Homegrown Pasta Passes Taste Test

“Everybody loves pasta,” Jamie Lee Freda concluded. She set out to discover whether that could include gluten and grain-free pasta

She got to work Wednesday afternoon plating a batch for more than 70 people about to converge for a tasting at the showroom and art gallery space of EleMar New England, which is tucked away on Gibbs Street in Newhallville, to eat the vegan, gluten and grain-free pasta that she created.

Freda was partnering with Project Storefronts for ​“Project Pasta,” a series of tasting sessions for her culinary creations, with hopes of getting the feedback she needs before she takes the next steps to distributing her pasta and one day having her own restaurant.

There were two types of chestnut ravioli to taste test Wednesday night: one filled with roasted yellow beets and liquid smoke, topped with a yellow pepper coconut cream sauce and the other filled with mixed mushrooms and topped with a mustard green pesto. There also was a pea flour fettucini with sage and garlic ginger infused maple sauce and a kale and kelp noodle salad with plums, cashews and a lemon vinaigrette.

As a child, Freda spent her summers in southern Italy, in her grandmother’s kitchen learning how to make traditional pasta dishes. ​“My grandmother was a pasta aficionado,” she said, ​“as were my aunts.”

But even she would have to admit that this wasn’t her grandmother’s pasta.

For one thing, there’s not really any cooking going on in the tradition of heating up pots of boiling water and pans for sauce. For another thing, traditional pasta is usually made from semolina, and other kinds of wheat flour, and contains the thing that gives pasta its stretch and chew — gluten.

Freda was classically trained at the Italian Culinary Academy in New York City and under the direction of Chef Stefano Mazzone of the Hotel Quisisana in Capri. She worked as a private chef after she graduated in 2010.

She got the idea to create her pastas after helping to open the Greenwich location of Juice Press, which is known for cold pressed juices and vegan, organic and kosher fare. It occurred to her that vegans looking for fare more filling and comforting than a salad or sandwich didn’t have many prepared-food options as far as prepared foods go.

So Wednesday she gave them — and their more conventional-eating counterparts — her new spread.

Eric Triffin, a vegetarian for more than 60 years who is now vegan, took a taste and pronounced the pasta fantastic.

Steve Fontana, the city’s deputy director for economic development, a vegetarian, enjoyed the kale and kelp noodle salad.

Maureen Aceto and Liz Raccio also gave the pasta rave reviews. ​“There is such a demand for this because so many people have allergies,” Raccio said.

Elinor Slomba, project manager for Project Storefronts, said the tastings were designed to help Freda test the readiness of her business idea.

“This event allows her to have questions answered and to get feedback, Somba said. ​“It is a very important piece of the puzzle to learn as much as you can before you have to start paying rent.”

Freda said she hopes to add a third type of dough to her line. While her focus is vegan, raw, gluten and grain-free, she also would like to experiment with some baking. That will be contingent upon her getting a bigger kitchen.