Metacognitive Business

Ancora Pasta has, in large part, moved on from its "honeymoon period" at the market. We have seen encouraging signs and tasted some early success. That's not to say that we have not had to work out a few kinks and remedy some problems. Fixing problems is easy. Anyone who has had an issue with anything purchased is one more lesson for us to learn from and grow from. The hard part is imagining that someone was not able to enjoy the carefully prepared pasta as it was intended (truly hard to handle). Our goal is for that never to happen. Period. Easier said than done...

Even before Ancora Pasta started, it seemed so easy for me (Tim) to imagine: people purchase pasta and go home, cook it, enjoy it, and think how much better fresh pasta is than the $0.99 box of Mueller elbows. After all, it's pasta. Everyone has had fresh pasta before, right? My family is not the only one that constantly happens to have pasta dough hanging around "just in case", right? Everyone knows fresh pasta cooks quickly and what "al dente" is, I'm sure. What sauce goes with this you ask? - Isn't that something that you learn watching your "nonna" in the kitchen? What about thawing out the ravioli? (NO!!!) Surely, everyone knows not to do this.

But no, Tim, everyone does not know all of that.

Learning how to make pasta correctly, check that, *perfectly*, was a travail in and of itself lasting many years, but is now as easy as toasting bread. Selling it and explaining how to cook it is something completely different. Some of the issues we have come across are all a direct result of me taking a few things (aforementioned) for granted. We all assume everyone knows how to make a peanut-butter & jelly sandwich because we have all grown up with this. My assumption that everyone has had fresh pasta cooking experience was misguided. As a former English teacher, I had to teach students proper citation in research papers which dealt largely with the paradigm of "common knowledge." If it's common knowledge (i.e. Lincoln was assassinated), you do not need to cite it. Many students had problems (like me!) getting out of their minds, and into the collective minds of our society.

We at Ancora Pasta have revised a few instructions, commenced the writing of a "sauces" recipe flip book (salsa alle noce anyone?), and added a couple more ravioli to each package (not everyone eats the pasta as a "primi" as we do). These changes, along with adding a few other items to our repertoire will surely continue our quest to spread the wonders of pasta to all parts of Maine, all the while, helping us grow our business conscientiously and sustainably.