Hudson Valley Pasta: A Peek Inside the Sfoglini Factory

Did you know that Sfoglini makes all of their pasta in the Hudson Valley town of Coxsackie?

Sfoglini (pronounced Sfo-lee-nee, with a silent g) gets a lot of love for their fun, organic pasta shapes (pumpkin-like Zucca and wavy-edged Reginetti) and their colorful flavor infusions (earthy Porcini Trumpets and orange curls of Sriracha Fusilli). But another fun fact about Sfoglini is that they combine American-grown ingredients with Italian-made equipment and techniques to create a rough-textured pasta that clings to sauce far better than its slippery, mass-produced supermarket counterparts.

When I messaged Sfoglini for more info about their Catskills-area factory for this blog and my Brooklyn Based column, co-founder Scott Ketchum generously invited my family to the factory so he could show us around.

Sflogini Pasta is made right here the Hudson Valley with time-honored Italian techniques.

The Sfoglini pasta factory was entirely white and silver-hued, cool and immaculate, yet as calming as a leafy Zen garden. We were mesmerized by the satisfying rhythm of the machine that pumped and cut the Reginetti into shape, the vibrations of the conveyor belts, and the steady-paced distribution of pasta onto drying trays that shifted into place with mathmatic precision. I was so entranced that I had to send Scott an email later to ask my one important question: What does Sfoglini mean, anyway?

Sfoglini Pasta comes in many fun, kid-friendly shapes, and we had so much fun seeing how they get made.

“The Sfoglini (or Sfogline) are pasta makers in the Bologna area of Italy that are masters of pasta-making (particularly handmade pastas). They tend to be women (like the Pasta Grannies you see online) and they pass down the tradition of pasta making from generation to generation. To have a sfogline in your household or restaurant is worth their weight in gold,” Scott explained via email.

Sfolini Reginetti has wavy sides and a rough, rustic texture that makes it perfect for holding sauce.

With a background in creative direction, Scott handles the non-food side of the business, focusing on things like sustainable packaging, branding, design—and occasionally hosting factory tours for the press or local schoolkids. His business partner, Steve Gonzalez, worked for 14 years as a chef (at great NYC spots like Hearth and Frankies Spuntino) before he began handling the food side of their partnership.

Scott continued to say, “Steve worked on and off in Italy for 3 years and loved the tradition of the sfogline, so we adapted it to our name—changing the e to an i for a masculine pronunciation and to make the term more unique to our brand.”

Bronze dies—giant perforated wheels made in Italy—give Sfolini pasta its Old World texture.

The signature, sauce-friendly texture of Sfoglini pasta comes from beautiful, heavy, Italian-made bronze plates. These giant perforated wheels, called dies, shape and cut the pasta. Though the bronze die require more expensive upkeep than Teflon die, which are more common in American pasta factories, they’re responsible for the rustic texture that makes Sfoglini special.

At the end of the tour, Scott invited the kids to pick out boxes of their favorite shapes, and then we went directly to Mansion + Reed so Pete and I could pick up a couple more, and then I immediately signed up online for their Pasta of the Month Club, which involves a monthly delivery of two surprise boxes of pasta with a few recipes for inspiration. (As someone who cooks pasta once a week and is always scouring Pinterest for ways to make it more interesting, this is a major gift to myself. I already received the August box, and it’s awesome!)

Sfoglini Pasta: boxed and brought home! An all-organic array of Sriracha Fusilli, Zucca, Porcini Trumpets, and Radiators.

Sfoglini Pasta is available at grocery shops throughout the Catskills and the city. You can find your local retailer here. If you like, check out my Instagram reels for a little pasta factory satisfaction, and if you need a bigger hit of pasta factory bliss, this Eater video should do the trick.