MIKE: So we are making the pasta for a signature dish, our mezzi rigatoni, really lovely tubular shape with ridges on the outside, helps to catch all that lovely sauce.

So this is Stella and she extrudes all our pasta for us.

SETH: Right, because we're not starting with a big well of flour here and cracking some eggs.

MIKE: Right.

That's a fresh pasta.

What we're making today is a fresh dry pasta.

So basically what happens is we add semolina flour to durum wheat flour from Puglia and water, and that's really it.

And then once it's mixed, all we have to do is turn this on and it's going to start extruding the pasta through the dye and just give a little slice like that.

And so mezzi means half.

So in this case, we're not doing a full rigatoni, some of those little microscopic pieces that are going to melt into the sauce and thicken it up and make it super velvety, but this is not for the faint of heart.

You got to be careful.

So what we're going to do is we're going to stop it.

Do you want to give it a try?

SETH: Let's do it.

MIKE: Let's do it.

Here you go.

I'm going to back away just in case I get hurt, okay?

SETH: All right, I don't want to slice your hand off, chef.

MIKE: Here we go.

Ready, set, and ride it up.

Nice.

SETH: Not so nice.

MIKE: There you go.

Good, good, good.

SETH: Now we're making some mezzi.

I love it.

MIKE: Wow, you looking for a gig?

Because I've got some space.

It takes a little bit of time to really feel it out.

It's one of those things that even though it's coming through a machine, there is some technique behind it.

And hand-cutting for us is super fun.

It gives us the ability to control the shape.

SETH: All right, I'm just going to stand here all day until my crew tells me I got to actually get to the kitchen.

MIKE: Yeah, I'm gonna go on break if that's cool.

SETH: Works for me, chef.

A lefty, no less.

MIKE: Before you get carried away, let's turn this off, and let's really take a look at the pasta itself.

SETH: As I'm letting some hang off the side.

MIKE: They look great, they look great.

Look, everybody makes some mistakes, but what's really unique about this pasta is that it's still warm, but it's holding its shape.

SETH: It's warm and it actually smells really, really good.

MIKE: Smells amazing, doesn't it?

SETH: Oh, it has that nice toothsome bite.

I can only imagine how good that's going to taste when it's got a great sauce clinging to it.

MIKE: For sure.

How about this?

You did a great job on the pasta.

Why don't we take this in the back and we'll cook up the final dish?

SETH: Sounds good to me, chef.

MIKE: Great.

All right, Seth, we're in The Red Hen kitchen.

Let's get this dish fired up.

SETH: All right, well sir, here's your mezzi rigatoni.

MIKE: Grazie.

SETH: Prego.

MIKE: So first thing we need to do is we'll get some pasta in the water, so rolling boil.

From here, we'll take a hot pan, we're going to add a little bit of olive oil.

SETH: Of course.

MIKE: And I always use good extra virgin olive oil, a little bit of slivered garlic.

Once it starts to caramelize on the outside, we know we're ready to add the sauce and the sauce is going to start to simmer immediately.

And so we're going to add our fennel sausage.

What's really exciting about this sausage is that we've got a lot of toasted fennel seed, coriander, but then that fennel pollen is our magic secret ingredient.

SETH: Just takes it to the next level.

MIKE: Takes it to the next level.

When you taste it, you don't really know what you're tasting, but it's this amazing floral note.

So we're going to add a little bit of salt.

Okay?

And the big thing, too, is when we're cooking this, we consistently want to taste.

Something I teach all of our cooks at all the restaurants is if you don't taste, you don't really know.

At this point, my salt level's really nice.

I'm going to guild the lily and we're going to add a little bit of butter.

So that butter's going to help to really make it that nice velvety nature along with the pasta.

Let's talk a little bit about the cheese we're about to add.

Parmigiano Reggiano is the king of Italian cheeses, really nutty, really milky.

That's going to soften the sauce a little bit.

And to combat that, we're also going to add Pecorino Romano, a little bit saltier, funkier, made from sheep's milk cheese.

And we'll start to mix that up a little bit.

Don't try that at home, folks.

SETH: All right, I got one wardrobe here.

MIKE: You're looking good, you're looking good.

Another thing, how do we know if the pasta's cooked?

There's no box here, so we got to taste it ourselves.

Perfectly al dente.

Look at that pasta you made.

How beautiful is that?

SETH: Wow.

I did that all myself.

MIKE: You did it.

A little bit of pasta water, and we'll give it a toss.

SETH: And I can just see that sauce is just clinging to the side of that pasta.

It's not sliding off.

MIKE: It's slicking.

SETH: Slicking.

MIKE: I'm going to give it one last taste here.

You know what?

For me, maybe just a tiny bit of salt never hurts.

Just grab a couple plates.

There we have it.

Our mezzi rigatoni with fennel sausage ragu, tomato, fennel pollen.

Now we just need to give it a little dusting of Pecorino Romano.

Here you have it, Seth, the mezzi rigatoni.

SETH: Wow.

Let's go eat.

Chef, again with this aroma.

MIKE: Thank you.

SETH: I want to dig in, but what wine pairs nicely with this rigatoni?

MIKE: So we've got a great Chianti Classico.

Really works well, super fruit-forward, jammy, from Tuscany, can't go wrong.

SETH: Chin-chin.

MIKE: Chin-chin to you, sir.

SETH: Perfect.

Let's give this a shot.

MIKE: Let's dig in.

SETH: Just next level, chef.

MIKE: Thank you.

SETH: Sauce just oozing out as I push my fork down.

And that pasta that we made with all that love and care, it really does have a firmness to it that you're just not going to get with something coming out of the box.

MIKE: Yeah, I think there's a real bounce to it.

You know, because it's that fresh dried pasta, we're not completely drying it out.

There's still that suppleness that really is unique to The Red Hen.

SETH: And the fennel pollen.

MIKE: It just makes it so floral, just brings around all the flavors.

SETH: And on top of that, just garlic, tomato sauce can never really go wrong.

MIKE: How can you?

Especially the Pecorino Romano on top, a little bit of that saltiness just to finish the pasta.