- Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: - I'm Mario Micheli.

- Claire Thompson: And I'm Claire, and we're Clario Farmstead Pasta.

- Mario: The smell of fresh pasta, it's very comforting.

We are making your favorite pasta, bucatini.

- Luke: Bucatini, yeah!

And I was the kid who ate Play-Doh.

- Mario: That's a early sign that you are a pasta person.

- Luke: You ate Play-Doh, too?

- Yeah.

- Luke: Okay, and look at how we turned out.

[laughing] - Right.

- Luke: Yeah.

[laughing] Like, fresh bucatini in Wisconsin?

Twenty years ago, this wasn't happening.

- So we're just a family business.

We have over a hundred different types of bratwurst, so we're kind of known for that.

Today we have Jordan and Scott making snack sticks.

You wanna try?

- I certainly do.

People come from miles to Louie's Finer Meats.

All of these stories and all of these flavors coming together and creating one dish, and they're all right in our backyard.

This pasta is delicious.

And these stories are, too.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

[gentle music] - Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food!

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- As part of the seventh generation at Jones Dairy Farm, being part of the leadership at our company is extremely important.

I'm really fortunate that I have a lot of the sixth generation family leaders that I can look up to.

- The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they'll tell you, there's a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

- With additional support coming from the Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, the Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[bright, driven folk pop music] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[gentle music] This bowl of pasta represents the hard work, the passion, and the vitality of this state's amazing food culture.

In this bowl we have pasta makers, we have sausage makers, and all of it is tied together with love.

This pasta is delicious, and these stories are, too.

[gentle music] - I'm Mario Micheli.

- And I'm Claire, and we're Clario Farmstead Pasta.

So we're in downtown Sturgeon Bay, right on Third Avenue.

We make farmstead pasta, sauces, pestos from natural products, organic focus, fresh vegetables, local eggs.

And we sell it here in our shop.

- Mario: In addition to our products that we're making, we've got products from other vendors who we've met through connections at the farmers' market or in the neighborhood.

- Claire: Hey, Garrett.

- Mario: Hey, Garrett.

- Garret: About a pound and a half here of the King Blues for you.

- Claire: Oh, awesome, people are gonna snap these up.

We really wanted to focus it around the pasta dinner and bringing people together around pasta.

And so we try to have a variety of items to go around a pasta dinner, from salad to sweet bites.

So we make a variety of cuts and shapes and flavors.

And I think what we're best known for are some of our flavored pastas, because there are unique recipes such as carrot ginger beet, or kale and black pepper, carrot and turmeric are some of our more popular flavored pastas.

- Mario: This is Northeast Technical College Community Kitchen, and we rent space from the school.

Well, usually I start with just our classic recipes, and we're gonna be doing fettuccine and bucatini to start.

This is 00 organic durum flour.

Over here, I've got einkorn flour.

We'll be making that later.

This is Heartland Craft Grains out of Lodi.

Einkorn wheat is the original variety of wheat, thousands of years old.

It has not been altered or changed in any way.

It's my favorite whole grain pasta.

Well, I'm about to crack some eggs.

We always were interested in making fresh pasta with fresh eggs, because we discovered how great that is on our farm to have fresh egg pasta.

So we kind of focus on doing that.

And the best way to present that to folks in a shop or at a farmers' market is as frozen, especially when you consider the fact that it'll cook just as quickly from the frozen state right into the boiling pot as the fresh.

We are ready to extrude.

Fire up the machine and blend some dough.

And then I'm slowly adding the eggs.

The smell of fresh pasta, just, it's like a Zen thing.

It's very comforting.

Yeah, once you start eating fresh pasta, you have a real hard time switching back to a dry pasta.

Yeah, she's got garlic scapes going there.

- Claire: Garlic scapes are so beautiful.

You have to pick 'em off the garlic plant, otherwise the garlic bulb will not get plump.

So the scapes are sort of like a bonus vegetable that we get out of the garlic crop.

I'm in the process of making a garlic scape pesto.

- Luke: Hi, friends.

- Claire: Hey!

- Luke: Talk me through a little bit of what we might do here.

- We are making your favorite pasta.

Bucatini.

- Luke: Bucatini, yeah.

- Mario: This is probably our top seller of all of our shapes.

People love bucatini.

- Luke: Yeah, it's spaghetti with a hole.

I mean, like, how fun is that?

It gets that sauce in, you get all that... - Mario: Slurp it out.

