditional family recipes that even the Italian community in Manchester are tasting for the first time. Pasta Factory has one great advantage in terms of customer service; their employees are friends and love the food they serve. We order a starter to share and give our waiter a few guidelines. He comes back with a platter of salami, dehydrated kale, tuna, lemon and basil feta, sun-dried tomatoes with pesto, parma ham and delicious homemade crackers, all served on wafer thin Sardinian bread known as ‘music paper’. The menu is updated regularly, depending on produce and what the chefs want to cook. I’m very lucky today. They’ve just taken a rare order of buffalo ricotta which I order in a basil flavoured ravioli dish served in a rich tomato sauce. I also try the ravioli with smoked ham served in a rich tomato sauce. The flavours are bold, balanced and the pasta is cooked to perfection. Having put so much attention into the food it would be a shame if the drinks were an afterthought. Unsurprisingly, they are anything but. I start with a San Paolo IPA, imported from Turin and was immediately hit by how crisp, citrusy and light it was despite its dark, unfiltered appearance. The chardonnay was also a delight – fruity, dry and crisp. The enthusiasm coupled with the quality of the raw ingredients means the meal is nothing but a triumph. We finish with espresso and a smorgasbord of Italian sweets, sadly too stuffed for a helping of tiramisu. It’s easy to see why The Pasta Factory is getting nothing but glowing reviews. This is a true taste of rustic, Italian cooking, and you’d be doing a disservice to yourself if you didn’t visit and let them shower you with exceptional food and drink. 77 Shudehill, M4 4AN By Tom Ingham – May 12, 2016 http://ilovemanchester.com/2016/05/12/the-pasta-factory-manchesters-independent-italian-pasta-masters.aspx
Finally we have an authentic Italian restaurant
30 March, 2016Read More
Somewhere pretty special has opened in Manchester City Centre. Finally we have an authentic Italian restaurant that makes fresh pasta on site and there are vegan options to choose from. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a good friend visiting from London recently who wanted to try out all the vegan offerings in Manchester. I suggested booking a table at The Pasta Factory as it was one of the only places I haven’t tried yet. As we had arrived a little early for our booking, we got a chance to see what was on offer at their deli. I was amazed to see many fresh pastas labelled vegan, but also home made vegan cheeses too! It all looked great. It didn’t take long for us to get to our table, I was surprised how small the restaurant is inside as it looks much bigger from the outside. Although it was really busy (you definitely need to book), it had a lovely atmosphere and the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. As we asked for the vegan menu, I think we got a bit of special attention. A member of staff ran through everything on the vegan menu, highlighting a few ingredient changes as well as running through what was available from the deli and what could be veganised from the general menu. We were also told that all of the wines were suitable for vegans, I don’t drink but this is good news for those who do! As we’d spotted the home made cheese on the counter, we asked if it was possible to have a main dish that used it. Due to the cheese not suiting the pastas we were ordering they were unable to do this, but they were really kind and offered to let us try some free of charge. They also promised to bring us some of their home made parmesan to sprinkle on our dishes. Our samples of their home made cheese arrived before our mains. We even got some of their crackers to try with it. Oh my gosh, this cheese was so tasty. It had a nice delicate salty flavour and crumbled in my mouth. I was really impressed that a non vegan restaurant had gone to this much effort. I’m definitely planning on popping in again just to buy some of this! Not long after our mains arrived. I had a spelt pasta with sunblushed tomatoes and olives. This was really, really good. It was refreshing to have a pasta dish that wasn’t just a basic tomato sauce and now I finally realise how much nicer fresh pasta is to dry. It’s like a completely different experience. I sprinkled on the parmesan pretty liberally, it was so good. Jake got a stuffed ravioli And my friend ordered a spelt pasta with thinly sliced vegetables. I