The Art of Pasta
Try Steve Salvi’s fresh take on noodles, gnocchi, and more.
By Nicole Barley | Photography by Michelle Kappeler

On the morning of our photo shoot Steve Salvi, owner of Fede Artisan Pasta, is in the midst of preparations for the opening of his new space in Banco Business Park in North Huntingdon. It’s clear he’s feeling a little bit crazed. Last night, he explains, his trusted pasta machines weren’t quite doing the trick, and he had toiled for hours to hang the new signage, created for him by local forging company Iron Eden, above the door, which spells FEDE in swirling, wrought iron letters. The facility is double the size of the previous one and includes an intimate dining area, painted a deep raspberry, with huge Brazilian mahogany doors above which hangs a giant, iron hand gripping long swathes of metal pasta — between the room and the pristine, spacious kitchen. Salvi has just entered into his sixth year in the pastamaking business this October, and his products have become ubiquitous in restaurants all around the region and are sold through Market District by Giant Eagle. Fede is the Italian word for “faith,” and Salvi sees this new space, in particular the small restaurant, as “the leap to the next adventure.” He intends to hold small, private dinners there, hosted by local chefs. It’s also a place, he says, to bring in potential clients and customers “to talk, have a glass of wine, relax, and eat some pasta.” To someone not nearly as adept at making fresh pasta as Salvi and crew, (who produce a few thousand pounds of pasta weekly in 40 different shapes, including hand-rolled gnocchi, all of which can be custom-made in terms of length, size, and flavor), it would seem that the trade itself takes a lot of confidence, patience, and of course, faith that the flour, egg, salt, and water will do precisely what is asked of it. Salvi explains, “Every day is a walk of faith. But when everything works smoothly, it’s a peaceful process.”

You work with so many restaurants in and around Pittsburgh. How have those relationships developed?

It’s developed where the chefs with whom I work have become friends. It started with me and my car and dropping off boxes of pasta. And now, I’m invited to their birthday parties. These guys have become more friends than clients. I’ll do anything for them. And it’s really just multiplied on word of mouth, so, thank God for that.

How do you perceive the local food movement in the region?

It’s a must. About 10 years ago, it was a buzz to be one of the one of the few guys who actually did it. Now, if you don’t do it, it’s kind of looked upon differently. There are a lot of great chefs out there, there are a lot of farmers, and they’re all downto- earth guys. There’s nothing pretentious about them. They enjoy what they do. It’s a lot of fun to work with them.

Do you get the chance to be in the kitchen every day?

Yeah, we make a lot of ravioli fillings. Everything is custom made. Chefs will call all the time and say, “Hey can you put this, this, and this together?” The kitchen is a big part of what I do, but [I spend] a lot more [time] on the machines, a lot more with dough, the equipment.

Obviously homemade and boxed pasta are different. Can you explain how?

This is fresh. Literally, we make it one day and deliver it the next. As far as flavor, we use a lot more egg in our ingredients. It’s a lot more flavorful, it holds up well with the certain blends of flour I do, and it’s a different taste. Fresh pasta, if you have it, it’s kind of hard to go back.

Tell me about the process of developing a new pasta.

We bring in a couple dyes each year, imported from Italy. Some of the shapes we do now, I hadn’t seen before, and now I’m seeing them on menus. That’s pretty cool. It’s really up to the chef, too. If the chef would sit there and say, “Hey, can you make this shorter?” We do. So it’s his little feel on it. Chefs also give me recipes. They’re busy with what they do, they want to outsource it, so they say, “Hey here’s my recipe, only make it for me.” That’s kind of how it goes. I learn every day. After five years, I’m still going, “Ooh!” Pasta is a feel, it can be a very peaceful thing when everything pulls together.

Tell me about the machinery you use.

We have several machines, including all different types of laminated extruders and ravioli machines. We import them from several areas in Italy. A lot of it’s from the Piedmont region, and we’re currently looking at some machinery from north of Italy. Every couple years, there’s a huge convention for pasta machines in Milano, Italy. We were there last year. It was an awesome experience. That’s definitely one of those things where you have to make time. The machines are the foundation of how we started and what we do. We started off on a little machine, using ravioli sheets, doing it all by hand. But now, the volume is a little big to be doing that, so it’s intense.

At what point did you know that this is what you would do for a living?

Working in the craziness of restaurants, there was always a time when I had to go make fresh pasta, and it was a time of separating yourself from the rest of the insanity, and you just got to focus on what you were doing, and it faded everything out. And, the pasta would sell tremendously well. We’d sell out. I knew there had to be a niche for the specific things I was doing in the restaurants and that it would hopefully transfer over. What I was looking for, I could never find. I wanted something different, and no one at the time was doing what I envisioned. So, I went out and purchased some machinery. Jumped on a plane to Texas, bought my first machine off of somebody I didn’t know, and from there I just kept on doing research.

What is your favorite kind of pasta?

Tagliolini — with my grandfather’s sauce.