Bouchard's Anything's Pastable

$7 can buy you a lot of meals these days. You could purchase a $5 Subway footlong with a bag of Doritos and talk about how healthy you are for eating fresh. You could have it your way at Burger King and get a Whopper Value Meal with a side of gross. You could head for the border and order up a septet (that means 7 for all you illiterate type) of tacos at Taco Bell. Or you could go to Findlay Market and have a pasta made to order that will seriously change your life (probably not) and change the way you look at pasta (probably definitely).

Prior to discovering Bouchard's I was somewhat pasta challenged. As a kid I used to get excited about going to Olive Garden which I now believe to be the worst chain in the world, nay, the universe, because surely intelligent life on other planets can't have food that's worse than Olive Garden. In recent years I've grown accustom to cooking Italian at home using boxed dry pasta and a jar of Prego which isn't too bad if you are poor or have the palate of a tongueless gimp. From time to time I would splurge and go to some high end Italian restaurants and happily drop 20 clams on a perfect plate of pasta. But then I discovered Bouchard's.

Simply put, Bouchard's is the shiznit. For $7 you get homemade pasta, homemade sauce and fresh ingredients. And the best part is you get to pick what you want in your pasta by using an order pad and checking off the ingredients you want. Couldn't be simpler and it couldn't taste better. Seriously, to say this is the best pasta I've had in my life feels like I'm doing this place a massive injustice. It's that good!

And if that's not enough they sell all their homemade pastas and sauces in jars so you can take it back home to your trailer (or 4 bedroom estate if you're like me) and live like a Northern Italian prince with pasta that only the finest gold and riches can buy. I know I'm hyping this place up but the hype is real. Go to Bouchard's and see why 20 other Yelpers are giving this place 5 stars!

Bouchard's. Your name is deceiving, your stand should be called, "Home made pasta oasis that has the best, most flavorful, yummiest, orgasmic, most delicious pasta on the PLANET stand." Ok I realize it might be a bit long from a marketing standpoint, but now that people know the truth I can continue on...

Bouchard's has always had 5 stars on Yelp since before I can remember. I decided to stop by to see what all the buzz is about and now I know why. Growing up my family always made fresh pasta, from scratch so I can appreciate all the work, not to mention time, that this process takes. Not all pasta tastes the same, we can all agree on that. But Bouchard's does it right. Not only do they have authentic fettuccine, linguini, ravioli, etc. They have crazy good inventive, and seasonal types of pasta. Ex: Pumpkin gnocchi, butternut squash ravioli, goat cheese and roasted red pepper ravioli, and garlic and chive fettuccine.

I typically never buy sauce from a store, actually I never do. I make it home made whether it's pesto, alfredo, or any red sauce. I am never satisfied with the flavor unless I can tweak it on my own. Pretty picky about my pasta dangit, and rightfully so. Fresh sauce makes the world of a difference. And since I was seeing all the amazing home made pasta staring me down in their case, I thought okay just this once I will buy the sauce they are recommending and just see what they are all about.

So here's what I purchased: The Garlic Parmesan Alfredo sauce (BIG), the Garlic and Parsley Fettuccine, and the classic potato gnocchi.

The pasta is good for about a week, and you can totally freeze it too. We made ours on a lazy Sunday afternoon and it was not only the easiest thing I've ever made, but the most delicious!! The texture of the pasta was light and fluffy, and when you have home made pasta it makes you NEVER want to eat store bought pasta again.  And for the price, you really don't have to! Our meal was about $7 total for FRESH made pasta, and the sauce. I just kept saying to my boyfriend, "How is this possible?!!!"

The flavor of the sauce by the way was out of this world. I did not even add a pinch of salt. Like I said I am kind of a picky sauce perfectionist and this did not need anything! You could see the fresh chunks of garlic, and when you warmed up the sauce in pan, the fragrance just came to life.

Hat's off to this little stand for staying true and authentic, when so many others aren't. Keep doing what you are doing and I will keep coming back.

The sauces from Bouchard's should come with warning labels! I'm telling you - they are dangerous! This past weekend I purchased a pound of gnocchi and a large container of the butternut squash/goat cheese sauce - oh my God....I barely have the words to write this review.

The sauce is SO GOOD that I have to stop myself from eating it with a spoon out of the fridge...doesn't matter that it's cold! It's SO GOOD! The salespeople are super helpful and recommend all kinds of combinations upon request.

I'm already contemplating a return trip sometime later this week. Absolutely delicious! I really want to try their lunch options that everyone else wrote reviews about!