had a bite of this, I can’t remember what the dish was but I remember thinking it was really really delicious. I was pretty full after the main course but I was desperate to try out the desserts. I’d heard about the chocolate ravioli and the panna cotta. My friend and I decided to have a choc ravioli each and share a panna cotta. Oh lordy. The Panna Cotta was my favourite. It was coconut based with with a berry coulis on top. It was firmer than any Panna Cotta’s I’ve tried but it was really tasty. It has a very coconutty taste but I think this worked well with the fruit. The Chocolate Ravioli was really interesting. It was a cocoa pasta, filled with figs and then served with coconut cream and topped with extra coconut. I did really enjoy this but it was a bit too much coconut for my liking. I enjoyed the cream sauce with it though, so maybe a soya or cashew cream would work well instead? The fig was nice but the coconut overpowered it a lot…and of course I’d always be up for a little extra chocolate sauce drizzled on top…I’m a chocolate fiend. We did feed this back to our server as he was asking at each course what we thought and he suggested ditching the coconut, so maybe this dish will be slightly different when I next visit? Overall I was really impressed with the desserts, they were super imaginative and different to anything I’ve had before. The whole meal was really, really delicious. I had a lovely time at The Pasta Factory. The dishes aren’t cheap (around £12 for a pasta dish, desserts were £6 each iirc) but the quality and care put into each dish makes it worth every penny. Plus the service was great. The best thing is how open they are to feedback from the vegan community. I’ve seen them regularly engaging with Manchester vegans on social groups and I feel like they’re working really hard to not just to accommodate us, but to put really good vegan food on the menu. I’m hoping that as they’re experimenting with making their own cheeses that we might see some creamy based pasta dishes appear on their vegan menu. That would be perfect. If you’re in Manchester and after some authentic Italian food then definitely check out The Pasta Factory. It’s open Tuesday – Sunday from 12pm and is just around the corner from Shudehill bus station. https://hastalavegan.com/2016/03/30/the-pasta-factory/
Interview with Luna Nuova (Italian Newspaper)
9 March, 2016Read More
Aprire un ristorante italiano in Inghilterra, a Manchester poi dove la colonia tricolore è ben presente ed i locali ispirati al bel paese non mancano di certo, può sembrare un’idea non proprio originale e dalle possibilità di successo limitate. Perché allora non puntare su un progetto innovativo che al momento non ha praticamente eguali in tutto il Regno Unito. Aprire un pastificio artigianale con annessa trattoria in puro stile “piola piemontese”.
Un sogno che quattro ragazzi appassionati di cucina e con determinazione da vendere, hanno iniziato a coltivare poco più di un anno fa. Ed a fine ottobre del 2015 in 77 Shudehill, nel cuore di Manchester ha aperto i battenti “The Pasta Factory” traduzione più o meno letterale di pastificio. Primo obiettivo centrato per Elisa Cavigliasso, 26 anni, di Villarbasse, nipote dell’ex sindaco Giuseppina, il suo fidanzato Alberto Umoret, 29 anni di Rivalta, Enrico Princi, 30 anni di Rivoli e Paolo Gaudino, 29 anni anche lui di Villarbasse ma ormai trapiantato stabilmente da un paio d’anni all’ombra dell’Old Trafford come preparatore atletico del Manchester United.
Proprio su queste pagine, poco più di un anno fa, aveva raccontato la sua esperienza che lo aveva portato ad approdare alla corte di sir Alex Ferguson. Ed in quell’occasione aveva anche accennato al fatto che, grazie ad un mercato del lavoro decisamente più dinamico rispetto aquello italiano, diversi suoi coetanei si erano messi in contatto con lui ed alcuni di loro, nell’autunno del 2013, avevano anche deciso di fare il grande salto. Tutti e tre con esperienze già maturate in Italia tra bar, pub e ristoranti, non hanno avuto difficoltà a trovare impieghi analoghi nell’ambito della ristorazione d’oltremanica che in questo senso offre molteplici opportunità. Maturando singolarmente esperienze positive e contribuendo al buon andamento dei locali di cui erano alle dipendenze, hanno iniziato a coltivare il progetto di aprire un’attività tutto loro. E dalle chiacchiere nella casa che i quattro ragazzi condividevano, ai primi atti concreti il passo è stato breve.
