Boogie Down Bites: MangiPasta

A Bronx couple is bringing a taste of true Italian cuisine to the neighborhood.
Aurora Cerrato and her husband Estevan Vargas decided it would be great to share their love for food with others, opening MangiPasta in the heart of Little Italy.

"So, as it says the name itself, it's where you can come and eat pasta. You pick the pasta with the sauce. So you create your own dish,” says Cerrato.

MangiPasta features dishes like pomodorini with cherry tomatoes all the way from Italy and stuffed cheese ravioli draped with meat sauce.

All the pasta used is made in-house every day.
"The reason why we do it this way is one because we like to serve the food fast. If you buy pasta that's already made, it's really dry and it takes seven to 10 minutes to cook. This being fresh pasta, in two minutes the pasta is done,” says Vargas. “Also, the quality of the food, we got to get the high-end semolina flour imported from Italy, which gives the pasta a different taste."

Cerrato says dishes at MangiPasta are true Italian.

"We don't do American Italian. So, you won't find pasta Alfredo. You won't find pasta primavera or chicken parmigiana. Those dishes do not exist in Italy. We want to just have people that feel when they come in they're in Italy,” says Cerrato.