Saturday Farmers’ Market Vendor Feature: Elena’s Pasta
This week we are featuring Elena’s Pasta, a first year vendor at our market! With the motto “Pasta is for sharing”, Elena’s Pasta brings delicious fresh artisan pasta across Vancouver. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with owner and UBC alumni, Elena Adiletta, to find out more.
How long has Elena’s Pasta been around? How did you get started?
Officially, Elena’s Pasta was started this year. However, unofficially, it has been around for years, as I have made lots of fresh pasta for family and friends over the years. My parents are pasta machine manufacturers so from a very young age I learned how to make fresh pasta and I was always surrounded by different kinds of pasta machines.
What are the three most important things you think people should know about Elena’s Pasta?
- Elena’s Pasta is made with an Arcobaleno pasta extruder using brass dies. This means when the fresh pasta takes its shape by passing through the brass dies, it gives the pasta a rougher surface texture allowing the fresh pasta to absorb sauces better after cooking.
- It is a fresh artisan pasta that is crafted locally with fresh and high quality ingredients bringing Elena’s Pasta it’s flavorful nature.
- Elena’s Pasta uses semolina flour which is milled from durum wheat and this type of wheat has a higher gluten/protein content meaning that during the pasta making process, it does not require eggs for the binding of ingredients. This gives the fresh pasta a distinct bite and chewy texture. & also makes it vegan!
Do you have criteria for sourcing pasta ingredients?
When sourcing my ingredients, I am looking for high quality and fresh ingredients. The flavored pastas are all made from fresh vegetables that are juiced and made into flavors such as jalapeño fusilli and basil garganelli. The high-quality semolina flour I use has a distinct yellow color, smell, and grainy/coarse texture that brings Elena’s Pasta its grit and bite.
What types of pasta do you sell?
I sell predominantly semolina and flavoured fresh pastas. Some of those flavors include my jalapeño fusilli and basil garganelli but I also have a whole wheat-based pasta. I also recently acquired new pasta dies which means over the coming weeks there will be new pasta shapes available to buy at the market.
Why did you choose to come to the UBC Saturday Market specifically?
I chose the UBC Saturday Market because UBC has been an important community to me over the years. I recently graduated with a Food Science degree from UBC this past May and wanted to bring a simple yet versatile product to the market where I can connect my food science degree and love for fresh pasta with the UBC community.
If you could only have
one of your pastas for the rest of your life which one would it be?
This is tough to answer because I love all pasta, especially a good flavor like basil garganelli but if I had to choose, I’d keep it simple with a semolina-based pasta such as my semolina radiatori. The ridges of the radiatori allow it to hold sauces well and there are so many different sauce and food pairings that go with semolina-based pasta.
Where else can customers find you? And is there anything else you want them to know?
Look out for new flavors and shapes that will be making their way into the market over the coming weeks!
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