While we love making up holidays as an excuse to eat more pasta, we’re also very on board with any *actual* national food holiday that celebrates noodles in all forms. Cue: National Noodle Month, which is a very real and not at all made-up occasion that AI search tells us we can observe "by using #NationalNoodleMonth on social media, enjoying noodle dishes, and sharing [our] favorite noodle recipes."
This March, we’re leaning into that spirit on Shift Notes with a Pasta People Q&A featuring our lead pasta maker at Flour + Water, back-pocket recipe inspo from our community, and more.
To get the party started, we’re first digging back to our roots where our noodle obsession all began. Since Flour + Water opened in 2009, our team has created 89 unique pasta shapes that have, at one point or another, had a place on our menu. These shapes have, of course, all been tracked in a Pasta Encyclopedia, and photographed for, umm, pasterity. See also: noodle obsession. 👀
We love all our pasta children, but when we polled our Flour + Water team about their favorites, these were the final four that came to mind for our crew. Let the March noodle madness begin.
Aaron Shapiro, Chef de Cuisine - Young Ginger Caramelle
One of my favorite dishes was a couple of winters ago when we made young ginger caramelle. We were getting really nice baby ginger with the stalks and greens on them from GG farms in Fresno. We took the greens and dehydrated them to make the pasta dough. We also took the bulbs of the ginger and cooked them and pureed them to make another pasta dough. The result was a striped ginger caramelle that was filled with winter squash from All Star Organics and served with a brown butter pan sauce and pepitas. I love this shape because they look so nice on the plate and the folds bring a really nice texture to the party.
Antonio Webster, Executive Sous Chef - Saffron Corzetti
A recent saffron corzetti dish that paired the coin-shaped pasta (with deep Ligurian roots )with Mt. Lassen trout stands out to Webster. “The Mt Lassen Trout with a touch of meyer lemon juice really spotlights the lightness of the fish. Definitely one my favorite since joining the team.”
Andrew Poole, Shift Supervisor + Music Director - Cappellacci dei Briganti
Traditionally from Molise (in between Puglia and Abruzzo), one of the smallest regions of Italy. Cappellecci are little hats that date back to 18th century Italy, modeled after the hats worn by lawless revolutionaries during the Unification of Italy. We typically serve them with some sort of polpettini, whether it be duck or veal -- YUM! I love them because of their history, they are visually wow-ing plated up, and because they create little cones that pick up lots of sauce and have wonderful texture.
Naomi Silva, General Manager - Sourdough Pansotti
A classic Ligurian pasta shape that we have just featured in an exciting new way is our Sourdough Pansotti. I love the fact that it is a filled pasta packed with flavor, as we're using collard greens from our collaboration with Florence Fang Community Farm, and the tender toothiness of the unfilled dough potion of the shape really carries the Salsa di Noci and crispy nettles beautifully. The part that is particularly exciting is that we've added our sourdough starter (used for our pizza) to the pasta dough, and this gives a delicious layer of flavor that is unlike any pasta I've tasted.
