This Saturday at Little Flea: Carl Cimini's Pasta Domenica

Carl Cimini -- a filmmaker by day, who most notably produced a documentary entitled Dancing in Amdo, in 2008 -- is also a regular market vendor at Little Flea. It was Carl who had the now historic first sale at Little Flea's, on opening day last year: an 18" tall collectible Superman doll he'd picked up at the Goodwill a few years before. Carl says of the sale: "the guy who bought the doll apparently has his home filled with Superman collectibles and a very patience wife."

That was last year. This season, Carl is selling authentic, handmade pasta.

How did that come about? "Well, I had sold pretty much all my collectible inventory at the Little Flea by the end of last season. I so enjoyed my experience of the outdoor market -- meeting and chatting with people -- but I was out of things to sell, so I thought about coming up with a product, something I could make and reproduce, and that’s when it hit me -- I love making pasta!"

Carl usually makes pasta for his family during the holidays. "I don't buy pasta in the grocery, it takes me 15 minutes to make a pound of fresh pasta by hand, most times I cut it with a knife."

The move seems to have worked. He is getting repeat buyers. He calls his pasta Pasta Domenica, which means Pasta Sunday. The recipe he uses is over 100 years old and dates back to before 1896. "That was the year my Italian Grandfather immigrated for the second time to the United States, with his new bride," he elaborated. "It’s her recipe and her name was also Domenica."

What makes his pasta so special? "Well for one thing it's not fortified with vitamins -- vitamins are bitter -- and that’s the biggest difference between what I do and store bought pasta." He continued, "Also the use of a proper pastry dowel for rolling the pasta, using the dowel instead of a common rolling pin gets most of the air out of the dough."

"I am very particular about food, I like good food. I have many family members who cook, they cook great Italian food, the recipes they use are from Ascoli Piceno in the Marche region of Italy. La Marche cooks are known to be very very traditional cooks. The saying about Ascoli Piceno is when Ascoli was a teenager, Rome was a baby. So my Italian cooking has roots in an ancient medieval Italy."

Carl offers regular unbleached flour pasta, along with spinach, black peppercorn, tomato basil, and whole wheat. "Flavored pasta's are fun to try," he said. "I like them because they disperse the flavors throughout the entire length of the noodle, allowing for the flavors to romp around one's palette".

Check our Carl Cimini's documentary work.

To learn more about Carl’s pasta adventures search Pasta Domenica on Facebook.