By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Two years after his quest began to bring authentic Italian pasta and sauces to Westport, Frederico Perandin, a native of Venice, Italy, has opened Il Pastaficio, a downtown shop and restaurant.

The business, at 135 Post Road East, features a display case filled with samples of more than 15 kinds of freshly made pasta. 

If linguini and rigatoni sound familiar, some of the other fresh pastas at Il Pastaficio — bucatini, cavatelli, ravioli ricotta e spinaci or raviola Emilla — may not. Another case is filled with freshly made sauces, including pesto Genovese, puttanesca and cacio pepe sauce.

Everything in the store “is 100 percent Italian,” Perandin said. “No Alfredo, no vodka sauce.”  

The red sauces are made using plum tomatoes imported form Naples, Italy, and the pasta is made from organic flour, also imported from Italy.

“All dishes have to respect the Italian tradition,” he said.

The shop also has Italian desserts such as tiramisu and cannolis, and other products form Italy, including oils and sweets.

Perandin opened the Westport store on Oct. 21, but said it already has been well received by Westport customers. He also owns another pasta shop by the same name in Cos Cob, which opened in 2018.

Perandin came here from Venice six years ago. He studied to be a chef for five years in Padua, Italy, but then attended Bologna University where he majored in economics. Although he always had a passion for cooking, he trained in advertising to follow in the footsteps of his father, who died when his son was 22.

But Perandin retained a passion for food, and after 20 years in advertising, he decided that he needed to return to his first love — cooking. 

“I took a tour of Italy and tried to steal some secrets,” he said.

He and his wife, Anisa, an Italian American, now offer the fresh pasta and sauces in both Il Pastaficio locations, as well as classes in how to make pasta both in the shop and off site.

Perandin hopes to serve full-course meals in the Westport store within about a month, and currently is training his Westport culinary team. 

Il Pastaficio, 135 Post Road East, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday to sell pasta and sauces, with extended hours planned when the restaurant starts serving meals. For more information, call 203-557-6299 or email info@ilpastaficio.com.

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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and currently teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.