Much of what we eat in North America comes from places far away. Sometimes it’s unavoidable – mangos don’t grow on the Prairies.
But sometimes food like pasta, which is made from prairie durum, travels thousands of kilometres before being stocked on the shelves of local grocery stores.
That is why it seems remarkable to find a pasta maker in Lethbridge that sources all its ingredients from Alberta producers and then sells pasta into a local market.
“Sourcing local ingredients, that’s something we take pride in,” said Rocco Suriano, sales manager of Let’s Pasta Food Services.
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The greatest durum, beef and dairy products in the world are found in southern Alberta, Suriano said. If Let’s Pasta can’t find it in the province, the business will search for sources in other parts of Canada, and rarely outside the country, he said.
Let’s Pasta has used only Canadian durum semolina, Suriano said, making it impossible to compare differing durum qualities. But he did share an interesting anecdote.
“We know for a fact that Italian (pasta) producers, when they want to increase the quality of their durum, they will cut what they’re using with about 20-30 percent Canadian durum,” he said.
Suriano’s family has been making pasta for 30 years, first in a restaurant called Trevi that later became Coco Pazzo. The family founded Let’s Pasta in 1994.
Pasta making has four stages. Semolina is mixed with water to form a lumpy dough, which is put into an extruder. The extrusion process forces the dough into different dies at high pressure to produce various shapes.
The pasta is then dried in a controlled environment that produces the right blend of humidity, air flow and temperature. Drying can take anywhere from six to 24 hours, depending on the technology used.
Fresh pasta, on the other hand, needs to be refrigerated due to its high moisture content and because of the eggs in the semolina dough mix. Fresh pasta has a shorter shelf life than dry, but has grown in popularity in recent years.
In the final stage, the pasta is packaged and readied for delivery. While Let’s Pasta sells into the United States, local restaurants, institutions and some retail outlets tend to be the business’ foundation.
“Our biggest market is our own backyard being Alberta,” said Suriano.
When asked about his role in the food production process, he talked about eating well.
All Let’s Pasta products are made with natural ingredients only, and no artificial colours are used, he said.
“We take pride in providing a product that we would feel comfortable eating at our own table, feeding our own kids, and we take pride in putting that on other people’s tables.”
But for Suriano, making healthy pasta seems to be more than just a business philosophy. Whether in a restaurant or at home, families should have dinner together more often and talk, he said.
“You need to take time for those things. Life is too short.”
