#OSTERIA UMBRA SMITHTOWN MENU PLUS#

Taglierini flambéed in a Parmesan wheel with black truffle at Osteria Umbra in Smithtown. Taglierini, barely an eighth of an inch wide, are the basis of what has become the restaurant’s most famous dish, pasta tossed with cheese in a hollowed-out wheel of Parmesan cheese. Pappardelle, at half an inch wide, might be served with Bolognese sauce and tagliatelle, at a quarter of an inch wide, could wind up with duck ragù. She folds the short edges toward the middle again and again until she has a neat package, and with a sharp knife cuts it into noodles. To keep the sauce as light as possible, she uses whipped cream.Īt Osteria Umbra, the menu changes seasonally but there are always about eight pastas on the menu, including three “ribbons.” All start with a sfoglia that Vallorini cuts into foot-long rectangles. This is the pasta used in the restaurant’s primavera, which shows up as the weather warms and features the first vegetables to reach the market spinach, peas, spring onions. As the dough stretches, the parsley leaves break up and elongate, so they look like ghostly fossils in the finished noodle. At 18 Bay, Ronzetti uses these simple rectangles to make fazzoletti (“handkerchiefs”) with an herbal twist: She carefully places parsley leaves between two sheets of dough and feeds the sandwich through the roller until it is as thin as can be. If you cut it into large rectangles, for instance, and layer them between ragù, Parmesan and bechamel, you’ve made lasagna. The sfoglia is the starting point for a fantastic array of fresh pastas. Feeding the dough multiple times between the rollers as they are shifted ever closer results in a sfoglia, a “leaf” of dough, thin and pliant as silk. Vallorini, who makes enough pasta for a 100-seat restaurant, uses an electric Lineapasta sheeter imported from Italy Ronzetti, whose dining room is smaller, uses the roller attachment on her KitchenAid stand mixer. Pasta dough needs to rest so that the gluten relaxes enough for the next step in the process: rolling it out. “I work with love, and the pasta is how I express myself.”

“It’s a job, but not really a job,” Vallorini said. And the reputations of both restaurants rest, in no small part, on their skill in making it. But both of them share a passion for pasta.

Ronzetti grew up in East Meadow Vallorini was born and raised in the Italian region of Umbria.

Her process followed the same general outlines as Ronzetti’s but there were differences: She beat the eggs with her fingers, and her dough contained whole eggs and a few yolks, plus a little olive oil and salt.Ĭhef Sabrina Vallorini in the kitchen at Osteria Umbra in Smithtown. You can see it on my face: When I’m making pasta, I am in the zone.” Silence wasn’t necessary for her to achieve peak pasta performance: She and Kopels (who was in his own zone, contentedly butchering fish) chatted about their weekly menu, how they would transform their market haul into the seasonal four-course menu that changes every week.īy clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy.Īdjacent to the kitchen run by her husband, chef-partner Marco Pellegrini, she worked at a long butcher-block counter that was installed to suit her diminutive height. “It’s not just the nuts and bolts of kneading dough,” she said. Ronzetti views the practice as one part exertion, one part meditation. “But I think I do a better job than the machine.” Even if it isn’t better for the pasta, it’s unquestionably better for the chef. Then it was time to knead, pushing and pulling the dough to activate the gluten (the proteins in wheat and some other grains) that will endow it with elasticity and bounce. Bottom: Ronzetti cuts a sheet of pasta on a stringed tool called a chitarra. Top: At 18 Bay, fresh pasta is made the traditional way and begins with soft-wheat flour and eggs. Left: Chef Elizabeth Ronzetti at 18 Bay on Shelter Island.

#OSTERIA UMBRA SMITHTOWN MENU PLUS#

Osteria umbra smithtown menu