Between the trend of eating organic and the push for locally–sourced ingredients, there’s no wonder why this new, hip Philly restaurant is popping off. The Pasta Lab takes carbo–loading to a new level with its homemade pasta dishes and their milled–grains technique.
The company was started by Philly couple Chris Wright and Gina Rubinetti, both restaurant industry vets. When it comes to their chops, Rubinetti has worked and continues to work for the Schulson Collective catering business, and both have grown up in Italian–American households where food is the center of family.
The Pasta Lab is changing the pasta game one batch of self–milled grain at a time. Taking inspiration from techniques used for making artisanal bread like traditional fermentation methods and only sourcing locally–grown milled grains, Wright and Rubinetti are doing something the pasta industry has rarely seen before with their sustainable, local approach.
The company began from a passion for bread and healthy eating when Wright removed all the white flour from their home. Rubinetti and Wright fell in love with the flavor so much that they bought their own mill to be able to make fresh whole grain based flour. Their flour stemmed from local farmers and millers such as Castle Valley (Doylestown, PA) and Small Valley Milling (Halifax, PA).
Their pasta—making machines come from the company Arcobaleno, which is also locally based in Lancaster, PA. Beyond this, the couple also sources its other ingredients locally to create the filling for their pasta such as Caputo Brothers Creamery in York, PA and Clover Creek Cheese Cellar near Altoona, PA.
The Pasta Lab’s talent stems from their proprietary solution to eliminating the central issue of freshly milled flours: the high perishability and need for refrigeration to preserve the oils within the grain. They are able to do so by sifting out the coarse bran from their flour, which allows the finer bran to add flavor and nutritional value to the pasta they create. Each noodle is made by hand and you can tell. Because of their freshness, Pasta Lab’s pasta can be cooked al dente in boiling water in just a measly two to four minutes.
Mouth watering while reading this? You can pick up The Pasta Lab’s pasta at the Clark Park farmers’ market in West Philly every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will also be located at the Headhouse Square farmers’ market as of April 14th. So get to carbo—loading.
