Spinach ricotta ravioli and squid ink spaghetti: KC couple open handmade pasta shop
Mitch Fagan’s first attempt to make pasta was when he was 10 years old. He combined canned red and white sauces and bow tie noodles from a box.
He gradually upgraded his skills through high school, making dinners for family and friends. He even had a “restaurant” in his apartment in Madison, Wisconsin, while in college.
Then, during a family trip to Italy in 2019, he was captivated by chefs who made pasta from scratch. With the encouragement of his girlfriend, Leah Steinberg, he tried it at home.
“That was a pivotal moment, seeing how pasta should be made in the Italian style,” he said Saturday. “They do so much by hand, how they intricately fold the shapes and the tools they use. That inspired me to come home and master that and then get creative on my own.”
Fagan was finishing medical school at Kansas City University, but in spring 2021, he teamed up with Steinberg on Zero Zero Handmade Pasta, named for the Italian fine-milled flour.
They worked out of a West Bottoms commissary kitchen, using flour from Marion Milling Co. in the area. They took orders online and delivered a different pasta variety each week to residential customers. In April, they set up at farmers markets in Brookside and Leawood.
“We were making pasta one day a week and it has grown to four days a week,” said Steinberg, who owns Steinberg Sustainability Solutions, a small business consulting firm.
They needed to expand. Now their first retail shop and production facility opened Saturday at 1702 Summit St. Fervere bakery had once operated in the space.
It has a manager and four employees.
Zero Zero will offer several varieties of its own pasta, rotating them weekly, including squid ink spaghetti, lemon mascarpone agnolotti, buttered sweet corn and mascarpone ravioli, and spinach ricotta ravioli.
It will also sell flour from Marion Milling, as well as olive oils, tomatoes, cheese and herbs so customers can make their own sauce.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.
This story was originally published August 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM.