(exciting fast music)
- Oh, what's up?
Hey, Andrew!
How's it going?
No come on, let's go, I got another food adventure for us.
- What are we eating?
- Pasta.
- All right.
- Yeah, that's right. (fun rhythmic music)
This guy right here, that's my boy.
Woo hoo, let's go!
- This is wet, now I'm wet.
- Pasta baby.
We are on our way to eat three of the best pastas
in Los Angeles at three drastically different price points,
to find out which one is the most worth it at its price.
- Worth it.
- The last stop we're going to,
I don't know if you're ready for it.
- I've had $300 steak, $130 pizza,
I think I'm ready for pasta.
I have a feeling I know what the highest one is gonna be.
- No you don't, you ain't ready.
You weren't born ready.
- Is it truffle though?
- Don't worry about it, man.
We're on our way right now to Pasta Sister.
Can I go this way?
- No! - No, no!
- Do not enter! - Yes, I can.
Where?
- Oh yeah, it's a one way, you can go down there.
- Dang it guys.
- If you start seeing cars come towards us, just stop.
(serene lighthearted music)
- I'm Francesco, I'm owner of Pasta Sister
with my mother, Paola.
We decided to open this place because we thought,
in Los Angeles, there are many great places,
but very little made fresh pasta,
low prices, like we do.
We start early in the morning making the pasta.
We make it with Italian flour,
because not all the flours make good pasta.
And not all the flour makes it yellow
and beautiful to stay for seven days,
like our pasta does.
- You guys are not sisters, obviously.
I don't see any sisters here.
- Sometimes though, they say I'm the prettiest one.
(people laughing)
But my mom and her sister work here.
My sister Georgia, she works in the front with us.
Today we're gonna prepare for you the tagliatelle
arriabata, our lightly spicy tomato sauce.
Put olive oil, chili flakes, some garlic oil,
when the pasta is ready, you put the tomato sauce
and put the parsleys, the last ingredient.
And the pasta is done.
(exciting rhythmic music)
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Wow, this tastes like the adult version of root beer.
Are we gonna eat off the same plate?
- We got a lot of pasta to eat today,
let's just avoid any Lady in the Tramp type situations.
- Here.
- Great, I hated that.
It's very good pasta.
- That was intense.
- Every noodle is just blanketed in sauce.
- I also get that sense that I'm in
his mamas kitchen in Italy.
I've never been to Italy before but...
(man laughing)
- We are gonna prepare, also, gnocchi,
with a porcini mushroom and cream sauce.
We use the porcini that we made in the morning,
adding some cream.
Everything made from scratch.
- [Steven] Fresh gnocchi, he described this as pillows.
- [Andrew] Everything that has ever been described
as a pillow has been great.
- This is like the ultimate pillow fight for my mouth.
Holy smother. - That's insane.
- So is gnocchi pasta?
- These are easily the best gnocchi I've ever had.
Oh man, we haven't had any of this bread yet.
- Look how easy it is to pull apart, no effort at all.
- It's like mamas best.
- These are all my moms best recipes.
But from our secret menu, we have the spaghetti bottarga,
with the dry fish eggs from (mumbles).
- [Steven] We're gonna definitely get that, yeah buddy.
- [Andrew] Yeah.
- You know when you've been a good boy,
and your mom just gives you an extra treat.
Mmm.
- I mean this flavor is insane,
it tastes like it's covered in cheese,
that's how rich it is.
- Why is this on the secret menu though?
My stomach is full but my heart is (mumbles).
- I'm not gonna say anything, so let's just go.
- Talk about them sisters though, I mean, not in that way.
(men laughing)
- It's like a neighborhood deli that also makes
the best pasta you've ever had.
- They are unapologetic about being themselves.
- And they don't even have a bathroom.
Speaking of which, we gotta get to the next place ASAP.
- Pasta fact!
- Pasta fact, pasta fact!
(man screaming)
- According to the International Pasta Organization,
how many different shapes of pasta
are produced throughout the world?
- There's an International Pasta Organization?
100.
(man loud screaming)
600?
- Whoa!
Did you cheat?
You cheated.
- No, I didn't.
- There's more than 600 kinds, yes.
- Really? - Wowza!
So right now we're on our way Osteria Mamma.
How do you say excuse me in Italian?
- Scusa.
- No it's not.
- Yeah it is.
- Really?
- Scusa, scusa papa pasta.
- There you go.
- Do I sound remotely, at all, correct?
(exciting fun music)
- This is Osteria Mamma, my name is Filippo Cortivo.
I am the owner.
We opened this restaurant, a gift to my mother.
That's why mamma is the name.
This is our home.
The dough, we have flour from Italy,
some very delicate double zero flour.
You can't be too fast, you can't be too slow.
- [Steven] And that's why it has to be handmade.
- [Filippo] That's why we do everything handmade,
because we like to keep control of that process.
Then we let the pasta dry for a while, and then it's ready.
- What are you gonna be serving us today?
- Today, we'll try two pasta.
The first dish we're gonna prepare
is the black squid ink bigoli, with the bottarga shrimp.