A Manchester la comunità italiana e numerosa è ben radicata. Non mancano i tipici locali basati sul classico stereotipo “pizza e spaghetti” spesso gestiti da personaggi che però nel nostro paese non hanno neanche un lontano parente. L’altra faccia dell’italian food è quella rappresentata dai ristoranti per “fighetti” dedicati in particolare ai giovani inglesi appassionati di moda che trovano particolarmente “trendy” frequentare locali di un certo tipo, entusiasti poi di pagare conti da capogiro. E così i quattro intraprendenti ragazzi torinesi decidono di scommettere su una specialità davvero poco conosciuta da quelle parti. «Per noi in Italia è normale, in occasione dei pasti speciali come il pranzo della domenica, andare a comprare la pasta fresca e cucinare a casa – racconta Elisa Cavigliasso – Qui non si trova da nessuna parte: così abbiamo pensato di dare la possibilità ai nostri clienti di poter acquistare la pasta oppure fermarsi ed assaggiare le nostre specialità».
Dalle idee si passa quindi ai progetti concreti sulla scorta di qualche piccola ricerca di mercato. L’ispirazione arriva da un locale simile “Burro e salvia” aperto pochi mesi prima a Londra, guarda caso da due giovani torinesi. Ma l’idea che inizia a farsi sempre più definita è quella di affiancare al pastificio non un ristorantino qualunque ma una vera e propria “piola” piemontese: ad iniziare dall’arredamento per finire con la scelta degli amari. Ad Elisa, Alberto ed Enrico è affidato il compito di documentarsi sull’aspetto prettamente gastronomico dell’impresa, mentre Paolo Gaudino, che bazzica da più tempo tra uffici e burocrazia britannica, si occupa della parte logistica ed amministrativa.
«Non è stato facile trovare un locale adatto – racconta il preparatore atletico dei Red Devils – anche perché da queste parti le attività commerciali vanno forte e per affittare nei posti migliori devi seguire una lista d’attesa». Ma nell’estate dello scorso si arriva ad un punto fermo. The Pasta Factory nascerà all’interno di un vecchio edificio che risale ai primi dell’800 e che per oltre un secolo aveva ospitato una banca. Negli ultimi anni invece vi aveva trovato posto un ristorante coreano. Dal sushi alla bagna caoda il passo è stato breve.
Il 25 ottobre del 2015 il nuovo locale apre i battenti e la risposta della gente è positiva fin dai primi giorni. «All’inizio i clienti erano soprattutto italiani trapiantati a Manchester – raccontano i quattro – ma poi la qualità del cibo ed il passaparola hanno aiutato a fare breccia anche nei gusti degli inglesi». I ruoli in cucina si sono ben presto definiti: Elisa è la chef che studia e realizza ricette piemontesi sulla scorta delle conoscenze tramandate di generazione in generazione della famiglia Cavigliasso. Enrico Princi è ormai diventato il “mago della pasta” e collabora con Elisa nella preparazione e nell’impiattamento delle sue creazioni. Alberto Umoret è responsabile della sala, accoglienza al cliente, spiegazione del menu e della filosofia del posto e decide la parte del menu riferita alle bevande. Paolo Gaudino compensa la sua scarsa propensione ai fornelli, prendendosi cura di tutta la parte amministrativa e legata alla comunicazione: segue i social, tiene i contatti con avvocati, commercialisti, Comune, proprietario del locale, pagamento bollette, stipendi e contabilità. Senza dimenticare il contributo di un altro coetaneo rivolese, Matteo Baricco che ha curato la parte legata alla creazione ed alla diffusione del marchio “The Pasta Factory”. «I primi due mesi di vita del locale sono stati davvero molto positivi – racconta Paolo – anche perché coincidevano con il periodo in cui ristoranti e pub registrano il maggior afflusso di clienti. All’inizio di gennaio c’è stata una leggera flessione ma nelle ultime settimane siamo tornati su buoni livelli. La nostra filosofia non è quella di far ruotare il maggior numero di clienti all’interno del locale. Abbiamo una trentina di coperti ma spieghiamo a chi è a tavola che può restare seduto tutto il tempo che vuole, anche dopo aver consumato il dolce. Magari sorseggiando un San Simone o un Amaro Montenegro».
