WE SHOULD all feel deeply grateful to King Ferdinand of Naples.
It was he who in the 18th century called upon the best inventive minds in Italy to come up with an automated process for the making of pasta.
This was perhaps an understandable move, due to the fact that his Majesty was not entirely happy with the traditional method of mixing the semolina dough… by foot.
So, thanks to the engineering skills of one Cesare Spadaccini was born the considerably more hygienic pasta-making machine.
Cypriot Fedros Atzinis is also deeply grateful, for over four years he has been making a creditable living from Signor Spadaccini’s invention, making much of the quality dry and fresh pasta currently served in our better restaurants and hotels. Before he took the plunge into pasta manufacture, Fedros worked at the famous Trattoria Romantica in Nicosia and to this day he credits the owners with having taught him all there is to know about the making and serving of pasta.
Now based, in Limassol his wholesale pasta factory churns out an average of three to four tons of the stuff a month, in all shapes and colours, from Spaghetti, Tagliatelle, Lasagne, Tortellini, Tortelloni, Papardelle, and a variety of delicious pre-stuffed Ravioli.
The machines needed to make this highly popular foodstuff are not cheap, with the top of the range pasta machine weighing in at one ton and a half; it needs a minimum of 50 kilos of semolina to start functioning and this Ferrari of the pasta world currently costs in the region of £40,000 to buy from Italy.
Then there’s a baby version which creates different shaped pasta, and finally the investment in a ravioli making machine, all of which makes Fedros’ venture in Cyprus unique, no one else having either these specialist machines or the experience necessary to make such excellent pasta in all shapes and sizes.
Is there is a limit to what you can stuff or serve with proper Italian pasta. “No, I haven’t reached that limit if indeed there is one, which I doubt because pasta is so brilliantly flexible and easy to experiment with that there are seemingly endless combinations.
“I am often asked to create designer pastas for special occasions, ravioli for example with a foie gras filling, herbed pasta is also very popular now, and I also make a Green Tea pasta. I even made ravioli for a customer with a special coffee stuffing.
“So far, I see no end to what we can come up with to satisfy customers’ tastes.”
Fedros is no slouch when it comes to cooking and experimenting with his pasta; he was after all trained by the CIA – no, not that one, the other one, the Culinary Institute of America based at Greenville South Carolina.
Naturally, when two chefs get together, food becomes not so much a passion as a way of life. They will talk about what they eat, how they eat it, how it was cooked. Food chat like this is as natural as talking about the weather to an Englishman.
Nico Charalambous, owner/chef of the Paphos based Coliseum restaurant is a regular customer. Both will sit, drink espresso (Italian of course) and talk pasta, sauces, and stuffings.
They also like to partner up and try out different combinations of pastas and sauces. That’s when we put the challenge to them to come up with what they agreed were the very best of pasta, sauce, and stuffing combinations, using of course Fedros’ own fresh and also dried products.
So they joined forces to offer a special tasting session with a banquet of different pastas, all of which were first hand-made in Limassol, then cleverly sauced up in the kitchens of the Coliseum Restaurant in Paphos.
Fedros and Nico made Spaghetti surf and turf, a combination of king prawn, steak, and an onion and tomato sauce. Next, Tagliatelle Tricolore (a special egg spinach and cuttlefish ink tagliatelle) with accompanying smoked salmon, cream and green pepper sauce.
A peppery and garlicky Tripolin, followed by the lasagne. Then it was a taste of the Casarecce/ Strozapreti which is Italian village-style pasta, quite thick and short and cooked to perfection, along with Fedros’ popular signature pasta, the Porcini filled Ravioli served with a blue cheese cream and sun dried tomato sauce. His other hand made ravioli is filled with spinach and ricotta cheese, and he also supplies a monster sized but surprisingly delicate Torteloni with pancetta and ricotta.
Fedros Atzinis, Pasta Fresca, Soudas 18c, 3048 Limassol. Tel: 25-877481, 99-612021;
[email protected]
Competition: Cyprus Mail readers are asked to submit their favourite pasta recipe and win a month’s supply of fresh pasta.
Post, Fax or e-mail your recipe by Sunday October 9 to: Cyprus Mail, P.O. Box 21144, Nicosia; Fax 22-676385; E-mail [email protected].
Entries will be judged by Nico and Fedros and the winning recipe will be published in the Sunday Mail on October 16.
