There’s something special about homemade pasta. Its delicate flavor and texture are unmatched. At Velvet Buffalo, we make all our pasta in-house with the freshest ingredients we can get our hands on. Each pasta requires unique ingredients to accommodate a variety of tastes and dietary preferences. There are more than three hundred types of pasta around the world, here's a look at the handful we love at Velvet Buffalo.
Top left to bottom left, clockwise: pappardelle, bucatini, spaghetti, agnolotti, garganelli, gnocchi.
Spaghetti
Spaghetti, in its simplest form, is made of durum flour and water. The word spaghetti translates to “a small string,” and this long, stringy pasta is one of the most popular Italian foods worldwide thanks to its flexibility and ability to accommodate a variety of ingredients.
At Velvet Buffalo, we make our house-made spaghetti and meatballs with classic marinara and spicy Fresno peppers with Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Orecchiette
Orecchiette’s name comes from the Italian word meaning “little ears.” It’s a traditional pasta of Apulia, a region in southern Italy. Orecchiette is known for being versatile and prepared in several different ways. We prefer it with spicy house sausage, roasted red peppers and rapini.
Bucatini
Meet spaghetti’s chewier, denser cousin, bucatini. This hollow pasta from central Italy gets its name from the word buco, meaning “hole.” We make our bucatini in-house for our vegan cacio e pepe, prepared with a creamy sauce of cashews, nooch, miso and cracked pepper.
Pappardelle
Coming from the traditions of Tuscany, pappardelle is shaped like flat, ribbon-like strands. It’s usually served with a hearty meat sauce or a mushroom sauce. In Italian, “pappare” means “to gobble up.” We prepare pappardelle with whole wheat egg noodles paired with a beef ragu and Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Garganelli
When garganelli was invented in 1725 in the northern region of Romagna, it was originally served in broth. Now, you can find it paired with creamy sauces or rich meat ragus. The dough is made with flour, eggs and water and rolled into a tubular shape with ridges on the sides. We recommend our pesto garganelli made with green garlic and asparagus pesto, red peppers, asparagus, peas and pickled ramps.
While the menu at Velvet Buffalo changes seasonally, you can always count on a variety of fresh, house-made pasta dishes to choose from. Try one or try them all!