Edible Food Finds: Durum Artisan Fresh Pasta
Photos by Linda Campos
In the warm, familiar kitchens of Boston’s North End, Al Giorgio III grew up on pasta. When he was very young, in the mid-1980s, his parents opened Giorgio’s Pizza, which they later expanded into the popular Salem Street restaurant La Famiglia Giorgio. He recalls his grandmother teaching him to make dough when he was barely old enough to reach the counter.
Back then they used traditional durum semolina to make their pasta. Flour was naturally fresher, naturally better tasting, he says. “Everything was organic back then.”
Early in his teenage years Giorgio noticed a change. What had always been his staple food began to cause discomfort. Eventually he realized his intolerance could be caused by the change in ingredients—namely the industrial wheat used in commercial pasta. He discovered he was not alone, and he met many people with similar symptoms.
“We hear it all the time from customers,” he says. “People know.” They wanted their pasta made the old-fashioned way.
This was the impetus for the Giorgio family to open Durum Artisan Fresh Pasta and return to using only the simple, pure ingredients that made pasta perfetto in his grandparents’ native Italy. Durum’s mission statement—to make great, fresh food from local ingredients at fair and friendly prices—developed into a mission to go organic.
Lynn turned out to be the perfect location for their new enterprise. On the corner of Eastern Avenue and Harvest Street they found a building with a much larger space for production than they could ever find in the cramped North End, as well as a friendly, accessible storefront which they spent a year remodeling. Since opening in October 2019, Durum’s retail business has grown exponentially.
Durum sells nine types of semolina extruded pasta, including harder-tofind shapes like bucatini and lumache; pastas made from specialty doughs like spinach, basil and squid ink; six egg pastas; five whole-wheat pastas; stuffed pastas including raviolis, manicotti and lasagna; and a large selection of gluten-free pasta—all 100% organic. In addition to pasta, Durum offers organic fresh-baked breads and classic Italian prepared meals such as chicken marsala and eggplant parmigiana. Everything is fresh, everything is made with simple, real ingredients. The shop stays open until 6pm Tuesdays through Saturdays, and many customers drop in on their way home from work for fresh pasta they can drop in boiling water for just a few seconds.
One of the greatest challenges to committing to 100% organic is supply. Durum sources the 2,500-plus pounds a week needed for their production from a co-op in North Dakota. Currently such volume is too hard to find closer to home, though Giorgio says they would love to work with Lynn-based One Mighty Mill eventually. “The market is a little behind, especially trying to buy stuff in bulk. It’s easier to find five pounds of organic cheese than 500 pounds.”
For their stuffed pastas, Durum uses cheese from Calabro, a family business based in East Haven, CT, known for their strict adherence to antibiotic- and steroid-free production and superior taste. “We try to keep the circle as small as we can.” Eggs come from New Hampshire and the quadruple-filtered water used in all pasta production comes straight from Lynn. Giorgio cites Lynn’s water quality as a draw. “Lynn has one of the best water supply systems in the state.” In fact, last year Lynn was one of 61 towns to receive the annual Public Water Systems Award from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
As second-generation business owners, the Giorgio family applies the work ethic inherited from their parents and grandparents to commit to what others find too hard. “It’s always been an ‘our family to your family’ kind of atmosphere and credo. And that’s why this organic movement matters to us—we don’t want our family eating all this junk that they process our food with; so why would we feed it to your family? If it ain’t organic, it ain’t authentic. Your family, just as everyone else, deserves an authentic and natural product that they can feel safe eating.”
This story appeared in the Spring 2020 issue.
