Anyone who says they’re not a pasta fan is a liar and probably a carb-hater who cannot be trusted. Arthur Ave and many other neighborhoods in the city are bursting with restaurants dishing up dozens of pasta dishes and speciality stores selling dried pasta imported from Italy. However, there’s only one spot that produces and sells NYC’s best pasta, and it’s not a fancy restaurant or celebrity chef-driven market (cough Eataly). Borgatti’s Ravioli and Egg Noodles cranks out the best fresh pasta in all of the city and is the perfect spot to visit whenever the craving for ravioli strikes. While I may have turned up when celebrating National Ravioli Day on March 20, it’s not too late for you to celebrate now.
Even the Harshest Critic Approves
My seventh-grader sister, possibly the hardest palate (and person) to impress, raves about Borgatti’s. My mom sometimes schedules her trips to pick me up around their hours so she can feed the pasta fiend. Right before Christmas break on possibly the windiest day of December, I trudged out to 187th St to procure the goods or else risk extreme anger when arriving home empty-handed. If I hadn’t been weighed down with fresh ravioli, I probably would have been blown away, but it was well worth it.
Abby: “I love it so much. I treasure going to Arthur Ave just for that ravioli (author’s note: no mention of her beloved older sister, hmm). I’ve been to many fantastic Italian restaurants but their ravioli never compares to Borgatti’s. However, they need to change their strange hours of operation.”
Not only is their ravioli is top-notch, the other fresh pasta, such as the fettuccine, is amazing. You choose the thickness, because yes, the pasta is cut fresh for your order then twirled into a circle and packaged in brown paper. The fresh pasta boils to al dente in a fraction of the time of a box of Barilla, and is perfectly springy and smooth, the ultimate vehicle for a Bolognese or marinara sauce.
Over Eight Delicious Decades
For my cultural anthropology class last year, I chose to write about the immigrant experience and food businesses (is it a surprise I incorporated food?) and interviewed several local businesses, including Borgatti’s. I spoke with the current owner, Chris, grandson of Lindo and Maria Borgatti, the original owners, whose family has been operating the business for over eighty years. They’ve been using the same core recipes since the shop’s inception in 1935 and still produce the pasta using small machines and by hand. Chris says many of their customers are multi-generational and have been shopping there for years.
Even after eighty years, the dough is still made fresh behind the counter, rolled through the machines, and cut to customers’ specified width. It is then weighed and packaged into wax paper parcels and sprinkled in cornmeal. The ravioli is also made in-house and is sold by the box. Borgatti’s, despite its old-school roots and narrow focus on just fresh pasta and a few dry goods, innovates beyond the classic flour and egg base with flavors such as pumpkin ravioli and squid ink fettuccine.
Pasta la Vista
Next time you go home, don’t arrive with just your dirty laundry as a gift to your parents. Bring home a tray of ravioli and maybe even offer to prepare it: 1.) boil water. 2) set timer. 3) heat up good-quality jarred sauce. 4) eat. to earn your family’s undying devotion or at least no nagging to put away your stuff for twenty-four hours.