But first we add cherry tomato, we shave the bottarga,
and as always, white wine.
- What makes really good pasta for you?
- Perfect pasta for me, is when the noodles
combine with the sauce,
that's the flavor you have exposed in your mouth.
- Round two, course one.
Bigoli neri alla bottarga.
- I do have a second stomach,
I just like move it in place when I need it.
- I always have my second stomach engaged.
(light serene music) - Cheers.
(man groaning)
- This is really special.
- It is true what he said, the noodles sucked in
all the flavoring here.
- This is a flavor explosion.
- And then when it's in your mouth.
(loud breath of air)
- The second dish for you guys is gonna be
the green spinach pappardelle in a duck ragu sauce.
It's extra virgin olive oil, a little bit of garlic,
the ground duck all ready pre-cooked,
so you add a little bit of cherry tomato.
- [Steven] White wine?
- [Filippo] You know, we're Italian,
so we like to put wine everywhere.
(men laughing)
What we try to give is like a little jump in Italy.
I told before about explosion in your mouth,
and the wine is a part of it.
- It reminds me of me and Andrew,
we're two very imperfect people,
but together, perfect explosion in the world.
- [Andrew] Sure.
- How's that wine?
- Luxurious.
- Mmm, that has a deep smell.
- How deep does it smell?
- Kind of like your deep voice.
- Let me get that pasta.
- Cheers.
- Yeah.
- That's a lot of flavor.
- Control it to your mouth, please.
- Uncontainable, you know what--
- Flavor explosion.
- No, it's not even an explosion anymore,
it's like dynamite.
- That is an explosion.
(loud slurping)
It's the first time I've made that sucking noise
on the show today.
- This pasta is not just more expensive.
- You're getting more there, you're getting that
meat sauce, you're getting that complete fish dish.
- And it's still simple.
If one of us is pasta, and one of us is sauce.
Who's pasta, who's sauce?
- Say who you think you are on three.
One, two, three.
- [Both] Pasta.
(men laughing lightly)
Do you like that?
The squid ink pasta, never had a noodle like that.
It was very imperfect and craggly,
but it was also a thick strand.
- I think the best dish we had so far,
was the duck ragu one.
- [Adam] Pasta fact, some of the earliest recorded
reports of eating noodles come from China
as early as 5000 BC.
Pasta fact.
- All righty, the last place, the final spot.
We're gonna get some truffle pasta.
- I called it.
- But this is gonna be different.
They're gonna be lighting a wheel of Parmesan on fire.
It's dinner and a show.
As far as (mumbles), I freaking love white truffle.
- Do your pasta dance.
Cut that out.
- Pasta.
(intense dramatic music)
- What sort of noodle are you making there?
And do you make it here?
(men laughing)
- So it's an Italian dish,
but you're putting a French spin on it.
- Excited.
Ready for a show.
- Let's go.
That is the white truffle, you all ready started--
Here you go Andrew.
Thank you so much Chef.
But to end the day, we have the $100
flambeed white truffle pasta dish.
Are you prepared?
- I've had five pastas today,
I think I'm as prepared as I'll ever be.
So this is the first time that some theatrics
have been added to our dining experience.
Are you gonna have any wine?
- I'm gonna have a taste.
(serene light music)
This is splendid.
I need a moment to prepare myself to eat it.
So if you wanna take a bite first,
I derive pleasure from watching people eat.
- I don't like that you're just watching me eat.
Damn it.
You better get in here.
- I feel like camera guy should have some before I should.
- Are you gonna have any of this because it's really good,
and I have no self control.
- Okay, I'm gonna take a bite.
- How's it going?
- Mmm.
- Disappointed?
- Mmm.
- [Andrew] No, I don't think so.
- Wow, the white truffle is indescribable.
And we talked about flavor explosions today,
this is the most intense flavor explosion.
- I just live life one flavor explosion at a time.
- You more so do it just like a bunch at a time,
you never stop eating.
You feel like our French (mumbles) been cemented?
- I feel like my stomach has been cemented,
with about two pounds of pasta.
- Just admit it.
- I admit nothing.
- We just ate six different pasta dishes in one day.
You know what's coming?
Which pasta was the most worth it.
I do believe that $100 pasta, it was worth the money.
You got interact with the chef.
- The fact that he flambeeded...
- Yeah. (quiet burping)
- Hey, that's a $35 burp right there.
- But to me, that wasn't the most worth it, at it's price.
- Osteria Mamma, you get the handmade pasta,
married with a great sauce, no question it's worth it.
- My worth it winner today, hands down,
goes to Pasta Sister. (bell ringing)
- [Andrew] Yeah, I also pick Pasta Sister.
- Yowza.
A25 for authentic Italian cuisine straight
from their handmade pasta to my mouth.
(man laughing)
Unbelievable.
- They had the most incredible gnocchi I've ever had.
- I guess we should really ask Bianci what he thinks,
considering he is the most Italian person in this car.
- He grew up in Ohio.
- Oh, me too.
Pasta lavista.
- No!
I love it when you call me big pasta.
(men laughing)
I just remembered that one.
- [Man] Oh yes!