Society Does a ‘Pasta by Sergio’ Tasting at Hudson Grace!

Just imagine your new favorite pasta prepared fresh by Sergio Chierego, owner and chef of Pasta Santina, and served on lovely Hudson Grace whiteware made in Italy. The double pleasure experience tasting event was held on Tuesday, July 14, from 4 to 6 pm, at Hudson Grace, Montecito. The store was abuzz with HG devotees and Sergio fans, along with Montecito Country Mart’s neighboring store employees. Seen at the event was the district manager of Hudson Grace San Francisco, Julie Cantor, who drove down to help staff; and fans of Sergio – Ingrid Hansen and Interior Designer Ana Eschenbach.

The chic concept of combining a local chef with local dinnerware was conceived by HG Store Manager, Medeighnia Westwick. We talked about her bringing Sergio in, and she explained, “Last summer I was near Sergio’s store in Carpinteria, and basically, I tasted the pasta and now can’t buy anything else! It’s all fresh ingredients and organic. Also, I realized how involved Sergio is in the community and with a lot of our Hudson Grace customers. So, we’ve been working to get this event on the books for the past few months.”

As Medeighnia and I were talking, Sergio treated us to two pasta dishes, one an entrée for vegetarians made with his pasta, vegetables and a tomato sauce, and one pasta entrée with Italian sausage and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Both dishes were of course topped with freshly shredded parmesan cheese. It tasted amazing, given – as he politely added – that the pasta had been prepared two hours prior, their perfect al dente snap a delight.

Intrigued, I asked him why the entrees were so delightfully fresh two hours after preparation. Sergio explained, “Let’s make a scenario. The best pasta from Italy gets made in February, gets boxed in March, travels in a container to New York and then to Los Angeles. So from the pasta actually being produced to its appearance on a retail shelf takes six months. The pasta I have here for this tasting was made three weeks ago, and the flour was milled two months ago. So it’s the freshest dried pasta you’ll ever have, and holds up for several hours after being prepared. It is still tender, not tacky or dried out. My pasta is made with 100% organic American ingredients, no GMO, and handmade in Carpinteria by me. When we expand our shop, we will be milling our own flour. We also want to make long shaped pasta, like linguini, and spaghetti.”

I asked him how he makes his pasta, and what makes his pasta different. Sergio said, “Usually, Italian pasta is two ingredients, water and semolina. But if you do that same recipe in America, your stomach will bloat because the quality of wheat in America carries a lot of gluten. What we do at Pasta Santina is we use organic spelt, which is from the same family of semolina but has the lowest glycemic index. To that we add organic whole wheat to boost the fiber, making it much easier to digest and easier on your stomach.”

Next, we talked about pasta nutrition. He was happy I asked, as he shared that, “…compared to other Italian pasta brands, Pasta Santina has 20% more fiber and 20% more protein. One serving has 11 grams of protein because we use spelt.”

Sergio mentioned that on July 23, he and Chef Dom Crisp, the co-owner of Dom’s Taverna DTSB are doing a community pasta event. Details are found in Chef Dom’s Instagram video, where he is holding bags of Pasta Santina and says: “Chef Sergio is making a special trumpet pasta to honor Santa Barbara, and we’ve put it on the menu July 1. And we are doing a special à la carte menu with him on July 23. We are serving up a featured menu of unique Pasta Santina pastas, available in both pintxo (small bite) and plato (full plate) sizes so you can try them all. These will include Fusili; a summer chilled pasta salad with poached potato, txistorra (chistorra) sausage, caramelized shallot, green bean, piquillo, sambal aioli, and a poached egg. Lumache: Anderson Valley lamb belly ragu with black garlic Manchego and chive. Vorti-Cee: Cacio e pepe with morcilla de cebolla and broccolini. Shells (Plato size only): Three-cheese al forno with cheddar, jack, Basque cheese béchamel, and pimentón breadcrumbs. We will also have retail bags of the featured pasta available to purchase during the event so you can take some home. Can’t make the event?” he asks rhetorically. “That’s okay! We have Pasta Santina Trumpets on the menu now. Reservations suggested.”

Which led to my next interview question to Sergio, “How about cooking classes?!” He laughed and said at this time his shop is not licensed for that. However, he is open to giving them… just needs a proper location. Anyone reading have a suggestion?! And don’t forget to invite me! 

Till next week my loves! Xx JAC