Over the last decade, handmade pasta has gone from rustic rarity to restaurant staple. In the past few years, chefs across the country and here in Kansas City have embraced pasta-making as a form of craftsmanship, giving fresh, house-made noodles a place on their modern menus. While diners might marvel at a silky pappardelle or a delicately stuffed agnolotti, chefs know the labor and intention behind these plates. For some, it’s a way to show off their technique; for others, pasta is a comforting dish to enhance with seasonal ingredients. Three main pasta-making techniques—hand-rolled, filled, and extruded—tell a unique story about how professional kitchens are blending Italian tradition with innovation.
Hand-Rolled Pasta: The Art of the Sheet
Perhaps the most romanticized of all techniques, hand-rolled pasta connects chefs to centuries-old Italian tradition. Using wooden dowels or pasta rollers, chefs stretch sheets of dough until they’re paper thin, ready to be sliced into tagliatelle, pappardelle, or delicate fettuccine. The return of hand-rolled pasta has signaled a renewed appreciation for touch, texture, and time.
Here in Kansas City, chefs at restaurants like Farina and Acre have elevated hand-rolled ribbons and larger kerchief-like floppy squares of pasta into works of edible art. These pastas are often made from egg-rich doughs, kneaded and rested before being rolled into shape or coaxed into sheets and then cut. It’s labor intensive, and it takes a practiced eye, but the result is a silky texture with just the right chew, nothing a box of dried pasta could ever replicate.
“Fresh pasta is so satisfying to make. We roll it every day at the restaurant. It looks easy until you do it,” says Andrew Longres, the chef and owner of Acre in Parkville. “For a chef, it’s also a blank canvas, a vessel for many different flavors. There are over 600 different pasta shapes in the world, and thousands of combinations of sauces to pair it with.”
Filled Pasta: The Chef’s Playground
Filled pastas, like ravioli, agnolotti, and tortellini, represent the most expressive form of pasta making, where the creativity of a chef meets the precision of a craftsman. These bite-sized parcels have exploded in popularity, thanks in part to the rise of tasting menus and small-plate formats. They’re also a vehicle for hyper-seasonal ingredients—for instance, spring peas and ricotta, sweet corn and mascarpone, or braised short rib and brown butter.
Restaurants like Lazia helped define this moment in Kansas City’s pasta scene. Their chefs often treat filled pasta as a canvas, using it to showcase house-cured meats, farmers-market finds, or deeply personal flavor combinations. The process—rolling dough, piping fillings, sealing by hand—requires finesse and speed, often done by a dedicated pasta cook who’s more sculptor than line cook.
“At Lazia, we serve culurgiones, a handmade Sardinian braided-and-filled pasta shape. I have always loved this shape, as it is fairly technical to do, and not often seen in restaurants due the time it takes to make and the repetitive folding skills that are required,” says the executive chef, Aaron Wells-Morgan. “It’s also a great vessel for other ingredients, because you can fill it with whatever you want.”
Extruded Pasta: Tradition Meets Tech
Extrusion, the process of forcing dough through bronze dies to shape it into noodles like rigatoni, bucatini, or fusilli, once belonged to industrial pasta factories. But recently, high-end pasta extruders have become a coveted kitchen tool, allowing chefs to create house-made versions of shapes previously left to boxed brands.
At spots like Zero Zero Handmade Pasta, extruded pasta has been embraced for its consistency and versatility. Unlike egg doughs, extruded pasta often uses just semolina and water, yielding a sturdier noodle ideal for heartier dishes.
“Fresh pasta is the foundation of our menu at Zero Zero Pasta,” says the owner and executive chef, Mitch Fagan. “It’s not just something we serve with a sauce, it’s the main event. We think pasta should have flavor and texture of its own, so we start with really high-quality flour from Marion Milling here in Kansas City. All of our pasta is fresh extruded, not dried, and we use bronze dies to shape it, which gives the pasta a rougher surface that holds onto sauce better. It also lets us achieve the exact texture we want while keeping more of the grain’s natural flavor. It’s more delicate and perishable than dried pasta, but that’s part of its beauty.”
Together, these three pasta techniques have redefined what it means to serve fresh pasta in a restaurant setting. No longer an afterthought, handmade pasta in Kansas City today is a declaration—of skill, of creativity, and of respect for the craft. From three humble ingredients—flour, water, and perhaps eggs—it creates a meal that diners have come to delight in.
Acre
Andrew Longres has a brand-new pasta dish at Acre that simply screams summertime. The goat cheese agnolotti is filled with Gold Bar squash and topped with marinated cherry and Sungold tomatoes, garden herbs, and edible flowers. The dish is vegetarian, and Acre will offer some iteration of this filled, fresh pasta throughout the summer months for guests to enjoy.
