Road Trip to LA for takeout: Felix’s for Heavenly Pasta

Friday I had the day off and Elena and I drove to Los Angeles (Venice)  to pick up food.  I know this seems a bit much but it was nice to get out with a minimal amount of leaving the car…  We went to two places I have been dying to go. #1 is Felix Trattoria which is  pasta restaurant owned by Evan Funke.  Now I know when I write “pasta” you think of the stuff that you can get any old place but this is not at all that.  Chef Funke makes each piece of pasta by hand. Not by machine or even not by hand rolled pasta machine.  By hand. 

His work is well illustrated in a documentary called Funke or you can see pictures in a book Elena got me for Mother’s day called American Sfloglino.  We bought two of the home pasta kits:  Rigatoni Arriabiata and Casarecce w/Pesto Genovese as well as one Budino for dessert This came home with us to make later.

For lunch and we split a pizza Amalfitana which has meyer lemons and red onion on it.  That, we sat across the street on a step of a closed school and wolfed down. Who would have thought that lemons on a pizza would be so amazing.  Clearly, Chef Funke did and they are. For the doubters, see this picture. Real lemon slices.

After all of this went into the cooler, we came home and cooked the pasta kits which are designed to need 3 minutes of pasta boiling, covering with the sauce and then eating.  There is something almost magical about the pasta itself-beautiful to look at and even more taste than anyone could describe.  Chef Funke is my new  idol. I am building him a shrine.