Pasta Casareccia: Homemade Pasta Perfection in NDG
I have been a fan of Pasta Casareccia (www.pastacasa.ca) on Sherbrooke Street West in NDG for many years. The restaurant’s name is Italian for “homemade pasta.” What originally started out as making their own pasta grew into a distribution to many restaurants in the greater metropolitan area, along with the availability of over 50 different kinds of pasta from their gourmet boutique for you to cook at home.
There are 70 seats in the dining room, naturally closed off during most of the pandemic. But when I stopped by recently for what turned out to be a multiple-day selection of lunch items for the office, the place was busy. Owner Mauro Petraccone has kept the place humming with a take-out window of delicious items, and a fridge full of ready-to-heat-up meals, sauces, and more. You can order piping-hot menu items for pickup or delivery via DoorDash or Uber Eats.
Mauro started working here 35 years ago. The happily married dad has been the owner for 20 years now. He does it all, from preparing meals to working at the cash. Last summer he was able to accommodate 50 people before the government shut the dining room down. “It has been tough,” he told me. “Sales are okay and I am grateful. Delivery orders have tripled. We have a good reputation in the community.”
All of the freshly made pasta is made with 100 percent durum semolina and they only choose the best ingredients for their stuffed pastas. In season, you must sample some of their special kinds of pastas, like the Agnolotti di Zucca — large raviolis stuffed with pumpkin and almonds.
I called in my order at Noon for a 1 pm pickup. During the pandemic, I have opted in favor of ordering from restaurants to treat myself to a few days of fun lunches at the office. For meal number one, I chose the tortellini rosa in tomato and cream sauce, with two large pieces of fantastic garlic bread and a decadent piece of chocolate mousse cake. The Spaghetti Bolognese was perfect for the following day. It was pre-made but tasted as fresh as can be after I pulled it from the microwave oven. Mauro included two pieces of bread and butter, something I always like to have for a spaghetti meal. The meat Tortellini in Brodo soup started things off for my finale, followed by an absolutely amazing Poulet Parmigiana sandwich.
The menu has other soups, salads, bruschetta, cold cuts, antipastos, cheeses, lasagna, cannelloni, and a wide variety of other pasta plus a few other yummy-looking desserts which I will have to sample for future visits.
Pasta Casareccia is located at 5849 Sherbrooke St. W. It is open every day except Monday. For more information, call (514) 483-1588 or log on to www.pastacasa.ca.
