Nonna Mercato’s 12 Days of Pasta is the city’s best celebration of the carby creation

Chef Cameron Slaugh’s “12 Days of Pasta” returns to Nonna Mercato. And with it, marks Long Beach’s most innovative, most diverse, and downright best celebration of this carby creation. The concept? Super simple and the same as last year’s inaugural kick-off. 12 days. 12 different pastas. Pastas not announced on Nonna Mercato’s Instagram until the day of their serving. Served from 10AM until sell-out. And yes, they do sell out.

“A special pasta every day, a la carte, first-come-first-serve, when we run out, we run out,” Chef Cameron said. “And I plan on being there 12 days straight for every one of them and damn happy to do so.”

It kicks off Dec. 13 and continues through Christmas Eve. Let the season of Italian noodles begin.

12 Days of Pasta celebrates the artistic dedication Chef Cameron Slaugh holds for Italian pasta.

Chef Cameron is a man on a mission: To not only create some of the city’s best food with his attachment to both The Attic and Nonna Mercato. But with Nonna—a concept that he has been dreaming of since his days at L.A.’s Osteria La Buca—one can tell home is where the heart is. It reflects some of Chef Cameron’s most soulful takes on cuisine while offering a direct nod to his own nonna, the woman who shaped his perception of Italian cuisine.

And I know this is a bold statement in a city that is having a pasta renaissance—but Chef Cameron is the current reigning royal when it comes to the full respect and love for the mighty and humble creation that is pasta.

Just look at the way he talks about the flour he uses: “The farmer of this flour has been here and the moment he just let me touch it, I knew I had to work with it,” Slaugh told me last year. “It’s beyond flour; it’s a fine powder. I feel like ‘Scarface,’” he said laughing, picking up little grips of the powder and running it through his fingers.

He is right: The flour comes off like a corn starch-gone-fine culinary cocaine to the touch and feel, light and incredibly smooth, with absolutely zero graininess to it. It’s hard not to play with, gripping it in fistfuls and watching it snow atop the wooden slab he rolls his mattarello—a roughly meter-long wooden pin, purchased while he was in Italy—across to create his hand-rolled pastas.

And—to make the point of his art more pointed—yes, the majority of this year’s featured pastas will be hand-rolled.

What to expect from 12 Days of Pasta? Well, pasta, of course.

Hand-rolled pastas are particularly special than extruded pasta. The latter? Dough put into a machine that pushes it through a die to create the desired form, common in pastas like bucatini and spaghetti. The former? Made entirely in the moment, where the mattarello consistently works to air out bubbles (though not all of them), and the pastaio has to quickly work to form shapes by hand before it dries out: sopressini, tortelloni, orecchiette…

This is the epicenter of 12 Days of Pasta. And yes, while there will be a few extruded pastas—a classic take on spaghetti alle vongole might make an appearance—the majority of the pastas are hand-rolled, hand-shaped bits of wonder. Think tajarin with shaved black truffle. Or perhaps a duck agnolotti with pear and hazelnuts.

“We call it ‘partridge in a pear tree’ because, you know, first day of Christmas,” Chef Cameron said. Well played, Chef. Well played.

And while original plans called for a two-course pasta lunch offering, that proved to be less accessible and likely requiring reservations—and the point of 12 Days of Pasta is to celebrate pasta. But perhaps next year? Look for that more curated experience.

Nonna Mercato is located at 3722 Atlantic Ave.