{"id":2457935,"date":"2020-05-01T11:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T17:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=325062"},"modified":"2020-05-01T11:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T17:28:00","slug":"food-matters-free-pasta-as-panacea-for-tough-times-at-francescas-pasta-market-empanadas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/food-matters-free-pasta-as-panacea-for-tough-times-at-francescas-pasta-market-empanadas\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Matters: Free pasta as panacea for tough times at Francesca\u2019s Pasta Market &amp; Empanadas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Whisking through his flour-dusted enclave in the Aspen Airport Business Center last week, Martin Meineri greets a visitor with the weary yet satisfied smile of a chef working overtime to feed his community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Meineri, like many local artists, craftsmen and caterers, has spent the past month and a half hunkered down in serious production mode. Though calls and customers keep coming in for orders \u2014 meat or veggie lasagna in 10 to 40 (or single) servings, smoked bacon-chicken ravioli in red bell pepper dough, and nine types of empanadas being most popular on his menu of Argentinian and Italian specialties \u2014 Meineri has cut hours of two full-time staff dramatically, leaving him to pick up the slack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Yet Francesca\u2019s Pasta Market &amp; Empanadas has always been a labor of love. Named for his daughter, Francesca, now 7 years old, the operation has grown from a small storefront that opened next to City Market in Aspen in December 2011 to a 2,000-square-foot production facility in the AABC. For a few years after moving the company here in 2015, Meineri focused exclusively on catering \u2014 his three-bite miniature empanadas (and full-size handheld versions) are a signature snack at events such as Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) festivals and Aspen Valley Polo Club summer tournaments, as well as private parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">In 2018, Meineri added the storefront here, inviting customers inside to enjoy long, multicolored strands of fresh egg pasta (fettuccini, spaghetti and pappardelle, flavored with spinach, beet and carrot); seven kinds of ravioli; five handmade sauces; and those signature empanadas, each crust stamped with Francesca\u2019s aspen-leaf logo. All are available for takeaway, of course.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">On April 1, Meineri launched Free Pasta Wednesday, offering 1 pound of fresh pasta to the first 50 people who walk through the door. It\u2019s his way of showing gratitude to the community, and a clever tactic to draw first-timers to the shop. Perhaps itching for an excuse to get out of the house on a food run during Aspen\u2019s \u201cstay at home\u201d order, folks have been so responsive to Francesca\u2019s Wednesday special that Meineri is expanding further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">On Friday, May 1, Meineri will give away 40 pounds of potato-ricotta gnocchi in similar fashion. One pound equals two to three servings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI\u2019ve been making more fancy food, more vegan food: vegan pasta and gluten-free pasta,\u201d Meineri says. \u201cEverything is for order. Gluten-free spinach with basil. I mix flavors. Same with ravioli (and) vegan lasagna.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Native to Argentina \u2014 where empanadas, or pastry turnovers stuffed with beef, chicken, or cheese and vegetables rule the country\u2019s street food scene \u2014 Meineri learned the craft, as well as the art of Argentinian barbecue (which he prepares upon request), at a young age from his mother. Later he lived in Macerata, Italy, for four years, to attend culinary school, work in restaurants, and absorb time-honed techniques from his father and grandfather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Today, Meineri pushes quality, using organic flour and sustainably sourced meats in his creations. (He shot and killed the lamb for spinach ravioli himself at a Carbondale ranch, for instance, and recently turned out more than 100 empanadas from a hunter\u2019s wild boar.) An impressive coconut \u201cricotta\u201d fills his vegan cheese ravioli; house pesto is made purely of fresh green herbs, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cIt\u2019s different-tasting,\u201d explains the chef, noting that he boosts slow-simmered Bolognese with bacon and pork and makes pizza, flan, tiramisu, carrot cake and custom birthday cakes, too. \u201cThis is my passion, cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\"><span><em><a href=\"mailto:amandaraewashere@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">amandaraewashere@gmail.com<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/magazines\/aspen-times-weekly\/food-matters-free-pasta-as-panacea-for-tough-times-at-francescas-pasta-market-empanadas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whisking through his flour-dusted enclave in the Aspen Airport Business Center last week, Martin Meineri greets a visitor with the weary yet satisfied smile of a chef working overtime to feed his community. Meineri, like many local artists, craftsmen and caterers, has spent the past month and a half hunkered down in serious production mode. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 01:08:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}