Like many other Hudson Valley communities, Coxsackie in Greene County has seen an influx of investment from former New York City residents relocating upstate. Local pasta lovers will soon have a new option for their noodle needs.
Inside the backroom of what was once an auto shop, Steve Gonzalez adds ingredients into an automatic pasta machine, a stainless steel contraption that stands more than 5 feet tall.
“So, I’m just adding water to the flour and it’s mixing inside and making a dough.”
As workers use power tools to transform the space into a pasta factory, Steve and his wife Kate Galassi are testing out their recipe for vegan pasta dough – no eggs.
Steve and Kate are opening their new venture, dubbed Via Ravioli, near another business Steve co-founded in 2012, Sfoglini. The pasta company, which moved from Brooklyn to Coxsackie in 2018, is now owned by a private equity company. Steve left about a year ago.
“I always thought if I sold or left that business that we would move back to the city, but we’ve built a nice life and nice community here over six years. Our son’s in school, so we decided we stay,” said Gonzalez.
Kate jumps in, saying after putting down roots, they felt there was an opportunity to do something for the community – and get a little closer to their customers.
“Sfoglini is really big. They do a million pounds a year. It goes all over the country. And while that’s very exciting to be on that scale, in this community it feels exciting that we can do something selling pasta directly to all of our neighbors and the towns around the Hudson Valley,” said Galassi.
Steve says he always wanted to do regular factory tour days at his former business, where local residents would be able to come see the pasta making in action. But it never happened.
“One night over dinner I suggested to Kate that we should do a pasta shop, when I knew I was leaving, and we ran it by our committee of friends and everyone was like, ‘Sounds like a great idea!’ So, that’s blind faith, we’re kinda just going with it,” said Gonzalez.
Right now, Via Ravioli is a bit of a collaborative effort from Steve and Kate’s neighbors and friends. They’re pitching in on designing the physical space and the packaging. The couple appreciates the community help, for a business that’s hard for motorists passing through the area between Albany and Kingston to miss.
“We like the location, Right on 9W.”
“Right next to the Stewart’s”
“Next to Stewart’s, which I think is an anchor for an upstate town.”
Via Ravioli is just across the street from the Sfoglini factory.
After a few minutes of mixing the vegan dough – a mixture of semolina, fine-grain white flour, and water – Steve opens the top of the mixing machine to test its consistency.
“That’s kind of the clump that we’re looking for it to make, where it’s holding together, but yet you can still…”
“Every mom will know, this looks basically like kinetic sound. Like, the stuff you really hate when your kid plays with and smooshes it into the carpet,” says Galassi.
The kinetic-sand-like-mixture is ready to for the big time. With the push of a button, the mixer extrudes the mixed dough into a thick sheet that’s collected onto a spool. It looks almost like a thick roll of paper towels. Then, the spool of dough is loaded into the cutting mechanism, beside the mixer.
On a belt below, out come perfect lengths of pappardelle.
“It’s like your quintessential noodle experience. It’s a big, fat, fluffy, fresh pasta noodle,” said Galassi.
Via Ravioli will sell fresh pasta at its shop out front. Kate says there will be other treats, too.
“We’re stocking a little pantry section of some Italian things, some local things, but mostly we’re excited to open the doors and have people come in and say, ‘Oh yeah, when I was a kid my grandma always used to put amaretti out on the table, that’s what I really want to bring home,’ or whatever it is that they’re excited for, that’s what we want to sell,” said Galassi.
The couple plans to open Via Ravioli as soon as the end of the month.
“Our strategy is pretty simple, as long as we can keep the doors open from day-to-day, keep the quality up, hopefully we can make a go and hopefully we can get some love back from the customers,” said Gonzalez.
