522295 Sat May 24 11:29:58 -0700 2008 33 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 3717617 Having recently realized that I've never had what is considered premium italian pasta, I'm now on a search. I'm looking for a location in the East Bay (though I suppose I would travel as far as SF if a shop has a great selection) for an amazing, premium imported pasta to bring home. I'm particularly looking for Cipriani, but other brand names I've heard are Rustichella, Dallari, Fini, Cav, Giuseppe Cocco, Michele Portoghese, Benedetto Calvieri. Any other brand recommendations and where to get them would be appreciated as well! And finally, any tips on cooking the perfect pasta? I can imagine it's not the same process as the $2/lb stuff from the grocery store. Sat May 24 11:30:00 -0700 2008 181500 morphone 1 3717676 The Pasta Shop in Market Hall in Rockridge or on 4th Street in Berkeley. I know they have Rustichella - some in bulk too. Sat May 24 12:04:14 -0700 2008 3717617 15147 mochimunchie 1 3717678 Rustichella d'Abruzzo is pretty common around here. The Pasta Shop on 4th street has a fairly large selection Sat May 24 12:05:15 -0700 2008 3717617 10133 wally 1 3718090 I buy Rustichella at the Pasta Shop. My favorites are the penne rigati and orecchietti. They cook just like any dry pasta. Trader Joe's has some pretty similar stuff these days. Only one or two shapes. Sat May 24 15:33:38 -0700 2008 3717617 11369 Robert Lauriston 2 3719476 Trader Joe's carries premium pasta? Which brand? I'm very curious. Sun May 25 11:55:30 -0700 2008 3718090 181500 morphone 3 3719787 House label. Paper bag with metal rivets, but with a cellophane bag inside. Sun May 25 14:59:19 -0700 2008 3719476 11369 Robert Lauriston 4 3724483 This is the yellow bag, right? They had penne and trotelle. It was excellent but I think it's gone now (as of a few months ago). I contacted TJ's and they said it was gone forever. Let me know if I'm misinformed and need to go to another TJ store. They do have extra long spaghetti in the yellow package now. It's quite good. Tue May 27 12:53:02 -0700 2008 3719787 13401 jmarek 5 3727424 I haven't bought any in a while so you may be right. Wed May 28 10:25:32 -0700 2008 3724483 11369 Robert Lauriston 1 3718604 Williams-Sonoma outposts usually stock a number of different imported dry pastas - Cipriani and one or two others at the Emeryville branch I last visited. Sat May 24 20:54:10 -0700 2008 3717617 63276 Spatlese 2 3719478 Thanks! For some reason I never really equates WS with actually selling food, but it makes sense. It appears that they may be the only place in the area that imports Cipriani, which I'm really interested in pitting against Spinosi in a death match. Sun May 25 11:57:15 -0700 2008 3718604 181500 morphone 2 3726051 I stopped by here today and they didn't have Cipriani. The guy had no idea what I was talking about, but also admitted to being fairly new. When did you see it? Have you seen it anywhere else? This is the main brand I want to try, but can't find it anywhere! Tue May 27 21:41:33 -0700 2008 3718604 181500 morphone 3 3726709 Odd - I was quite sure I'd seen it there fairly recently (within the past few weeks). The aforementioned Pasta Shop may be another option; for some reason, Whole Foods comes to mind as well. Wed May 28 07:29:05 -0700 2008 3726051 63276 Spatlese 4 3741458 I'll check whole foods, but at this point I've checked all over the east bay, including the pasta shop, sur la table, williams sonoma, market hall, and a few others. I'll keep searching, but if you see it again, let me know! you can actually buy it on amazon.com, but shipping is as much as the product. Mon Jun 02 09:35:05 -0700 2008 3726709 181500 morphone 4 3752388 They did have it at the Berkeley Whole Foods! Thanks! Thu Jun 05 09:33:42 -0700 2008 3726709 181500 morphone 1 3718759 morphone, the better dry pasta I've encountered have some qualities in common on visual examination. They're rough textured compared to the commercial mass produced stuff, which comes I think from bronze rather than stainless steel dies being used. They also are not homogenous/monotone in color, probably because of that texture and because they are dried more slowly. You might look at the stuff AG Ferrari has, if a branch is convenient to you--I've had good results with it. Sat May 24 23:29:44 -0700 2008 3717617 11012 moto 2 3719482 Thank you. Do you know what they generally consist of? I've heard of some imported pastas containing flax, which will increase their course texture a bit. I've heard the same of whole wheat pastas. Sun May 25 11:58:48 -0700 2008 3718759 181500 morphone 3 3719789 There are some specialty pastas made from different grains or a mix of grains, but the vast majority are 100% semolina (hard durum wheat). Sun May 25 15:00:20 -0700 2008 3719482 11369 Robert Lauriston 3 3724528 morphone, as RL noted most of the artisan pastas you'll run across are durum semolina, but in my (calif) travels I found one made from stone ground, whole emmer wheat (farro). Tue May 27 13:04:17 -0700 2008 3719482 11012 moto 4 3724545 Rustichella also has farro and whole wheat pasta but not quite the variety as in durum semolina. I have purchase spaghetti and penne rigate in farro. Tue May 27 13:09:24 -0700 2008 3724528 10133 wally 4 3725041 Farro and whole wheat pasta do not cook in the same way as the 100% semolina flour, which is necessary for the prized "al dente" cooking. In Italy, we really put salt in our pasta water- a small fistful of coarse sea salt for a large pot of pasta (1 or 2 gallons of water). This usually scares my dinner guests, so I have to add it when nobody looks at