There are the well-kept secrets, the obligatory stops and those that are worth the detour. There are above all essentials of all kinds that are good to share. For the pleasure of your palates, The duty therefore imagined an appointment in the form of a gourmet notebook, one theme at a time. Because everyone loves fresh pasta, it was appropriate to draw up a list of addresses where you can enjoy a good dish. Classic or revisited, prepared in a thousand and one ways, pasta lends itself to all occasions, from weekday meals to festive evenings: they have it all! For your pleasure, here are 10 places to stop.
MONTREAL
Moccione
Moccione will soon be reborn in a larger premises a stone’s throw from the place where he was born. This must-have for Italian cuisine and fresh pasta offers explosions of flavors and textures with every visit. Casarecces, tortellis, bucatinis — one of our favorite pastas! — or even gnocchi: each pasta dish is garnished as it should be, with four or five ingredients, no more. We fell in love with the freshness of the ingredients and the pecorino shavings as a final touch. We are almost counting the sleeps before the reopening. In the meantime, we visit the Moccione Pizza, new place of pleasure of the owners Luca Cianciulli and Maxime Landry, at 380, rue Villeray.
Elena
“Coffee, wine, pizza, all the time”: the maxim of the Elena restaurant goes straight to our hearts… and to our stomachs! And we recognize there all the love of the kitchen of the chefs Emma Cardarelli and Janice Tiefenbach, who have a real obsession with fresh pasta – an obsession that the second was able to satisfy in particular in the kitchens of Nora Gray of the first. At the top of the list, the now legendary spaghetti Ubriachi, with its red wine sauce, revives the power of pasta, that is to say, to be as comforting as it is gourmet. Special mention to scarpinocc with goat cheese ricotta, porcini mushrooms and morel cream. To die for, we are told. And we believe it!
We note that you have to book, since we are far from the only ones to know the magic of the place!
5090 Notre-Dame Street West
Caffe Un po di Più
It is the love of Italy and its cuisine imbued with simplicity and freshness that brought together Dyan Solomon and Éric Girard (Olive et Gourmando, Foxy) in this Italian refreshment bar project, open since 2018. Four years later , finesse and seasonality still mark the dishes of Un po di Più, where each proposal competes with the other. Vegetable and cheese dishes, such as burrata, the filling of which changes with the harvest, are served alongside fresh homemade pasta which accompanies the classic ragu. We want to take it all! No wonder when you know that the name of the restaurant means “a little more”!
3, rue de la Commune East
Il Miglio
A fresh pasta canteen reminiscent of a chain of restaurants that once populated the commercial streets, Il Miglio has more than one trick up its sleeve, starting with know-how. The owners, Giovanni Rasile, Michele Mercuri, Claude Pelletier and Hubert Marsolais (Hunting and Fishing Club, Le Serpent, Le filet), have learned their skills in terms of artisanal pasta and make sure to offer variety and freshness with a menu that changes weekly and by branch. Another observation: the service in the cabaret, like in the cafeteria, could be off-putting, but the concept is updated here thanks to the elegant decor. How efficiency at lunchtime can rhyme with refinement! Last point on the board: the pantry section, which brings together fresh pasta, but also cheeses, cold cuts, wines, desserts and condiments. Nice address for picnic supplies — it’s coming, no wonder!
Three addresses, including the first at 5235, boulevard Saint-Laurent
BarBara
We talked about this address in these pages a few months ago and we still remember the display of fresh pasta in the kitchen, that says it all! Pasta al ragugnocchi pomodorocasarecce cacio and pepe or even spaghetti aglio e olio : this is an ideal address for good fresh pasta enhanced with tasty sauces. And with a few antipasti, including fried olives with blue cheese cream, a simple Tuesday evening becomes a day of celebration! No time to sit down there? They sell dry pasta to take away.
4450 Notre-Dame Street West
Tuckshop
The lair of chef-co-owner Theo Lerikos offers much more than fresh pasta, granted. Nevertheless, the creations of the day are so full of freshness and enthusiasm that we would be wrong not to add this address to the list. Its market cuisine combined with generous and comforting pasta is worthy of mention and is the only argument necessary for you to go there. The newest sensation: snow crab tagliatelle. The kind of dish that makes time stop.
4662 Notre Dame Street West
QUEBEC
Battuto
The only restaurant to have literally moved us to tears (!) over a dish. Hats off to chef Guillaume St-Pierre, who sublimates with great talent the basics of Italian cuisine and the seasonality of the ingredients, and who makes us rediscover them at the same time. Those who have had the chance to taste his butternut squash agnolotti or his lasagna know something about it. For the others, don’t worry, you will have just as much fun with the mafaldines, the cavatelli and the other pasta shaped each week according to inspiration. And don’t shy away from your pleasure: try the burrata, the scallops and one of chef Paul Croteau’s desserts — including his tiramisu, a favorite since day one.
527 Langelier Boulevard
Pasta Shop Stoneham
It was after losing his job as a cook during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that Maxime Hamel started making fresh pasta — a great way to pass the time! — and delivering a few hundred a week until demand explodes. Less than a year later, he renovated premises in Stoneham to turn it into a real pasta shop. There is a wide variety of fresh pasta ready to cook as well as different sauces. Pappardelle with mushroom sauce and bacon? Beetroot and goat cheese ravioli with rocket pesto? Here, the variations are almost endless! We are not surprised to learn that Maxime Hamel supplies five restaurants in the region. Good news: after more than two years of hiatus, it will once again offer pasta-making workshops. To your rolling mills!
2694 Talbot Blvd., Suite 106, Stoneham
Il Matto
A classic of the capital in terms of fresh pasta, Il Matto has long been the only destination for lovers of good Italian cuisine. Inspired by the dishes of his momthe owner, Rocco Cortina, also offers spaghetti meatballs di mamma, which tastes of childhood. However, if you have only one choice to make among the dozen creations of fresh pasta, set your sights on the pappardelle with wild mushrooms and white truffle oil. Despite the years, this safe bet has not aged a bit.
Three addresses, including the most recent at 1500, rue Métivier, local 100, Lévis
OUTAOUAIS
pastina
A true Gatineau institution, Pastina has been making fresh pasta and homemade sauces since 1986. Its café-boutique is full of variations on the same theme: lobster ravioli, fettuccine, tortellini, cheese cannelloni, gnocchi, spaghetti and tutti quanti! Star ? Undoubtedly the rotolos, a preparation that we rarely see. Imagine a Christmas log where the sponge cake is a fresh dough and the cream, a mixture of cheese, Italian sausages and red peppers. We cook everything in a tomato sauce as we would with cannelloni, we gratinate the pretty rolls and… good appetite ! Pastina also offers several frozen pasta dishes, as well as a grocery section where you can buy cheeses, oils, vinegars and dried pasta.
355 Greber Boulevard, Gatineau