Los Angeles Magazine, August 2009

BEST HANDMADE PASTA

There’s no shortage of superb handmade pastas in L.A. At downtown’s sleek Drago Centro, the hard durum garganelli serves as an al dente foil to the fennel-and-pork sausage sauce. At Santa Monica’s Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen, mandili—gossamer-thin pasta squares—are tossed in a vibrant Ligurian pesto. The prize, though, goes to the bigoli at Melrose Avenue’s All’ Angelo. A kind of wide-gauge spaghetti, it has been made in the Veneto region since the Middle Ages. The dough is a study in contrasts: The more than usual amount of semolina lends firmness, while the duck egg adds lushness. Each morning the chefs force this mass through an antique copper screw press, which creates the reedlike strands. The sauce? Oh, that’s a simple matter of braising ducks, then cooking the meat down with a classic mirepoix. As in all the best pasta dishes, this isn’t one element sauced by another but two that have been made one.