Fresh pasta
Italian semolina and eggs collected that morning
Made by hand the same day, with sauce from the garden’s tomatoes. An Italian who ate here said it was the best pasta of his life, and he wasn’t being polite.
Three things
Pasta can only be as good as what goes into it
Italian durum wheat semolina, which gives the texture. Eggs from our own hens, collected that same morning, which give the colour. And nothing else: fresh pasta contains nothing else.
It’s kneaded by hand and cut the same day. No drying, no packaging and no use-by date, because it’s eaten a few hours after it exists.
A free-range egg has a different yolk. In an omelette you barely notice; in a pasta that is egg and flour, it’s everything.
The sauce
The same tomato as the pizza
Tomatoes from the garden picked when they’re red all the way through, preserved that same day and turned into sauce when it’s needed. The work began in spring, with choosing the seed.
It’s the same sauce that goes on the pizza, which is why both meals taste of the same house.
What gets made
Ravioli, spaghetti and whatever the group asks for
Smoked salmon ravioli
With cream cheese. The one that’s asked for most and expected least.
Sweet potato ravioli
Sweet potato and mozzarella. Sweet and savoury at once, and with no meat or fish.
Spaghetti
With the garden sauce. The simplest of them, and where the ingredients show most.
It’s agreed with the group beforehand. If someone doesn’t eat something, we make something else and that’s that.
At a glance
What’s behind a plate of pasta
Three ingredients. Which is why all three have to be good.
Always, at any meal
The meal doesn’t end on the plate
Linen, good china, crystal, cutlery and flowers cut from the garden that same morning. The table is laid for eating, not for a photograph.
Unlimited water, and up to two beers or two soft drinks per person. The wine is from Fontanars: red, white or rosé depending on what you’re eating and what you fancy.
And the table gets cleared. Nobody in the group lays it, nobody clears it and nobody washes up. That’s what separates eating in a rented house from eating at home.
Before you write
The questions we get most
Can we order it without staying?
No. The house is rented whole to one group and the cooking is part of the stay.
Is it made on the day?
Yes. Fresh pasta is kneaded, rolled and cut on the same day it’s eaten. What’s prepared in advance is the sauce, which started long before.
Can we join in?
Yes. Making pasta by hand is one of the most rewarding things to do as a group, and it requires no knowledge at all. It isn’t compulsory: it’s up to whoever’s taking part.
What if someone doesn’t eat fish or meat?
It gets sorted. The sweet potato and mozzarella ravioli have neither meat nor fish, and nor does the spaghetti with garden sauce. Tell us when you book.
Is there a gluten-free option?
Fresh pasta is wheat semolina, so no. If someone in the group can’t have gluten, we cook them something else that evening.
R.S.V.P.
What to ask for in advance
None of this has a form. You tell us on WhatsApp and it’s sorted before you arrive.
The fillings are decided beforehand, because they don’t all come from the same place.
Where it happens
A 16th-century villa, entirely yours
The house where the kneading happens is over five hundred years old, five minutes from Valencia airport and fifteen from the centre. Seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, a private pool and 4,500 m² of garden, always for one group at a time.
