Jamie Freda spent her summers in Puglia, Italy, learning the finer points of cooking traditional Italian food from her grandmother.
“She taught me everything,” Freda said. “She made the simplest foods taste good because of the quality of ingredients.”
It was only natural that Freda took what her grandmother taught her and pursued a culinary education, first at the International Culinary Academy in New York City and then at ALMA – the International School of Italian Cuisine in Parma, Italy.
What she discovered was that her passion was rooted in making pasta.
“Preserving tradition was what I found through pasta,” Freda said.
What she also found was that no company offered gluten-free, grain-free, vegan pasta. If they do, it is not like traditional pasta, she said.
So, she moved to Rhode Island a year ago and launched Project Pasta out of the Hope & Main kitchen in Warren, where she makes beet, carrot, leek, spinach and tomato fettucine and tomato gnocchi, which she sells at farmers markets.
The pasta has a cook time of 30 seconds since it is comprised of three ingredients: konjac root, tapioca and dry, dehydrated vegetable flour.
“The gelatinization of the konjac root just needs a quick in and out of water,” she said. “It’s a first of its kind – something I know people need.”
Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Shuman@PBN.com.