me. The salt stays in the water and just a small portion does on to flavor the pasta itself- and hypertension statistics don't show Italians having any problems! Drain the pasta when it is cooked throughly, but just about- it should still be very firm. For example, when biting into a spaghetti you should not see the "raw" core, but it should be visible where it was. By the time you drain the pasta and season it, you will have the perfect al dente cooking on your plate. The semolina flour has specific characteristics to maintain the cooking- once it's drained, it doesn't have overcook too fast and spoil your dish. Buon Appetito! Tue May 27 15:50:54 -0700 2008 3724528 171280 VanessaItalyinSF 5 3726043 Thanks! I'm all about adding a ton of salt, and then retaining a bit of starchy water for the sauce. That velvet smooth texture is the whole point, IMHO. Tue May 27 21:39:52 -0700 2008 3725041 181500 morphone 1 3725276 Phoenix Pastificio in Berkeley makes some excellent fresh pasta. I'm partial to their crab ravioli and pumpkin ravioli. They sell from their kitchen and at the Berkeley Farmers Markets. I believe they hit more markets than just that one, but I don't know which ones. Also, their fresh olive bread is fantastic. Tue May 27 17:01:15 -0700 2008 3717617 13350 glutton 2 3727436 They're also at the Grand Lake market. Wed May 28 10:27:53 -0700 2008 3725276 11369 Robert Lauriston 3 3728076 I also think they sell some of the pasta at the Berkeley Bowl. Wed May 28 13:20:16 -0700 2008 3727436 13350 glutton 4 3753326 They do, although I can't remember seeing their filled pastas there, just the flat pastas in various flavors (the Meyer lemon is delicious). If you can get it, and not look at the price, their ravioli with fresh pea filling is fabulous. Thu Jun 05 13:07:24 -0700 2008 3728076 10159 Ruth Lafler 1 3727896 Rainbow Grocery in SF carries quite a few imported high-end Italian dried pastas, including Rustichella, a lookalike brand with nearly identical packaging, and a few others. A weird brand I'd never seen before ended up in the bargain bin at Rainbow, and I picked up a few. One I thought was squid ink turned out to be colored and flavored with radichio, the other was polenta pasta. Interesting options, not necessarily worth searching out but indicative to me that the pasta buyer at Rainbow experiments with high end imports. Wed May 28 12:33:32 -0700 2008 3717617 17221 SteveG 1 3728033 The Cipriani you find online is egg pasta. Is this what you are seeking? Wed May 28 13:07:25 -0700 2008 3717617 10133 wally 2 3741462 Either egg or non-egg. I want to give it a try and see how it compares to the other premium pastas I've got. Mon Jun 02 09:36:25 -0700 2008 3728033 181500 morphone 3 3753251 morphone, if you are around 'old oakland' (just west of chinatown, other side of broadway), Ratto's grocery has a pretty good selection of pastas and might have something of interest. It's conveniently 'round the corner from the Fri. farmer's market, which is inner city urban style and has its charms. Thu Jun 05 12:50:41 -0700 2008 3741462 11012 moto 4 3753277 I used to go to Ratto's for some hard-to-find items, but they dropped them all when they subdivided the space and rented the larger section out as a restaurant (currently Levende East). It's worth a look if you're in the area but it's primarily a sandwich shop, with a very limited selection of deli items. Thu Jun 05 12:56:29 -0700 2008 3753251 11369 Robert Lauriston 5 3759735 It may not be what it was, but they still carry more than a dozen different brands of pasta from Italy. None of them the ones mentioned by the OP. I was there recently. They did have some lovely bulk beans like Christmas lima beans and scarlet runner beans. Sat Jun 07 20:30:36 -0700 2008 3753277 10264 rworange 1 3755643 morphone, in my opinion there are some key elements to selecting packaged italian pasta that will lead you to a high quaility brand. First, look for the use of bronze "dies" or "plates", this is what the pasta is extruded through for the shape and using bronze gives it the rough texture that lets the sauce cling to it. Second, the color beyond the white speckling caused by the plates should be a golden color, but not too pale or too dark bordering on brown. If there is any literature on the pasta describing the process look to see if it is dried for extended periods at low temperatures. This helps the pasta retain both its flavor as well as body when cooked. Finally, it is taste, a high quality pasta will have a rich and wonderful flavor that stands out when tossed with simple dressing of high quality evoo and parmigiano reggiano try a brand with the attributes I mentioned and you will know if they are using a high quality semolina made from durum wheat. Of the artisan brands that you mentioned Giuseppe Cocco is in my opinion the best, but brands in the $2 to $3 dollar range that I have found to be excellent are DeLallo and DeCecco. Fri Jun 06 07:58:10 -0700 2008 3717617 170847 cugino 2 3755742 De Cecco used to be my regular everyday cheaper brand, but it seemed like it went downhill. The penne started falling apart, like they'd been partially cracked during manufacturing or shipping. Fri Jun 06 08:23:20 -0700 2008 3755643 11369 Robert Lauriston 2 3759724 I finally tried the pricy Francis Coppola pasta which mentions the bronze plates but I think it is clever ad writing and they don't actually use them. At about $6.50 (dollar off on sale ... finally) ... skip them. The sauce was ok but I wouldn't shell out a similar amount again for either. http://www.mammarellafoods.com/pastas.html Sat Jun 07 20:24:20 -0700 2008 3755643 10264 rworange