Is the pasta homemade?
CASA — two syllables, stress on first. 'fa-ta in CA-sa' — always read 'in casa' as a unit.
Before ordering pasta — the single most important quality indicator in a trattoria.
'Fatta in casa' = made in-house. Homemade pasta ('pasta fatta a mano' or 'pasta fresca') uses eggs and flour and is rolled by hand or with a pasta machine on the premises. It is fundamentally different from dried pasta ('pasta secca') in texture and richness.
È pasta fresca o secca?
Is it fresh or dried pasta?
Direct question about pasta type — both can be excellent, just different
La tirate a mano o con la macchina?
Do you roll it by hand or with a machine?
Hand-rolled ('tirata a mano') pasta has a slightly rougher texture that holds sauce better
Chi fa la pasta?
Who makes the pasta?
A personal question — often the answer is 'la nonna' (grandmother)
In Emilia-Romagna, the art of making fresh pasta is considered a fundamental life skill — girls were traditionally taught to make tagliatelle before marriage. The official width of a tagliatella is enshrined in the Bologna Chamber of Commerce — 8mm when cooked, 1/12,270th of the height of the Asinelli tower.