- Luke: Yeah.

Inside this magic spinning box of deliciousness, we have durum flour.

- 00 durum.

- Double aught, the 00, the good stuff.

- Mario: It's either gonna be fresh eggs, or it's gonna be fresh eggs and vegetables, or it's going to be just vegetables.

So when I make a vegan recipe, I'll just use pureed butternut squash or carrot.

And it works fantastically as a replacement for eggs.

- Luke: So the smell, you know, it's got this very comfortable, aromatic smell.

It's a little custardy.

So you get the egg, you get the richness of that flour all kind of moving through.

And the extruder itself generates heat.

There's heat there.

- Mario: Right.

- Luke: So as this kind of comes out, it has this really nice malty, rich, rich smell to it that, you know, again, going back into my Play-Doh days as a kid, I was the kid who ate Play-Doh.

[all laughing] And this experience, I'm gonna feel good about it.

- That's a early sign [Luke laughing] that you are a pasta person.

Because, yes, I will admit to the same.

- Luke: You ate Play-Doh, too?

- Yeah.

- Okay, look at how we turned out.

- Right.

[laughter] - Luke: Exactly.

- Claire: We're making garlic scape pesto.

This is such a beautiful cheese.

I love the color of it.

And it's got this beautiful rind.

I use the rind, I use the whole thing.

I never cut the rind off.

[food processor whirring] - Luke: Pesto.

Pesto!

That smell is intoxicating.

- Claire: All right, I think I'm calling that good.

- Luke: I feel like I just got a master class in, like, balance.

And seeing you and Mario together in the kitchen, this is truly, like, one of those artisan mom and pop moments that I love so much.

And I'm wondering if there's a possibility we could maybe take some of the bucatini that we extruded this morning and a little bit of this pesto, and maybe put together a little lunch?

- Claire: Pesto and bucatini it is.

- Luke: I am so excited to taste this pasta.

To have seen it come together, to start from the extruding process, to go into the pesto process.

You guys are cooking with what's available and with your whole hearts.

And that, for me, always makes the best food.

So to that, pasta is my love language.

Oh, I can't wait.

The pasta stands up on its own very well.

I mean, it's got a little bit of that, like, chew that you get with fresh pasta that I love.

Touch of springiness.

But, like, fresh bucatini in Wisconsin, twenty years ago, this wasn't happening.

You know, to be able to do that, and then to be able to accent it with local flavors, local ingredients, you know.

So this is truly a home run in my book.

- Claire: Yeah.

[gentle music] - Luke: Imagine yourself on a country road in the northwoods of Wisconsin.

You stumble into a small town of 2,000, Cumberland, and discover an international pillar in the sausage-making community.

Louie's Finer Meats.

And that's exactly why we're here today.

To discover what makes Louie's Finer Meats.

- Hi.

- How are you doing?

- Good, how are you?

- Good, thank you.

- Louie Muench: Somebody asked me one time outside if I smoked, so I gave him the whole spiel about the hams and bacons, and we smoked this and we cure 'em and so on and so forth.

As it turned out, he just wanted to bum a cigarette.

I'm Louie Muench.

Louie's Finer Meats, Cumberland, Wisconsin.

I'm actually Louie the Third.

I have a son, Louie, and a father, Louie, and my grandfather was Louie as well.

So we're just a family business and going at it for a long time now.

It'll be 54 years because we opened up in 1970.

November of 1970.

We have over 100 different types of bratwurst, so we're kind of known for that.

Then when we got the smokehouse operation going, that's when things really took off, 'cause then we could get into the jerkies and the snack sticks and smoked brats and ring bologna, and everything.

So, basically what we do is we custom-make hams and bacons for people.

We make our own hams and bacons.

We make all the different kinds of brats and all the different sausages.

Sixty-two.

We have over 100 different types of bratwurst, so we're kind of known for that.

And the reason why our business is successful is that we treat every batch like it is for a competition.

We want it to turn out nice.

This is the original gold medal here.

This one was for the salami.

I had 31 gold medals and one silver medal.

Getting ready for hunting season?

You know, these Thursdays are the new Fridays.

You know, I mean... - Yeah.

- I'm bouncing around either waiting on customers to dealing with salesmen from the spice room.

Every day is a busy day.

You got any spices you need me to do?

- Scott: Not at the moment, no.

- Louie: No?

Okay.

This the spice room.

This is my cave.

Right, Scott?

