Inside the kitchen of Jess Maiorano, the owner of Pasta Forever

Jess Maiorano has been the unofficial pasta queen of Brockton Village since August 2021, when she opened Pasta Forever, which serves up seasonally inspired pastas and freshly baked focaccia sandwiches. Despite her success, Maiorano didn’t always dream of carbs. She was working in the UK, styling menswear for magazines, when she took a gig at a wine bar for extra cash. Instantly hooked on the service industry, she moved back to Ontario, where she got a job at Alimentari in Roncesvalles and started focusing on pasta.

On her days off, Maiorano practised pasta-making relentlessly. She would choose a single shape to work on, figure out the flour ratio she liked best, then roll and shape the dough for hours on end. “Life can feel so busy. When I get to make pasta, it’s my time to hang out with myself,” she says. After a stint in Montreal, she became the head of the pasta program at Woodlot. Then—a tale as old as 2020—the pandemic hit, and Pasta Forever was born as a small pop-up project that eventually bloomed into a full-scale storefront.

In her rare downtime, Maiorano frequents natural wine spots like Happy Coffee and Wine or goes for a martini at Cry Baby Gallery. “It’s always perfectly cold, always perfectly dirty,” she says. She also has a special place in her heart for the Keg. “My friends and I all bring our nice wine, then we have a shrimp cocktail, a mediocre steak and a caesar salad. What more could you want?”

At home, Maiorano tends to stick to simple dinners. She often leans toward fresh seasonal ingredients that don’t require much manipulation, served with a nice piece of fish from her nearby fishmonger, Anchor. “I’m a big white-fish girly, but I like smoked trout too,” she says. “I don’t really eat meat, so I feel like fish hits that salty, fatty note that I miss sometimes.” She also makes pasta at home, but she tends to keep it hassle-free. “When I make pasta for myself, I’m making orecchiette, cavatelli, maybe spaghetti, and it’s going with either broccoli or tomato sauce. Nothing stuffed or fancy.”

Maiorano buys most of her produce at Local Market. She loves using produce that others tend to shy away from, like garlic scapes or yellow plums. Most of her shopping rotates seasonally, but she always stocks at least a couple of cucumbers—one for her and one for her dog, DJ.

Maiorano packs all of her home-cooked meals with fresh herbs, particularly Genovese basil and Italian parsley, and she likes to keep a few drinks on hand for happy-hour emergencies. At the moment, she’s got dry vermouth, Aperol and Melo Melo, an orange-riesling blend made by Happy Coffee and Wine. And she does her nonna proud by always stocking olives, anchovies and chili-garlic paste.

When Pasta Forever co-hosted a dinner with Makeway sportswear and Don Julio this summer, the tequila brand surprised Maiorano with this specially monogrammed 1942 bottle. She’s holding on to it for the perfect occasion.

Maiorano has a small collection of mystery jars. “One is definitely chow chow, which is like a green tomato chutney,” she says. One is probably a hot sauce made by her aunt. Another says only “phiya” (“I have no idea who or what that is”), and the last one is labelled “hot sauce 2021.” Whatever they are, they’re maturing to perfection in a cupboard she rarely visits.

Maiorano can craft elegant old-world pastas, like the cavatelli in the deli container, but she loves a Kraft Dinner moment every now and then. “I told my mom that once a year I like to eat Kraft Dinner. It’s so nostalgic and silly,” she says. “Then, at Christmas, she put two individually wrapped boxes in my stocking. I haven’t had the perfect hangover day for it yet, but it will come soon.”

The Green and Gold olive oil on the left is Maiorano’s go-to at home. The middle bottle is Pasta Forever’s freshly pressed extra virgin olive oil, which is made in collaboration with a farm in Umbria. “It’s peppery, bitter and so intensely flavoured that it’s almost got a spiciness to it, which I really like,” she says. On the right is a flavoured vinegar. “I don’t generally like a flavoured vinegar, but this grapefruit one absolutely slaps—it’s sweet and tart. I have it all the time.”

Her kitchen is stocked with super-sharp Japanese knives, all made by Takamura. The second from the left hits the cutting board the most. “I have another knife exactly like it at work,” she says. “It’s my favourite because it’s just the right size for my little hands.”

Her cupboards are full of vintage glassware, including 1970s martini glasses that were used at her mom’s wedding. The teacups belonged to her grandparents, and the plate was hand-painted by local artisan Alyssa Goodman.

Maiorano’s aspirational texts include modern cookbooks like Vicky Bennison’s Pasta Grannies and Letitia Clark’s La Vita è Dolce as well as vintage Italian food guides like Carola Francesconi’s La Cucina Napoletana. She’s saving the disposable cameras for a bright summer day or a great party.