Pasta La Vista
By Brandon Farrel | Stones Pizza

For those of you who have been paying attention, this would be the worst title of any of my articles yet.And although it doesn’t really make any sense it does however coincide with my view of pasta in many pizza shops.. Pizza and pasta. It seems like they go hand in hand like pie and ice cream, right? But if you really think about it, they go together more like a meat pie and ice cream. When have you eaten pasta and pizza together? Most people wouldn’t, so if you have a pizzeria why would you try to sell both? I do believe pizza and pasta can belong together on a menu but in my opinion this should only be in a dine-in takeaway would say I am full of it, but most people are afraid to change. My first question I would ask is what percentage of your sales is pasta? And what is your percentage of preparation labour to have pasta on your menu? If you have a small staff, how much does a single order of pasta slow down your pizza
restaurant. My reasoning is this…people tend to have generally decided what they want when they get takeaway (I.E. pizza) and are generally inclined to share it all when they dish it out at home. In a restaurant atmosphere people will often order a dish of their own and try a bite of the others, so they are not eating pizza and pasta together.

I am sure my view on this is going to have many who disagree. In fact, most who have a pizza/pasta production? When you consider cleaning the pots and pans associated, extra training for staff, and extra equipment costs, is it really worthwhile?

I have inquired into several pizzerias that sell pasta and working with manager’s estimates, average pasta sales account for 15% of the total sales while taking up 40% of the labour. A good portion of those pasta sales were not in conjunction with pizza but rather on their own. Wouldn’t it make sense then to sell items that work well accompanying a pizza instead and to focus that energy put into pasta into creating out a better pizza and a more streamlined production? Don’t worry about losing the percentage of sales that pasta represents, people will order more pizza instead.

One of the places we consulted for in Brisbane was a pizza and pasta takeaway with just as many pasta dishes as they had pizza and fit the 15% sales 40% labour model to a “T”. When I put my ideas forth to the owner, who is Italian, he was naturally reluctant to do away with the pasta, but when he thought or creativity and simply using the pizza ingredients already on hand. The worst example I can think of was at my very first job in a kitchen back in Canada (“Elmer’s Pizza”) which happened to be a pizza and pasta place. The lasagna noodles were cooked and then eventually agreed he found there was no drop in the overall sales figures and his staff have more time to prepare the fresher ingredients for the pizzas.And with a fresher, better pizza sales will go up. So, Hasta la vista noodle!

What if you do have a dine-in restaurant? People expect a wider variety on the menu when they go to a restaurant than when they go to a takeaway, so while you can put your main focus on pizza, pasta is a good alternative to pizza on your menu.

There are many places that essentially have what’s on their pizza menu as pastas. Pepperoni with mushrooms in a tomato sauce and fettuccine may be an effective way to add more menu items with less labour…but incredibly boring. I see it time and again…pastas added to the menu without any fridge in water until it was ordered, then drawn out of the water (not properly drained) into a foil takeaway container with some beef mince pizza topping thrown on top with 2 spoons of pizza sauce and a handful of cheese. Then it was thrown into the pizza oven until brown. Is there anyone reading this does not find a problem here?

That lasagna was especially nice when the noodles were a few days old (yes, that was a hint of sarcasm).

I left there after a short period, but that was my humble beginnings in the restaurant industry. I then went on to have a great 5-star apprenticeship and becoming a qualified chef. One of my workmates however (we’ll call him Dave) gained all his experience at “Elmer’s” and went on to open his own pizzeria. It also sucked.

Dave’s story is far more common in our industry than mine. People reckon they make a good pizza because someone showed them how to make a dough, and the rest comes from tins and bags. How hard can pasta be? Boil up some noodles and throw in some pizza stuff. A surprising amount of people in our industry know little about food.

Pasta is an empty canvas… as open to creativity as an empty pizza base.You can do great things with the humble noodle, but you need to know a few basics. For example, if you are using dry pasta you need to cook it before hand and reheat for service.A lot of people will cook it al dente, which translated means “to the teeth”, meaning cooked until it is firm but not hard. The common mistake here is that if you are reheating the pasta in hot water you can easily overcook it in the reheating process. In this instance it is best to undercook it slightly (in salted water with a dash of oil) before quenching or “shocking” in chilled water. If you are reheating the pasta in a sauté pan with a hot sauce, al dente is fine.

To store the cooked pasta, toss in a little bit of oil so it does not all stick together and place in a tightly sealed container. Pasta left exposed will dry out and will have a tendency to absorb fridge “flavours” and odour. Keeping pasta in water, like at “Elmer’s” is a definite no-no. If you keep it in water it will continue to absorb it.Those lasagna noodles were nearly paste after 3 days.

Spectacular pasta does not have to mean time consuming, but is rather defined by the quality of ingredients and the flair in its creation.
Every place does a meat lasagna and a spaghetti bolognaise and a carbonara (which has an incredible amount of bastardizations to the recipe that is commonly accepted).

Although these dishes are “classic”, if you are equipped to do pasta why not jazz it up a bit with other variations of the same idea? Try a linguine with crispy pancetta that has been fried in garlic, add a bit of fresh cream and seasoning with a bit of crumbled goat’s cheese and at the last second before serving, toss through some wild rocket leaves and some shaved pecorino on top.This is basically taking the idea of carbonara and kicking it up a couple of notches without any more work than a basic carbonara recipe.

Equipment is another point to consider. How much pasta are you going to sell? How many different kinds of noodles? Are you using fresh or dried? If your pasta sales are not huge then a large pot on the stove will be fine. If you are doing reasonable volume but only reheating a couple of kinds of dry pasta for service, a pot on the stove will be fine as well. If you are cooking fresh pasta to order it may be worth the investment of a pasta cooker as cooking fresh pasta requires a bit more time and a pasta cooker has less down time.

Pasta can have fantastic returns in the right place, and if you are going to do it, do it well. There are more than enough “Elmer’s Pizza” out there.