Pasta Rea Fresh Pasta and Sauce

While the Valley has long been home to excellent local producers of jarred pasta sauce and dried pasta, purveyors of fresh pasta and sauce have been few and far between. So we were overjoyed to hear that Pasta Rea had debuted its fresh offerings at the Phoenix Uptown Farmers Market in January.

Tony Rea, executive chef and co-owner of Creations in Cuisine Catering, recently purchased an Italian pasta-extruding machine and has been turning flour, semolina and water into shells (conchiglie), corkscrews (cavatappi), twins (gemelli), lilies (gigli), bucatini, fettucine and many of the other 36 shapes the machine is capable of making. He also produces egg-based pappardelle and tagliatelle. Since all of this pasta is freshly made you should eat it fresh—pick it up at the market on Saturday morning and make it the centerpiece of your Saturday dinner or Sunday supper.

The Sunday sauce is a thick, hearty gravy with meatballs, Italian sausage and pork ribs that would make a New Jersey Italian-American grandmother proud. It’s worth the $18 splurge for a 48 ounce container. Other fresh sauces include marinara, Bolognese, basil pesto, Alfredo and vodka.

The folks working the Pasta Rea booth at Uptown Farmers Market can provide advice on matching the pastas to the sauces. Call 602-485-9924 to place your order in advance (see pasta-rea.com for the current selections.) You can even grab a bite of the pasta of the day from their booth at the market.

Now if only they’d make fresh ravioli and other filled pastas …