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank’s Branch at 77 Shudehill
10 February, 2016Read More
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank’s Branch at 77 Shudehill opens for business in 1873, and is one of a large number of Manchester City Branches that joins Martins in 1928 when the Bank of Liverpool and Martins, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank amalgamate. It is typical of the grand, beautiful buildings built or used by the L & Y, and our image (courtesy W N Townson bequest) shows the branch before the amalgamation. Sadly, this is the only image of Shudehill branch that is currently available. Who would have though that almost 150 years later it would be an Italian PASTIFICIO? Mr. J. J. Openshaw, Manager at Shudehill since 1948, retired at the end of August. There was no formal presentation ceremony, at his own request, but a cheque was presented to him by Mr. B. E. Lockwood from his many friends and colleagues, and will be used for the purchase of a bookcase. A box of chocolates was sent to Mrs. Openshaw. During his last day at the office many customers called to express their good wishes, and in the evening he and Mrs. N. Hollin s, who retired from the branch on the same day, entertained the staff and friends at a cocktail party at the branch. Mr. Openshaw entered the Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank in 1916, and served at various branches, including Haslingden, Blackburn, Warrington, Manchester City Office and Brown Street. In 1929, whilst at Blackburn he was in charge of the sub office at Cherry Tree. He was given his first signing authority in 1938, at Manchester City Office and became Pro Manager there the following year. He was appointed Accountant at Brown Street in 1941 and from 1944-46 served with H.M. Forces, resuming his appointment on his return. In 1947 he became Assistant Manager at Brown Street and Manager at Shudehill in 1948.
A sort of bank raid?
Our friends at ITN Source, whose archive of historical news footage is the largest in the world, have a short piece of silent film from 1962 which originally accompanied a news bulletin about a £14,000 raid at Shudehill branch. Here, we have the story of what actually happened from Eric Mellor, a member of Martins Staff who remembers it well. You can view the piece of news footage, and also find news reports of two other Martins Bank raids at the ITN Source web site. Raids at Sloane Street and Farningham are at the top of the list, and a little further down, the Shudehill film clip is entitled “BANK SNATCH”… “I remember the occasion very well as I was at Shudehill from 1956 to 1960. Every Saturday morning Jim Openshaw the Manager and Bob Agnew the Branch porter used to take a suitcase full of cash to Spring Gardens branch in Openshaw’s car. Shudehill branch was opposite the old Smithfield Market and always had loads of surplus cash from the Market Traders. It was a regular Saturday morning trip and obviously somebody in the Manchester underworld had been tipped off by somebody working in the market. This particular Saturday the case full of cash was put in the boot of Openshaws car and as the car set off for Spring Gardens it was rammed by this other vehicle and the cash was stolen. So it was not so much as a raid on the branch rather a raid on Openshaw’s car. I had left the branch the previous year but remember quite clearly reading the account of the raid in the newspapers. Neither Openshaw nor the porter were injured but obviously were badly shaken by the event. If I rememebr rightly Jim Openshaw should have retired the previous year but had been asked to stay on for a further two years and had agreed to do so as he still had a young family to support. Needless to say he was quickly retired after this event but his retirement was not a happy one as he had no real interest outside banking and he died about two years later.” Taking used notes in a suitcase to another branch is definitely a “Spanish Custom” very much of its time, and would no doubt cause an international incident if it were to be repeated in these days of armoured bullion vans! At the time of this snatch in 1962, £14,000 would have been a fortune that could buy a couple of houses and several cars. It would still be another six or seven years before banks routinely built bandit screens into their new branches, separating cashier from customer forever.
