Cooks Swear By This Classic Cavatelli Maker

Chef Peter Klein grew up with luggage of cavatelli within the freezer. “I’m from North Jersey, so we known as them ‘gavadeels,’” says Klein, now the chief chef of the Austin cocktail bar and restaurant Vacation. “The primary time I mentioned that in a restaurant to a server, the look on their face was utter shock and confusion. I used to be like, ‘Sorry, cavatelli.’” On any given Sunday, Klein’s mom would hand-crank large batches of cavatelli along with her BeeBo cavatelli maker.

Made by the Berarducci Brothers Manufacturing Firm in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the BeeBo is a small hand-cranked machine with picket rollers that simply attaches to your counter. Feed it lengthy strips of dough, and also you’ll be capable to crank out cavatelli simply in addition to you can make them by hand, solely a complete lot quicker. Usually a household heirloom, BeeBos have been discontinued in 2008, however classic fashions might be discovered on eBay or Etsy — although they’re typically shortly snapped up by pasta aficionados. (Fante’s Kitchen Store sells an analogous mannequin, known as Cousin Elisa’s Cavatelli Maker, at fantes.com.)

Klein is only one of many cooks who cherish the BeeBo. At Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn, co-owners Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli use it to make their well-known ricotta cavatelli. They provide excessive reward to the BeeBo’s effectivity of their 2010 cookbook, The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Handbook: “One factor’s for certain: We’d by no means make cavatelli with out one.”

Seeing the BeeBo known as out within the Frankies Spuntino cookbook was a lightbulb second for Klein. “It form of blew my thoughts,” he says. “It felt like, ‘Hey, I do know this insider factor.’ That is one thing that’s been in my kitchen cupboard since so long as I can bear in mind. To me, it didn’t look like some heritage model or specialty piece of cookware.”

The primary time Klein served BeeBo-made cavatelli as a particular at Vacation, it was an enormous hit. Now, it’s an everyday on the menu, at the moment served with brown butter, roasted butternut squash, and sage. “It’s been one among our high sellers, simply behind the french fries and the burger. It’s laborious to think about not serving it.” 

The BeeBo can also be a sentimental device for Klein, who misplaced his mother to breast most cancers when he was 15. “She was unwell for almost all of my childhood,” he says. “On nights when she didn’t wish to work out what to prepare dinner, it was like, ‘We’ll simply have the gavadeel with some tomato sauce from the freezer.’ That was a straightforward, fast meal, which I took with no consideration till a lot later.” Klein has since misplaced his grandmother and uncle, each of whom used the BeeBo. “[Using it] retains me related to my household, and it’s form of a strategy to honor their legacy.” 

To Klein, there’s just one BeeBo. “I’ve tried different [cavatelli makers]. There is perhaps some sentimental bias at play, however I don’t know of another cavatelli machine that works as constantly­ — and as properly.”