As the hot days of summer wane and we get out our sweaters and jackets, our meals also transition from lighter fare and grilled foods to heartier, cozier options — including pasta.Rebecca Romagnoli has a passion for pasta, so much so that she makes it available to her customers at a variety of “involvement” levels at Forma Pasta in Sewickley.
New Stanton native Romagnoli has early memories of making spaghetti in her grandfather’s basement, especially at Christmas time. While she was too little to help, she recalls watching the box of pasta drying on the dining room table, knowing it would be an important part of their holiday feast. It made such an impression that she went to culinary school and became a chef, working at restaurants including Diamond Run Golf Club, the Omni William Penn, Altius and The Vandal.
While working as the executive chef at The Vandal, she started a side business making pasta as a subscription service in which clients received monthly deliveries of fresh shaped and stuffed pasta. Romagnoli combined unusual or surprising flavors to build a dish around intriguing pasta. Ultimately, she opened her own market in the Allentown neighborhood, selling pasta and serving sandwiches from a flat-top grill.
In August 2023, she opened Forma Pasta tucked away on Beaver Street in Sewickley. There, you can get delicious pasta, and just how involved you want to be with it is up to you. If you’re simply in the mood for a wonderful meal, they are open for breakfast and lunch Mondays through Saturdays and dinner on Friday and Saturday evenings. The limited breakfast menu includes sandwich, omelet, egg and pasta options. Lunch is much more extensive with salads, steaming soups, inventive pastas and tempting handhelds. Whether you get the basil pesto gnocchi (pillowy soft gnocchi, with a limoncello basil pesto cream, fresh mozzarella pearls and a balsamic drizzle), a meatball hoagie made with their house-made meatballs or a plate of their fresh ravioli, you can’t go wrong. But be sure to save room for one of their delicious house-made desserts.
The dinner menu is larger, with tempting small plates, pasta options and other traditional Italian entrees such as veal, chicken or eggplant Parmigiana, Milanese or Florentine. The restaurant is BYOB, and charges no corkage fee.
If you love their food but prefer to dine at home, many of their entrees are available frozen so that you can have them ready to go when you want them but don’t feel like going out or actually cooking. There is also a catering menu, in which larger portions may be ordered and picked up, along with other options such as sandwich rings and charcuterie boards.
They make fresh and dried pasta, which are available in the store or numerous local stores ranging from small markets such as Local Provisions, Mayfly Market & Deli and Harvie Farms to Giant Eagle Market District stores.
However, if you are feeling really ambitious, you can sign up for their popular pasta (Thursday) or pierogi (Wednesday) classes. These are offered in the evening and may also be booked privately for 8-20 people for groups of friends, corporate events or team-building or bachelorette/bachelor parties. Participants in the pasta classes will learn to make a basic egg pasta dough, three different shapes of pasta (all of which they will take home) and enjoy a small plate of pasta at the end of class. These are BYOB, as well.
Other than using a dough mixer and sheeter (the machine that rolls the dough into flat, thin sheets), all of the fresh pasta at Forma Pasta is made by hand. With a mainly open kitchen concept, you can watch the team rolling, filling, pinching and creating all sorts of delicious pasta delicacies right in the front of the restaurant. (Of course, the dried pasta, which is extruded into shapes, must be made using a machine.)
Whether you want to just have someone put a delicious meal in front of you, heat dinner up at home, boil some great pasta and make your own sauce, or impress your friends and family by making your own pasta, Forma Pasta has something for every energy level. Mangia!
Forma Pasta, 531 Beaver Street, Sewickley, PA 15143, 412-586-7195 formapgh.com
Barbara is a freelance writer living in Fox Chapel. She is an expert shopper for the best in local products and services.
