Nothing beats fresh pasta. Dry spaghetti and its numerous variants are fine ¡ª indeed, some can be truly excellent ¡ª but it¡¯s always an extra pleasure to sit down to a plate of soft, delicate linguine or pappardelle made in-house the same day.
That said, not all pasta fresca is equal. When the dough is mixed, rolled and then sliced or fashioned into individual pieces by hand ¡ª rather than simply passed through the blades of a cutting machine ¡ª it gains an extra level of lightness. Watch sfoglina Chisato Sugino in action, and you will see how it¡¯s done.
Her shop, Pastificio Sugino, is a modest operation housed inside a converted tailor¡¯s shop on a side street in residential Nishikoyama. But it¡¯s just the right size to fit a small workspace by the front window; a deli counter with a gleaming La Cimbali espresso machine at the door; and a kitchen at the rear with a laid-back dining space big enough to seat seven or eight people at a time.
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