The Antler Room
Even with their Japanese concept, Anjin, now open, the chef Nick Goellner and his wife and partner, Leslie, have not skipped a beat at their original restaurant, The Antler Room. Fresh to the menu is the texturally interesting radiatore, an extruded pasta that’s tossed with sweet crab meat, rich lardo, corn dashi, chopped green tomato, breadcrumbs, and finished with shio koji butter.
Photo by Aaron Leimkuehler
Bacaro Primo
The place for pasta in the Crestwood Shops is Bacaro Primo, owned by Todd Schulte and Cory Dannehl. The culinary team spends extra time making fresh, green-hued dough from scratch for their mandilli pasta, which resemble draped silk handkerchiefs. The delicate pasta is tossed with a basil pesto sauce, fresh sheep’s-milk cheese from Green Dirt Farm, and a sprinkle of chopped pistachio nuts for their Madilli Verde.
Photo by Aaron Leimkuehler
Bar Medici
An intimate dining and drinking experience awaits at Bar Medici, so make reservations to ensure your seat is saved at this luxe little spot in the Crossroads Arts District. The culinary director, Mitch Fetterling, leads a team of chefs in preparing some truly delicious pasta dishes, none more so than the handmade crab spaghetti, which is tossed with a creamy crab bisque and topped with chopped scallion and Aleppo pepper, then dusted with pecorino Romano cheese.
Bella Napoli
A popular Brookside spot for pasta, Jake Imperiale’s Bella Napoli has a loyal fan base that flocks in for good wine, great Italian food, and Italian pantry staples. With a casual and cozy dining room and a nice outdoor patio, this is the spot to dig into the tagliatelle Bolognese, made with fresh, extruded tagliatelle pasta and topped with a rich meat sauce of ground beef, ground pork, tomato sauce, cream, and Parmesan cheese.
Café Provence
For more than 20 years, the Quillec family has been dazzling guests with a fantastic array of French dishes and desserts. Handmade pasta often plays an important seasonal role on their menu, and right now the gnocchi petit pois, a French dish featuring fresh peas, is the dish to order. Handmade gnocchi are swirled in a pan with a tarragon pea velouté, asparagus, Comté cheese, and a handful of oyster mushrooms.
Corvino Supper Club
The distinctive square shape of the handmade corn agnolotti pasta from Michael and Christina Corvino’s modern American restaurant, Corvino Supper Club, located in the Crossroads, looks too perfect to be true. The petite squares are filled with creamy ricotta cheese, then topped with a sauce of local morel mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, and a dollop of briny lobster butter for the win.
Cupini’s
A pasta institution in Midtown for 22 years, Cupini’s is famous for the handmade pastas that they spin into tasty dishes and serve at their pasta shop and restaurant located on Westport Road. Consistently ranked among Kansas City’s top pasta spots, look to them for everything from large sheet pasta to ribbons of fettucine to filled pastas and everything in between. Dining in? Get their house-made lasagna, crafted from layers of fresh pasta sheets, lean ground beef, Parmesan cheese, and white cream and marinara sauces.
Farina
Michael and Nancy Smith’s Crossroads restaurant for modern Italian cuisine, Farina, which translates to “flour,” clearly has a strong focus on their fresh pasta program. Look to them to savor a wide variety of handmade fresh pasta dishes that change seasonally. Right now, the spinach handkerchief pasta should be calling your name. The dish features large, green pasta squares tossed with basil pesto, topped with a dollop of fresh tomato pomodoro sauce, and grated grana Pandano cheese.
Fox and Pearl
As the owner and chef of Fox and Pearl, Vaughn Good has found pasta to be an invaluable part of his and his partner, Kristine Hull’s, farm-to-table ethos at Fox and Pearl. It allows him to present the season on the plate with a combination of the farm-fresh ingredients available now, while also highlighting the ingredients he has preserved or pickled. His spinach tagliatelle is cut in long, flat ribbons and tossed with butter, asparagus, and pickled garlic scape, all dusted with Spanish Manchego cheese.
Lazia
It has taken three years, but Lazia is ready for its close-up, thanks to the talented and guiding hand of the chef, Aaron Wells-Morgan, and his team. They’re responsible not only for the food served at Lazia, located inside the Crossroads Hotel, but its rooftop bar Percheron and lobby bar XR. With a menu filled with creative primi pasta courses, try the radiatori, an extruded pasta with ridges designed to collect the sweet corn cacio e pepe crema topped with stracciatella cheese from Liuzzi creamery in Hamden, Connecticut, and just a touch of 15-year-aged balsamic vinegar.
Lidia’s Kansas City
With its soaring ceilings, hand-blown glass chandelier, and sassy cocktail bar, Lidia’s Kansas City doesn’t show its 27 years as an Italian staple in Kansas City. The executive chef, Cody Hogan, is still doing things Lidia’s way. That includes making fresh pasta for their popular Bolognese dish, made with house-made fettuccine noodles tossed in a Bolognese ragu sauce—chopped onions, carrots, and celery simmered for hours with ground beef and pork, red wine, and San Marzano tomatoes.
