Pasta evolution creating new experiences for customers

NOT ONLY IS PASTA easy to make, it has a good profit margin. You can make a satisfying pasta dish with just three ingredients, or you can go a lot more complex. It’s also a great way to use up leftovers – and see how creative you can be!

While traditional favourites are still in demand on the menu, today’s consumers are also becoming more adventurous, and foodservice operators are responding with innovative presentation styles and flavours:

• PASTA RAGOUTS with fresh herb notes are now on trend. Italian food incorporates numerous regional cuisine styles and chefs are now exploring these to bring in different elements – such as utilising flavour and herb notes from Tuscan or Venetian style cuisine to bring a fresh spin on traditional sauces and fillings. 

• ALTERNATIVE FLOURS from different grains are being used to create new pasta flavours – so in place of traditional Durum wheat pasta with its slightly nutty undertone, there are new tastes available – from legume-based pastas made from chickpea or red lentils, through to vegetable pastas made from zucchini and cauliflower. 

• NEW INCLUSIONS WITHIN PASTA, such as placing layers of herbs between individual sheets so that when they’re rolled out they have an attractive pattern as well as subtle flavour enhancements, is an evolution of the old approach of sprinkling herbs prior to serving and is making pasta more colourful and eye-catching as well as tastier.

• PASTA DRESSED WITH WARM VINAIGRETTES as opposed to heavy sauces is being served as a lighter menu option especially during the warmer months. Rich fillings are also being replaced with something more delicate and being paired with fresh garden vegetables as opposed to meat-based dishes.

• DESSERT PASTA is becoming increasingly on trend – this can be made with traditional pasta dough that’s been sweetened, or fried pasta variants like Cristoli. Recipes like Chocolate-infused tagliatelle pasta to chocolate-stuffed pasta shells (Conchiglioni dolci al cacao, to give them their Italian name) have long been popular in Italy and are now starting to appear on specials boards as cafes and restaurants try to find the next big pasta hit.

CRUST FLAVOURS AND TEXTURES CAPTURE CUSTOMER ATTENTION
From ancient grains to infusions such as quinoa, spelt and chickpea, pizza crust innovations are imparting new textures and flavours as well as nutritional benefits.

Insights
Make the most of your sustainability commitment via marketing

TODAY’S CONSUMERS are more educated and interested in food sustainability than ever before – thanks to TV cooking competitions and lifestyle programs giving broad coverage to the concept.

Research conducted both in Australia and overseas shows that more and more consumers take a foodservice business’ “green credentials” into account when choosing to eat out or order in.

So if your restaurant, café, pub, club or takeaway is one of those that’s committed to sustainability in your food ordering and business practices, it makes sense to get that message out to your customers. Whether it’s local ingredients sourcing for lower food miles, effective waste management practices or resource conservation, you can capitalise upon your sustainable approach via “green marketing”. Just be sure to follow these important principles:

•  SUSTAINABILITY IS AN ONGOING COMMITMENT, not just something you do once in a while. Therefore, your sustainable practices need to be well integrated within your business model and should be promoted as a permanent feature of your business brand, rather than through a one-off campaign. 

• COMMUNICATE THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF YOUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH. Let customers know what definite steps you’ve already taken to improve sustainability, as effective, measurable results that have made a positive impact are much more likely to impress than vague promises about what you plan to do.

• EACH STEP ON THE SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY is another step in the right direction, so let customers know the thinking behind your approach and don’t be afraid to acknowledge current limitations. For example, you might not be able to be fully recyclable with your packaging, but you can let customers know that you’re doing all you can. Many millennial consumers understand that boosting your green credentials is a matter of gradual ongoing improvements.

Some of these steps might include:

• Using recycled pizza boxes

• Sourcing food containers made from biodegradable materials.

• Printing menus on recycled paper

• Choosing fresh locally sourced ingredients

• Growing your own herbs

• Incorporating energy efficient lighting, appliances and building techniques

• Reducing/recycling paper and organic waste

• Eliminating single use plastics

 And many more. Visit www.clubperfect.com.au for more detailed information on how you can incorporate these sustainability strategies into your business.

Perfect Solutions
How the right equipment can make portion control easier

THERE’S NO QUESTION that effective portion control will cut down your ingredients costs. But while you may be carefully weighing your dough balls, what about your other ingredients?

Measuring everything that goes onto your pizzas, including the cheese, is a good habit for all your pizzamaking staff to get into. While the traditional approach may be to “free-throw” cheese onto the pizza, once you start weighing out your cheese and toppings you’ll find you can make these ingredients go a lot further. To do that properly you’ll need to invest in the right equipment for the job:

DIGITAL SCALES will give you the most accurate results, and while they’re considerably more expensive than spring-balanced scales, their greater reliability means they’ll pay for themselves in no time. When you consider how many pizzas your business makes per week, then add up what just 10g extra of each ingredient costs your business over a month – you’ll realise the worth of investing in accurate scales.

Apart from the cost savings, this also ensures consistency in your serving sizes – and that’s something your customers will appreciate. Nobody likes ordering their favourite pizza only to find that sometimes it contains less ingredients than others. Using accurate scales means it’s the same every time. 

It’s also worth paying extra to invest in digital scales which have an infrared sensor so you don’t need to touch the scale to ‘tare’ it (ie reset it to zero) after weighing each ingredient. In a busy kitchen environment this is a cleaner and faster option. 

SPOODLES, or flat-bottomed ladles, are commonly used for sauce but are also a useful tool for portioning out diced toppings like peppers, onions and ham. But for the many pizza toppings which come in odd shapes and sizes, it’s harder to achieve accurate measurement – so those should be weighed. 

PRE-MEASURED SERVES of cheese in measuring cups are a good idea to ensure that all kitchen staff are using a consistent serving size of cheese per pizza.  

INNOVATIVE PIZZA CUTTERS such as the ‘Equalizer’ pictured above which ensure every slice of pizza is the same size deliver greater customer satisfaction – pizza is so often a shared meal, and nobody likes to get a piece that’s much smaller than the others, but too often it’s a common occurrence!

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