Pensi Pasta Completes the Farmers' Market Meal

There is one booth at all three Santa Cruz markets that I can always count on: Pensi Pasta.

Without fail, Pensi Pasta (Italian for “Think Pasta”) shows up at every market, year round, whether it’s the downtown market on Wednesday afternoons, the Saturday morning market in Aptos or the Sunday morning market in Live Oak. It's so reliable, in fact, that it’s taken me months to finally write about them.

Pensi Pasta, based in Marina, carries between 15-20 flavors of fresh pasta in all shapes and sizes. The noodles range from long, wide lasagna sheets to delicate cappellini to the bold ribbons of pappardelle. The flavors run the gamut between the popular spinach, lemon parsley or sun-dried tomato to more daring flavors like orange ginger black sesame, porcini mushroom and spicy curry. Then there are 13 different flavors of homemade raviolis, sold at $6 for 20 large pockets of pasta. Try the butternut squash stuffed ravioli in a sage butter sauce, or the pumpkin raviolis in a lemon cream sauce. Smoked salmon, black bean and cheese, and chicken pesto are also popular flavors.

Fresh pasta, once you have tried it, may keep you from ever going back to the normal dry pastas. 

“It’s just a whole different texture,” said owner Evette Lecce, who learned to make fresh pastas from her great-grandmother in Sicily, Italy. "It's a little silkier, yet it still comes al dente. It’s just a whole different experience on the palate."

The best part about Pensi Pasta’s die-hard presence at the market is that it makes a true farmers’ market meal possible. Lets face it, what is a meal without some good old carbohydrates?

“All of the winter greens we are seeing right now are wonderful with pasta,” said Lecce. 

Sure enough, Swiss chard, which is so abundant right now, is a popular addition to pastas in traditional Mediterranean cooking. Sautee Swiss chard in olive oil and garlic until it turns dark green and wilts down to a spinach-like appearance, and toss it in with your drained cooked pasta. 

Then there is El Salchichero, the local sausage chef who goes to the Live Oak market on Sundays. Stop by his booth for a spicy Italian sausage before visiting Pensi Pasta to pick out the perfect pasta shape and flavor. 

There is also H & H Fresh Fish, available at both Live Oak and Aptos markets. Its sustainable seafood selection is easily paired with many of the fresh pasta flavors—especially its sea scallops, prawns and salmon. The lemon parsley linguini is a popular choice for a seafood pasta dish, but going out on a limb and trying the orange ginger black sesame is worth it, especially with a lemon or orange butter and prawns or scallops. 

The latest developments to look out for at the Pensi Pasta booth is a new wheat, gluten-free pizza crust made with quinoa, brown rice and tapioca flour, instead of wheat. Lecce recommends trying it with one of her sauces, like the kalamata and green olive spread, or one of her three pesto varieties. The crusts come already formed in the baking tin, so it’s almost as easy as the pasta. If you are new to Pensi Pasta, make sure you ask how long the cooking time is for the pasta shapes you select. They all vary, but some are as quick as 3-4 minutes.

All herbs and vegetables used to stuff raviolis and flavor pastas are locally grown, with most of Lecce’s produce coming from the Monterey Market. 

“Let me tell you, we are spoiled where we live," said Lecce. "The Monterey Penninsula rocks when it comes to all of our farms and the food you can find here. It’s just as good as Italy.” 

And she should know. Lecce just returned from a two-week tour of the beloved boot. 

The Saturday Aptos Market is year round at Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Dr., from 8 a.m.-noon. The Live Oak market is year round on Sundays at the East Cliff Shopping Center on Portola Drive, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.