Novel
There are so many creative and interesting handmade pasta dishes on the menu at chef Ryan Brazeal and his wife and pastry chef partner, Jessica Armstrong’s, Crossroads restaurant, Novel, that it can be hard to choose just one. So, go for two. Get the lobster ravioli with Maine lobster, saffron, and compressed celery, and also order the ramen noodles with rock shrimp, yuzu-miso broth, shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, and hijiki seaweed.
Osteria Bianchi
Osteria Bianchi’s hand-rolled and filled pasta, veal casoncelli, looks like a folded envelope with an indention made on either side of the filling. The owner and chef, Josh Bianchi, has come to rely on the pasta skills he honed at restaurants in Las Vegas before applying them to the restaurant he now co-owns in Liberty with his wife and fellow chef, Kelly. The pasta is filled with a well-seasoned veal and vegetable mixture that’s tossed with pieces of salt-cured pork, or guanciale, in brown butter and thyme.
Pasta Per Favore
When the chef Joe Birch closed Avenues Bistro in Brookside, he opened his remote catering kitchen, Pasta Per Favore, which means “Pasta, please!” Fans can order online and pick up a rotating variety of handmade pasta entrees, salads, and desserts at his kitchen location. Located at the Lamar Avenue exit off I-35, Pasta Per Favore is the perfect way to feed your family fresh pasta in a flash. Order the best-seller, spaghetti and meat sauce, made from a Bolognese of ground beef, pork, sausage, and a San Marzano tomato sauce with herbs, butter, and cream that is slow-cooked for four hours.
Room 39
Celebrating 21 years in business on West 39th Street’s restaurant row, the chef and owner, Ted Habiger’s, original Room 39 location has always offered a handmade pasta or two, if only to highlight the seasonal produce from local farmers. Their goat-cheese gnocchi has been on the menu since almost day one. Light and pillowy, made with local goat cheese, it’s served with mushrooms, shallots, and nettles in a white-cream sauce and pecorino Romano cheese.
Simon’s Pasta
After moving to Kansas City about eight years ago, the chef Simon Soeun, who trained as a chef in Paris and most recently worked as the head chef at Aioxis in Leawood, has opened his very own pasta place in Shawnee. Simon’s Pasta is tucked away in the middle of a strip center, but his drive-through location allows for handmade pasta to be picked up quickly, and on the table even faster. Along with comforting favorites like Bolognese and stroganoff, the bestseller is the homemade chicken alfredo, tossed with fettuccine noodles that are made fresh daily.
The Town Company
As the menu at the Town Company—led by the executive chef, Johnny Leach, and his wife and pastry chef, Helen Jo—continue to evolve, so too does their fresh pasta program. Try the cappellacci, or nun’s hats pasta, named for its distinctive shape. Currently, the pasta is stuffed with fresh peas, nettle, and mint. Don’t forget to order the hot rolls along with your pasta for a true carb-lovers meal you won’t soon forget.
Trezo Mare
It’s hard not to crave the comforting simplicity of a carbonara, and at Trezo Mare, the executive chef, Robert Padilla, makes his with an extruded bucatini pasta. His version of the dish starts with his house-made bucatini, which is then combined with tender pieces of wood-fired chicken, smoky bacon, fresh peas, and creamy chicken jus. The dish is topped with egg yolk and black pepper. Simply stir to combine all of the ingredients, and enjoy.
Photo by Aaron Leimkuehler
Zero Zero Handmade Pasta
While pasta is all they do at Zero Zero Handmade Pasta, when you do it as well as Mitch Fagan and his culinary team, it’s all you need to do. Mitch and his partner, Leah Steinberg, have opened their pasta shop for lunch and dinner, and with room for only 24 seats inside and out, reservations are a must. The pasta dishes change weekly, so get whatever they’re serving, because it’s all made from local Marion Milling flour, which has a nutty flavor and great al dente texture.
Tags:
Aaron Wells-Morgan, Acre, Andrew Longres, Anjin, Bacaro Primo, Bar Medici, Bella Napoli, Café provence, Cody Hogan, Corvino Supper Club, Cory Dannehl, Cupini’s, Farina, Fox and Pearl, Green Dirt Farm, Helen Jo Leach, Jake Imperiale, Jessica Armstrong, Joe Birch, Johnny Leach, Josh Bianchi, Kristine Hull, Lazia, Leah Steinberg, Leslie and Nick Goellner, Lidia’s Kansas City, Marion Milling, Michael and Christina Corvino, Michael and Nancy Smith, Mitch Fagan, Mitch Fetterling, Novel, Osteria Bianchi, Pasta Per Favore, Quillec family, Robert Padilla, room 39, Ryan Brazeal, Simon Soeun, Simon’s Pasta, Ted Habiger, The Antler Room, The Town Company, Todd Schulte, Trezo Mare, Vaughn Good, Zero Zero Handmade Pasta
Dining and Cooking