1873
2015
BRANCH HISTORY:
1873 -> Opened by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank 3 January 1928 -> Martins Bank Limited 15 December 1969 -> Barclays Bank Limited 20-55-05 Shudehill 10 October 1980 -> Closed 21 October 2015 -> THE PASTA FACTORYInterview with The Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK
14 January, 2016Read More
Reinventing Investing in the UK An interview with Paolo Gaudino, sport scientist and fitness coach for Manchester United first team and co-founder of The Pasta Factory. The number of Italians who decide to invest capital and skills in the UK is constantly growing. Over the past three years, the flow of Italian investment overseas totalled £1.2 billion with an increase of 44% (Fifth Survey of Italian Investments in the UK). Those responsible for the trend are mainly young people, often graduates, eager to “reinvent themselves” in a market where Italian quality and creativity are, in many cases, emerging successfully. Paolo Gaudino, 28, Sports Scientist and Fitness Coach for Manchester United Football Club talks about his latest “reinvention” project in the UK, The Pasta Factory.
- From football to restaurants, how and when was The Pasta Factory born?
- As well as being a core ambassador for Made in Italy in Manchester, what are the other reasons behind the choice to make handmade pasta?
- What were the fundamental steps for opening The Pasta Factory?
- What were the main difficulties encountered?
- Looking to the future, how might the business evolve?
- As a fitness coach, is the consumption of pasta important in the human diet? Does The Pasta Factory menu propose a balance between taste and optimal consumption of pasta?
Antica Torrefazione del Centro… Our Coffee!
6 December, 2015Read More
In the heart of Carmagnola (Piedmont, Italy), brother and sister Francesco and Elisa have a passion for coffee, a passion that runs in the family seeing how the business has been active in the village since 1930.
Today the Mina family keep producing and serving coffee, respecting the tradition and the expertise of the ‘old coffee roasters’ (torrefattori) looking at the same time for some new and exiting combination of aromas, keeping the quality as high as possible and focusing on the origin of the coffee beans.
Blends selected from all over the world—especially from Central and South America but also from Africa and Asia—are monoroasted and sold as beans, powder (available in gift boxes), capsules and pods.
The packaging of every product on sale provides handy information, with tasting notes (sweetness, intensity, body, and acidity) and indications about variety and origin. All packaging information is available also online ( www.anticatorrefazione.it )to offer a more effective service.
They offer a vast range of quality goods to meet the needs of both the bar trade and families. Everyone can find the coffee they are looking for. They offer 8 types of coffee blends for the Italian coffeepot (caffettiera), 3 types in caps and the coffee beans for bars.
In particular, we think it worth a particular mention the noble taste of “Puerto Turquino” and “Fugace” blends (Arabica 100%), the gritty taste of “Gran Gusto” and the delicate taste of “Sublime”.
Contact info@anticatorrefazione.it for additional product information and enquiries.
Interview with the Manchester Evening News
20 November, 2015Read More
Italian ‘pastificio’ The Pasta Factory opens in Manchester
The shop and restaurant in Shudehill serves fresh pasta and authentic Italian sauces to eat in or cook at home.
An Italian ‘pastificio’ serving fresh, authentic pasta dishes to eat in or take away has opened in Manchester. The Pasta Factory, in Shudehill, was opened by Elisa Cavigliasso, her boyfriend Alberto Umoret and their friends Enrico Princi and Paolo Gaudino, who grew up together in Turin, northern Italy, before moving to Manchester, where they spotted a gap in the market for the type of traditional pasta shops popular back home. “As Italians, we thought about what we missed from our country and what this city may miss, and it was pasta – fresh pasta,” said chef Elisa, 26. “It’s perfectly normal for us, for special meals like Sunday lunch, to go to a shop and buy fresh pasta and cook it at home. Here you can’t really buy it anywhere so we thought let’s do that, and we can give the opportunity to eat the pasta inside or take it away.”
The pasta and sauces – ranging from tagliatelle with slow-cooked venison ragù to bucatini with monkfish in a tomato sauce – are all family recipes and are cooked fresh on site every day, using meat sourced from the Butcher’s Quarter in Tib Street and seafood from a fishmonger in Chorlton. Gnocchi, gluten-free pasta and vegetarian options are also available.
