How Trattoria Enza started
Enza Caruso came from Bologna in 1982 with a pasta pin and a notebook of her mother’s recipes. In 1986 she and her husband Sal took over a sandwich shop on Salem Street with four tables and a stove with two burners. Tagliatelle al ragù was the first dish on the menu and it is still the first one sold out on a Sunday.
The room has grown to 38 seats and the stove to eight burners, but the pasta is still made by hand, the ragù still takes six hours, and Enza still tastes every pot before it leaves the kitchen.
What we insist on
- Pasta made the same morning it is served, never dried, never frozen
- Ragù cooked six hours on the stove, no shortcuts with the pressure cooker
- Parmigiano Reggiano aged 24 months, grated when you order
- Tomatoes from Campania, vegetables from Haymarket on Friday morning
Who cooks
Enza runs the pasta board, her son Marco runs the line, and four cooks who have been here between three and nineteen years do the rest. On a Saturday night they get 40 plates of pasta out every hour.
Good to know
Do you take allergies into account?
Every product lists its allergens. The pasta all contains egg and wheat; add a note to your order and the kitchen reads it before the water goes on.
Can I book a table?
Yes, by phone, for up to eight people. Larger groups write to us through the contact page and we open the back room.
Is there gluten-free pasta?
We keep dried gluten-free penne for the sauces that suit it: ragù, pomodoro, vodka. It is cooked in a separate pot but in the same kitchen.
How do I pay?
Online at checkout, or by card at the table. We stopped taking cash in 2024.