“La Rondinella” means the little swallow, an homage to my family’s restaurant The Four Swallows which was open for 26 years. My mother was the chef and my late father ran the front of the house. I worked many different positions but I really found my place in the kitchen making pasta, pizza dough, crackers and cooking on the line as the saute cook.
Rondinella is also the name for an Italian wine varietal. It is primarily grown in the Veneto region and used to make wines such as Valpolicella and Bardolino and blended with the two other ‘sisters’ Corvina and Molinara in making the famous wine Amarone. Wine was my father’s business, he would often quiz me about different varietals and where they were grown.
I am making small batch hand-made and cut pasta. It is a meditation, and art, a craft and most certainly a labor of love. I have always been enchanted by Italian food and culture. I lived in Rome for about two years in my early twenties. I wish I could say that it was where I learned to cook, but I think my only true food discoveries there were making fritattas out of last night’s pasta dinner, and my roommate Peppe’s insanely delicious cauliflower pasta sauce. I did however learn a lot of the food culture and tradition. I adored long lunches with friends, passionate explanations of why certain shapes of pasta are meant to be eaten with certain sauces, and seeing four generations of women sitting outside and a plastic card table, making orecchiette.
I am a long time vegetarian and animal lover, my first pet just so happened to be a chicken who I called Fifi. I source my eggs from local farms whose chickens are able to live happy lives outside and fed an organic healthy diet. This is extremely important to me.
My mother and I cook together often. I credit her for the inspiration to make pasta as an art form, and the knowledge and appreciation for food and eating that I have. Her mother and father both loved to make huge decadent meals. My grandfather, who I was never able to meet was of Sicilian decent, and adored to make fresh pasta with my Nana. My mom recalls that often they would sit together at the kitchen table, rolling pasta for their Sunday dinner which she said rivaled any of our Thanksgiving meals.
La Rondinella Pasta 