Diners can also order antipasti platters and desserts including chocolate ravioli filled with almonds and amaretti biscuits, served with orange cream and toasted pine nuts.
To drink, there is a selection of wines, all from the friends’ native Piedmont region, and a range of draught and bottled Italian craft beers from the San Paolo and Baladin breweries in Turin.
“We like to support little businesses, in Italy and here as well,” said Elisa.
“It’s why we chose this area of the city, because of all the independent shops and cafes around here.”
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11am to 10pm through the week and a little later at the weekend, diners can linger for as long as they like over lunch, dinner or drinks.
“In Italy, going out for a meal, we can spend three hours or more talking over our food, like you would if you had friends to dinner at home. We wanted to recreate that atmosphere,” said Elisa.
“Restaurants here are very busy and you feel you have to go as soon as you’ve finished. We want people to relax and really enjoy the food, really taste it.
“Italian food is about being together, sharing a moment.”
The pastificio is just a stone’s throw from Ancoats, which was once known as Manchester’s Little Italy, and it is already proving popular with the city’s modern-day Italian community.
“At the beginning, 90 per cent of the clients were Italian. Their feedback was important because if you have someone that knows your food tell you that it’s good, and if they come back again and again and again, that’s a very good sign for us,” said Elisa.
“We’ve got a lot of regular customers now even after just four weeks open. The other day an Italian guy came in for his lunch and then back again for dinner.
“We are starting to get a few English customers now too and of course we hope to have many more. Italian food is not just for Italians, it is for everybody.”
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
60% of Your Calories Are From Highly Processed Food
7 November, 2015Read More
Most of the foods we buy are highly processed and loaded with sugar, fat and salt
A new study suggest that 61% of the food people buy is highly processed, according to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And almost 1,000 calories a day of person’s diet come solely from highly processed foods.
Not all processed food is the same, however. The USDA classifies processed food as any edible that’s not a raw agricultural commodity, so even pasteurized milk and frozen fruits and vegetables count. “It’s important for us to recognize that a processed food is not just Coca-Cola and Twinkies—it’s a wide array of products,” says study author Jennifer Poti, a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
So in the first study of its kind, researchers scrutinized our diets by analyzing a massive set of data of the foods we buy while grocery shopping. The stats came from 157,000 shoppers, who tracked their edible purchases with a barcode scanner from 2000-2012, for anywhere from 10 months to 14 years.
Using software that picked out words in the nutrition and ingredient labels, the 1.2 million products were placed into one of four categories: minimally processed—products with very little alteration, like bagged salad, frozen meat and eggs—basic processed—single-ingredient foods but changed in some way, like oil, flour and sugar—moderately processed—still recognizable as its original plant or animal source, but with additives—and highly processed—multi-ingredient industrial mixtures that are no longer recognizable as their original plant or animal source.
No surprise, people favorite categories are those last two. More than three-quarters of our calories came from highly processed (61%) and moderately processed (16%) foods and drinks in 2012. Best-selling products were refined breads, grain-based desserts like cookies, sugary sodas, juice, sports drinks and energy drinks.
Preferences for highly processed foods were remarkably stable over time, Poti says, which likely has implications for our health, since the study also found that highly processed foods were higher in saturated fat, sugar and salt than other purchases.
To be clear, the researchers aren’t pooh-poohing processing, per se. “Food processing is important for food security and nutrition security” Poti says. The study wasn’t able to capture the full spectrum of our diets—loose spinach doesn’t come with a barcode, after all—and the authors acknowledge that food purchasing doesn’t always directly translate to dietary intake. But the results suggest that we might want to swap some bags of chips for, say, cans of beans. “Foods that required cooking or preparation”—like boxed pasta and raw eggs—”were generally less than 20% of calories purchased throughout the entire time period,” Poti says.
Reference:
J.M. Poti et al. 2015. Is the degree of food processing and convenience linked with the nutritional quality of foods purchased by US households? The American Journal of clinical nutrition.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2015/05/06/ajcn.114.100925.abstract
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