Artisan Pasta Competes With Bread At “Kneading Conference”

At the “Kneading Conference” in Maine recently, more than 200 foodies learned about the best ways to grow and use grains, not only for artisan bread making, but also for artisan pasta making. Former chef Steve Gonzalez taught attenders how to make fresh, small-batch pasta, a hot topic at the conference. Gonzalez’s growing Sfoglini Pasta Shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., supplies gourmet restaurants all over the city with custom whole grain penne, rigatoni, seasonal pastas (e.g., chili pepper fusilli and radiatore made with spent malt from The Bronx Brewery) and organic variations. The executive director of the conference validates the trend, noting that pasta is “a new frontier and in many ways more versatile than bread.”