Nail: Globetrotter's pasta is out of this world

The purchase of fresh pasta at the Sedalia Area Farmers’ Market will likely be accompanied by a brief tutorial on proper preparation and, if you’re lucky, a story or two from the globetrotter behind the Pasta Italia stand.

Monem and Judy Wailli operate Pasta Italia in Pilot Grove. Monem, known to all as simply “Wailli,” was born to make delicious pasta. Wailli, who is Italian and Greek, grew up in “many places,” but good food and good pasta have been a staple throughout his life.

“This is my food I eat all my life,” Wailli said of his pasta.

Wailli remembers his mother, who is part Italian, using the best ingredients available at the market to feed the family of 10 children, even during wartime when food was scarce.
“My mother was always a fanatic when it came to food,” he said.

When Wailli didn’t care for the cuisine of Czechoslovakia while attending school there in the late 1950s, he and several roommates converted a shower room into a kitchen where he cooked dishes like those served by his mother. Later, he opened an eatery in Paris and a restaurant in Hawaii.

Wailli moved his family to mid-Missouri to provide his daughter, Sophia, with a safe environment and good schools. He developed a reputation in Columbia for baking breads and would bake up to 140 loaves in a day for distribution in grocery stores. Wailli’s bread baking days ended when he broke his arm while teaching his daughter to ride a horse.

I’ve never tasted Wailli’s bread, but I can vouch for his pasta. A few simple ingredients — semolina (a type of flour), water, extra-virgin olive oil and salt — are combined and crafted into various shapes by Wailli’s equipment at Pasta Italia. Tasty and healthy whole-wheat varieties are also available.

It’s hard to describe the difference in taste between Wailli’s fresh pasta and the dried noodles you buy from the store. I prefer the texture and fuller taste of the fresh pasta. Wailli describes the difference like this: “Go to McDonald]s and get a chicken nugget or a hamburger. Or, get a steak. That is the difference.”

Wailli once challenged a customer to a taste test after he balked at the price of the fresh pasta. The customer has been a regular for three years.

The fresh pasta cooks in less than five minutes, which is another thing I happen to love about it. I’ve used a variety of Wailli’s fresh pastas to make traditional hot pasta dishes to cold salads and garden lasagna, and it never disappoints.

Pasta Italia also sells biscotti, marinated olives and a Parmesan and garlic mix, which can be used in making a sauce, garlic bread or a number of different items. All of Pasta Italia’s items are available from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday and 3 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Sedalia Area Farmers’ Market, main gate of the Missouri State Fairgrounds on South 65 Hwy.