Courtesy of Macchialina
Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Miami New Times Free
We’re aiming to raise $7,500 by April 26. Your support ensures New Times can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Miami Beach’s Macchialina and its Brooklyn-based sister restaurant, the Saint Austere, will go head-to-head in a pasta-packed, March Madness-inspired tournament, MacMadness, kicking off Monday, March 12.
The carb-fueled event will challenge both restaurants to serve two unique pastas per week, both created by Macchialina’s chef/owner Michael Pirolo. The pasta with the most orders will advance to the next week, and the last plate standing will become a mainstay on both Macchialina’s and the Saint Austere’s menus.
“MacMadness is an ode to the two constants in my life: pasta and basketball,” Pirolo says.
Right now, the final four contending pastas for MacMadness include a tagliatelle with lamb shank ragu; butternut squash raviolini with Taleggio cheese, Espelette peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes; agnolotti dal plin, filled with roast duck leg, vin cotto, and baby spinach; and a spaghetti carbonara topped with guanciale, black pepper, and pecorino. Pastas, which average $20 to $25, are subject to change.
The two family-owned restaurants specialize in Italian cuisine with a bounty of homemade pasta varieties. The Pirolo siblings – Fabrizo, John, Jaqueline, and Michael – debuted the Saint Austere in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in 2011. The family went on to open a more casual Italian spot, which Miami knows as Macchialina.
MacMadness will tip off Monday, March 12, at 6 p.m., and the champion pasta will be announced at both restaurants Monday, April 2.
Macchialina. 6 p.m. Monday, March 12, at 820 Alton Rd., Miami Beach; macchialina.com. Call 305-534-2124 or visit opentable.com for reservations.
