01/03/2023

Pasta Department Chefs Rosemarie and Rainer Drygala were honored this month with Legendary Member Awards from the American Culinary Federation at the local Caxambus Chefs’ Chapter event. The husband and wife team actually met years ago at an American Culinary Federation conference and have been making pasta for 38 years!

Rosemarie, Rainer and the DeRomo’s pasta team make up to 24 different varieties of pasta for our market and restaurant in Bonita Springs. The average batch of pasta is about thirty pounds and takes 45 minutes to prepare.

Producing up to 8,000 pounds of pasta a month, the team of five employs several machines and shapers (called dies) to create the different varieties. An extruder machine is used for tubular pastas and a laminator machine is used for flat pastas.

Gnocchi, made with flour from Naples, Italy, has its very own machine as does ravioli. At one point, the Drygalas used a doughnut stuffing machine to stuff ravioli! They later collaborated with the manufacturer to modify the machine and come up with the ravioli machine in use today.

We invite you to try one of DeRomo’s ravioli selections including meat, spinach and cheese plus seasonal specialties such as butternut squash or squid ink. Looking for something a bit more unique like tangerine or lime ravioli? Special orders are taken. If you can imagine it, our team can make it.

Semolina and Durham Extra Fancy flours are used for the pastas. Our gluten-free pasta uses a special Italian flour. Gluten free pasta is the first thing made every morning after a thorough disinfecting of the pasta machine so that the gluten free product is not tainted by wheat flours.

After the shaping process, the pasta is lightly dried and freshly packaged. Pasta will keep well in the refrigerator for up to ten days or in the freezer for many months.

Pictured: Morelia Perez, Pablo Francisco, Santa Alfonso, Chef Rainer Drygala and Chef Rosemarie Drygala.

The DeRomo’s pasta team loves to both make and consume pasta! When asked what their favorite pasta dish was they all had clear favorites:

Chef Rainer enjoys linguini with clam sauce (either red or white)

Chef Rosemarie favors angel hair with butter, cheese, salt and pepper

Pasta Technician, Santa has a weakness for pappardelle with alfredo, while Pasta Technician Pablo loves angel hair with vodka sauce. Morelia likes anything in the fettucine or tagliatelle families.

 

Whether you dine in or prepare our pasta in your own home, we know you’ll enjoy our housemade pasta varieties, made with pride, a wealth of experience and the finest ingredients.