Best Restaurants With Handmade Pasta In Los Angeles
Making pasta is an art. Chefs pull creative inspiration from their pure love of all things Italian to create the simple spaghetti pasta to the more adventurous filled ravioli pastas. Known for carefully crafting, shaping and cutting by hand, Los Angeles restaurants take pride in making fresh pasta. Imported ingredients, Italian pasta machines and a vision is what makes these five restaurants stand out for some of the best pasta in town.
Sotto
9575 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 277-0210
www.sottorestaurant.com
A restaurant by Chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack, Sotto is where you go to for a taste of traditional southern Italy. Studying and living in Italy individually, Chefs Samson and Pollack came together years later to open Sotto and create a menu ingrained with their passion for cooking and their love for Italy. Pastas are prepared and dishes are created to take patrons on a journey through the region of southern Italy. Sotto pasta favorites are maharrones de pungiu (tomato, fiore Sardo), chitarra (yellow tomatoes, baby squash, zucchini flowers), casarecce (braised lamb ragu, egg, pecorino), rigatoni (chicken liver ragu, maitake, podda) and spaghetti (spicy octopus ragu, black kale, burrata, breadcrumbs).
Republique
624 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(310) 362-6115
www.republiquela.com
Although rooted in French cuisine, the Republique menu will not disappoint with its house-made pasta dishes. Located in the historic building of Charlie Chaplin's offices and later La Brea Bakery and Campinele, Republique recently opened its doors to overwhelming response in the fall of 2013. Owner and Executive Chef Walter Manzke and co-owner and Pastry Chef Margarita Manzke have created an energetic communal space for family-style fare including freshly made spaghetti rustichella with manila and razor clams flavored with garlic and chili flakes and butternut squash agnolotti featuring forest mushrooms and parmesan, bistro eats and charcuterie boards.
Doma
362 N. Camden Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(310) 277-7346
www.domabh.com
The Italian-influenced menu at Doma highlights quite the selection of freshly made pasta dishes. Using global flavors, Chef Dustin Trani turns to his culinary roots (grandfather founded the legendary Italian restaurant J. Trani's and time spent in Italy with his mom learning to make pasta) to create Northern Italian-style house-made pasta, ravioli, cheeses and sauces, all prepared with locally sourced ingredients and fresh produce from local farms. Together with Pastry Chef Marissa Sharon, Chef Trani came up with the perfect pasta recipe – egg yolks and imported 00 Italian flour. Guests will never make a bad decision when ordering the light and simple spaghetti tomato basil, fresh seafood linguini or the cocoa tortellini featuring a bitter cocoa pasta shell filled with sweet ginger shrimp mousse and a Thai butter sauce.
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Superba Snack Bar
533 Rose Ave.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 399-6400
www.superbasnackbar.com
Not at all a snack bar, Superba Snack Bar is a modern pastaria in the diverse and chic area of Venice. Chef Jason Neroni has created a standout menu featuring freshly made pastas daily. Neroni smokes and infuses his pasta with vibrant flavors using his Rosito Bisani pasta extruder. One of his most popular pasta dishes is the smoked bucatini carbonara – house-made smoked noodles, which are cooked al dente, are mixed with pancetta, heavy cream, marscapone and grana padano. A slow-poached egg tops the decadent dish. Gnocchi with braised lamb pancetta, tagliatelle cooked with Dungeness crab and a Jerusalem artichoke ravioli also round out the menu.
Bucato
3280 Helms Ave.
Culver City, CA 90034
(310) 876-0286
www.bucato.la
Chef Evan Funke’s vision for Bucato is pure dedication to seasonal ingredients and to reviving the dying art of pasta “fatto a mano.” Pastas are made daily in Bucato’s “pasta laboratorio,” which is a glass-enclosed, temperature-controlled room that sits above the restaurant's open kitchen. Trained in Bologna, Italy under master pasta maker Allesandra Spisni, of La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese, Chef Funke brings integrity and passion to creating pasta. All pastas are rolled out by hand using one traditional Bolognese tool, a mattarello, which is a meter-long wooden rolling pin. Shapes are formed by hand or hand tools without any type of machinery. While the Bucato menu changes daily, patrons always find pleasure indulging in one of the many pastas.
