ABOUT US
Tommy is from Pesaro, a little city (little for Italy that is) on the East coast of Italy, while Luisa is from Torino in the beautiful land of Piemonte. Growing up in Italy, food was at the core of every Italian home. Preparing and eating food was a ritual, a way for families to express love and bring people together. Our own childhoods are filled with memories of helping our Nonna’s roll out fresh pasta while our family and neighbours gathered to share stories and food in the long summer afternoons. Our passion for food was heavily influenced by our own childhoods and the joy and comfort that simple, delicious food can bring. This love of food, nurtured by our families, led Tommy towards a career as a chef, where he became head chef at one of Turin’s most successful restaurants, Ristorante Consorzio. In 2011 together we made the difficult decision to leave Italy and move to Matakana, New Zealand where we have since established the only Italian pasta food truck in Auckland to share our love of Italian cuisine. Our food truck reflects our family’s values that simple, fresh food can nourish and delight. Hopefully we will get to share our little bit of Italy with you.
Tommy e Lu
OUR FOOD
Here at Amaranto food truck everything it’s made from scratch by head chef and owner, Tommaso Baldassarri. Tommaso has an extensive knowledge of Italian food and, in particular, of pasta.
Our pasta dough is unique and it took our chef over a year to develop our recipe. It is a blend of 8 gluten-free flours and we have worked hard obtain the same texture as pasta made from wheat. Similar to wholemeal pasta, with a slight nutty aftertaste, the flavour it’s great too.
OUR PASTA
Our special Amaranto flour mix, free range eggs and lots of time and love goes into creating our gluten-free pasta dough.
Ravioli are our hero, but we love the bite you get out of the spaghetti and the tagliatelle are just perfect when paired with our bolognese ragù.
Our flour mix includes corn flour, rice flour, potato starch, tapioca, buckwheat, millet, amaranth and a dash of coconut flour, fiber and organic vegetable gum. We also use a little extra virgin olive oil in our dough.
ACASA
You can now bring our delicious pasta home/A casa with you and cook it yourself! Our pasta is sold frozen and you can currently find it at Charlie’s gelato in Matakana and at Bin Inn Warkworth. Or from our food caravan if you can make to one of our events!
OUR KITCHEN
Where Tradition meets Innovation.
Fresh, seasonal and free range ingredients are at the base of our preparations and we make everything from scratch. Where possible we use Italian and organic ingredients to maintain the most authentic flavour. Our recipes are a taste of family tradition with the innovation of being completely free from gluten. Our kitchen is medley of Piedmont, Marche and Campania, the three Italian Regions that have mostly influenced Tommy’s cooking.
Everything from our entree to our desserts (someone will say we make one of the best tiramisù in Auckland!) it’s homemade with love in our little caravan.
OUR SOURDOUGH BREAD
Created during the first lockdown in a moment of total boredom, our sourdough bread has been a winner right from the beginning. The flour mix that we use for our bread consist of starches (potato, corn and tapioca) and of proteic flours (rice, chickpeas and buckwheat), a little fiber and organic vegetable gum. Extra virgin olive oil, salt and water is all we add.