- Scott: Louie's bedroom.

- Louie: We have over 400 different recipes that we've filed with the State of Wisconsin.

We make a Wisconsin brat with cranberries, cheddar cheese, maple syrup, and honey.

To keep our Minnesota friends happy, we make a Minnesota sausage with blueberries and wild rice as well.

And then once in a while, some little old lady will come in and want me to fill up her spice container with some chili powder or something like that.

Well, okay, I suppose.

[groovy music] Fifty-five.

- Hey, how you doing?

- Hey, good, sir, thank you.

How can I help you?

- I'm here to meet you, I believe.

Are you Louie?

- Yes, sir, thank you.

- [laughing] Well, the pleasure is all mine.

Can you tell me a little bit about what we have going on here?

- Louie: Well, we've got a retail meat market here, and today, we're making sausage in the back, and we're getting ready for a busy weekend.

- Luke: Well, what I would love to do is I'd love to be able to, you know, see a little bit how the sausage is made, if you don't mind, would that be okay?

- Louie: That'd be great.

- Luke: All right.

- Luke, welcome back here.

We're in the middle of production here.

This gentleman's washing our bacon slicer.

Actually, it's not a museum.

We actually have to work here.

[Luke laughing] - It's not just for show.

- Louie: Yeah.

Today, we have Jordan and Scott making snack sticks.

- Luke: Hello, gentlemen.

- Louie: Can you make 'em that fast?

- No, I certainly cannot.

- Louie: You want to try?

- Luke: I certainly do.

- Louie: All right.

What kind of sticks are you making right now?

- Scott: Peppie sticks.

- Louie: Peppie sticks.

- Luke: Peppie sticks.

- Louie: They're a pepperoni-flavored snack stick.

- I'm feeling loose.

Okay.

[Louie laughing] Oh, yeah.

There it is.

[all laughing] Oh, no, oh no.

My bad.

[all laughing] Can that go back in the tank?

- Yeah.

- Okay, good.

People come from miles to Louie's Finer Meats.

- Louie: It's gotten to be a nice destination location, that's for sure.

I'm very fortunate.

- Luke: You have built an amazing reputation up here.

- Louie: Well, we work hard at it.

I'm fortunate to have a very good staff and that support, not only our lamebrain ideas, but the chaos that goes with this operation, and then also the community support as well.

I mean, they've been amazing.

- Luke: How long have you been at this?

- Louie: Well, I was here on the first day we opened, which was November of 1970.

I just turned 70 in June, and so I put in for my retirement about ten years ago, but it didn't come through yet.

- Luke: You gotta talk to somebody about that.

- Louie: Yeah, sure.

Here we have myself and my father and my brother.

Gold medals.

Those are the first two that we got in Germany.

- Your dad looks so proud in that photo.

He looks so proud.

- Louie: A lot of pride for the community and a lot of pride for us.

This is my son, Louis, actually the fourth Louie.

- It's, you know, an honor to be a part of something like this.

And you just hope that you can carry it on to the next generation.

I got three little girls myself.

So... - No Louies.

[all laughing] - No Louies.

- Louie: Me and my son are running it right now.

My dad and mother are in their 90s and they're retired.

They're doing well, but they just come in, usually every day and point things out to me that should be addressed.

- So here's what they only get for supper.

A hot dog.

[all laughing] Not a bratwurst.

- Luke: No, it's okay.

- The one thing I will say is, all I did was I made the snowball, and my wife and the children pushed the ball down the hill, and they made the snowman.

[Luke laughing] And then I can't come and put the hat on.

[all laughing] - And, my goodness, the legacy of your work.

It may be making sausage, but for some people, it's so much more than that.

And that's how I see it.

I appreciate what you guys do up here, and, you know, thank you so much for having us in.

- Louie: Well, thank you very much.

- Luke: Thank you.

- Louie: Louie's has got what we call Brat Haus, and we have nonprofit groups around Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays.

We have three kinds of sausage out there.

Just regular brats, a specialty brat, and a wiener.

Specialty brat is for example, this week is bacon cheeseburger brats.

- Well, thank you, young lady.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you, Luke.

- Of course.

Bacon cheeseburger brat, that's pretty creative, friend.

- It's an interesting brat.

We make a lot of 'em, but this particular one has got beef and pork.

We grind up bacon and put it with it along with the cheddar cheese.

So it's an interesting combination.

- Luke: Well, where is the inspiration for all the brat varieties?

- Well, I don't do gummy bear ones.

- Okay, thanks.

- I appreciate that.

- Won't do that.

- Luke: Bacon cheeseburger brat.

That's a good brat.

- Are you getting the bacon yet?

- Luke: Now I am.

The creaminess of the cheese kind of gets me first.

You get, like, obviously, that familiar bratwurst flavor.

- Mm-hmm.

- Louie, thank you so much for taking the time today to walk us through this destination that is, it's historical.

It's a model of community, but it's also absolutely delicious.

You're a fantastic human.

And meeting you and getting to spend some time with you has definitely filled up my cup.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Keep up the great work, sir.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Appreciate it.

[gentle music] - Luke: There's a lot of different ways to say I love you, but my favorite is with a bowl of pasta.

So today, what I want to do is put together some of these fantastic flavors that I've had the tremendous privilege to discover this summer.

This first ingredient comes from Louie's Finer Meats.

This is his Italian sausage.

Even though I appreciate the precision with which Louie's gets all those sausages made, I'm gonna actually uncase this sausage first down the backside.

Slice the skin.

Like so.

I'm gonna take down my cast iron.

Oh, yeah, look at this.

Any day I get to use this thing suddenly becomes the best day of my week.

I'm gonna put it right over my fire.

Once I have these sausages uncased, it's kind of just a simple matter of breaking 'em apart.

And what I want to do is I want to get 'em on that cast iron.

Next, I want to start building my flavor base.

So what I'm going to do is get some of the longer-cooking ingredients in that skillet as soon as possible.

[gentle music] I'm gonna slip the skins off these onions and slicing it very thin.

These green tomatoes are bright and vibrant.

A touch of chili.

And last but not least, some of the stripped kale.

I pull it down and pull the stem out.

The stem doesn't cook down very well, quite frankly.

All right, I've got my chilies, I've got my kale into the pan.

They will prevail.

We're gonna hit it with a little white wine.

[gentle music] Einkorn wheat pasta from Clario Farms in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Cooking fresh pasta is significantly shorter than, say, cooking a dried version.

While the pasta's cooking, I'm gonna sneak just a little bit of that pasta water for my sauce.

So we're gonna take this stick of butter, and I only need about half of it.

Yeah, I like what I see here.

Oh, yeah, look at that einkorn.

So delicious.

We're gonna hit it with just a little bit of oil.

In this case, this is some local hazelnut oil.

Yum, give it a toss.

All right, parsley into the bowl.

Give it a toss-toss.

Look at that.

Already that looks great.

All right, it's time to pull this sauce.

Now, I'm gonna take this sauce, and I'm gonna pour this over this entire pasta.

Here we go.

Giving this just a couple more quick tosses.

It's time to bring it all together.

Let's get this dish on a plate.

[gentle music] This Marieke Gouda from Thorp, Wisconsin, has been accented with black truffle.

Last few garden accents.

I've got fennel flowers.

I have some of these beautiful broccoli shoots.

Sprigs of fennel and a couple of arugula leaves for good measure.

And this is it.

This is my hug from me to you and all the fine people across Wisconsin who brought this plate together.

This bowl of pasta represents the hard work, the passion, the vitality of Wisconsin's food artisans.

This pasta represents love stories and families and traditions and generations.

The richness of that pasta, the unique varietal of that einkorn wheat.

And it's a really fantastic texture.

When combined with that sausage, you get those notes of fennel, you get that deep, deep flavor and care.

It balances out nicely with all the garden vegetables.

That's a solid bite.

All of these stories and all of these flavors coming together and creating one dish, and they're all right in our backyard.

This is one of the reasons I love living in the Midwest.

And with every season, there's change.

So here is to change.

As delicious as that may be.

[gentle music] - You're gonna be on TV?

- Who knows?

You never know, right?

- Now, this pasta is really unique because it's made with meat-- It's made with wheat.

Clario Farm, Farm, Farm.

Old MacDonald had some pasta, and Clario was its name-o.

[playful music] I have a mustache.

[laughing] - Louie: Here, we've got a BM.

It's not what you think, it's Bloody Mary.

- [laughing] Well, thank God it's not what I thought.

[all laughing] That was great.

[clapping] Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

[gentle music] - Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

- Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food!

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- We have one chance to do it right and not compromise the integrity of the products or the company because it's easier or cheaper or faster.

- The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they'll tell you, there's a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.