For many Italian Americans (and fans of Italian food), the trek across the border to the Bronx for handcrafted pasta is a holiday tradition, but it’s an unnecessary trip when Westchester is well-stocked with generations-strong pasta makers. Here are six family-owned and -operated spots that make fresh pasta on the daily; and they do it all year ’round.
A. Mercurio & Sons
Mamaroneck
Shopping here is a trip back in time, starting with the retro store signage and back-to-basics pastas including white, spinach, and whole wheat noodles made fresh each day in view of customers ordering at the counter.
Opened in 1942, the shop is now run by the third generation’s Greg Mercurio and co-owner Leo Morales. Mercurio may be old-school but in a nod to modern tastes, gluten-free gnocchi are on offer. Stuffed pasta fans will find ravioli, manicotti, shells, and tortellini.
Dante’s Pasta Shop
Yonkers
If you’ve stopped into this small shop across from the raceway, chances are you’ve chatted with owner Osvaldo Margiotta. He’ll tell you he was once the private chef for Revlon’s Charles Revson, and that he hails from the Abruzzi region of Italy.
Customers come for harder-to-find varieties such as paglia e fieno, the green spinach pasta and white egg noodle known as “straw and hay,” and sagnette, made with only water, salt, and wheat durum flour. Linguine, fettuccine, spaghetti, and lasagna sheets are made daily and machine-cut-to-order, except for pappardelle, which is hand cut.
Dante’s also sells ravioli (meat, cheese, lobster, spinach, pumpkin, and porcini, depending on the day) along with gnocchi, manicotti, stuffed shells, and cavatelli. While you’re waiting for your order, enjoy the decades-old soccer posters and hand-written menus papering the walls.
J.B. & Son
Yonkers; 914.963.5192
Although they only made cheese when they opened for business back in 1922, generations of customers have relied on the Brunetto family for fresh pasta, which is made in the back daily.
What’s available may depend on the day — there’s usually fettuccine, linguine, and spaghetti — but count on finding the most popular item, manicotti, on a regular basis. “We make our manicotti every other day, and raviolis on the other,” says owner Steve Brunetto, who also makes fresh mozzarella daily.
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Katonah Pasta
Katonah
Small in size, this shop punches above its weight for the variety of its offerings, and it’s no wonder: It’s owned by the family behind a string of Italian restaurants in Westchester (Dolphin, Dolphin South, Le Fontane, Bacio Trattoria).
The front counter display of the day’s fresh pastas might include spaghetti (plain and squid ink), linguine, orecchiette, garganelli, and fusilli. But ravioli is the star attraction: Think pear Gorgonzola, artichoke mozzarella, beef Bolognese, and crab fillings, along with non-dairy versions which include mushroom, butternut, and veggie. (And yes, traditional cheese ravioli is available, too.) Build an appetite as you watch fresh pasta being made right behind the counter.
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Trotta’s House of Pasta
Thornwood
It may seem like you walked into an Italian deli, but in back is where the magic happens. Founded in 1955 in the Bronx, but in business here since 1976, this family operation makes pasta daily; some for its commercial arm and some to be sold at the Pleasantville, Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, Ossining, and North Salem farmers’ markets.
Offerings differ from day to day, but fresh cuts include rigatoni, fusilli, calamarata, and penne, along with gnocchi, shells, and about a dozen ravioli. “As the seasons change, we do something traditional, but a little different,” says owner Ed Trotta, referencing special lobster ravioli with corn from a local farm and pear and Gorgonzola caramelle, a candy-shaped pasta.
Tuscana Artisan Pasta Co
Peekskill
This well-stocked family-owned shop has been making pasta since 1977 in an assortment of shapes and sizes, from gemelli to pappardelle and fettucine to rigatoni; paired with a dozen-plus raviolis. Recent rave selections have included roasted garlic, black asparagus and fontina, roasted baby eggplant, and short rib.
“We’ve been making pasta the same way for decades,” says owner Mario Parente. “Our goal now is to showcase it to a new generation of shopper.” A fourth-generation maker, Parente will likely greet you at the counter, but if he’s busy in back, just ring the handbell on the counter.
Karen Croke is a Westchester native who is still discovering things she never knew about the county. A freelance writer, she is the former features editor for The Journal News.
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