The sidewalks through the Idaho Falls Farmers Market have just opened on a warm Saturday morning as vendors are still making tent adjustments and arranging their goods on fold-out tables. Flaminia Assirelli, better known as “Mama Fla,” is running back to her car for more food because a line has already formed outside of her tent at the very end of the market’s entrance. She greets waiting customers cradling boxes upon boxes of just-made pasta, burrata salad and profiteroles in her arms.

“We’ve heard so much about you we had to come and try your food,” says one customer. “When is your restaurant going to open?” asks another. “How do you say your name?” wonders a little girl standing next to her parents.”

“Enjoy,” Flaminia calls out as the customers move through the line.

Typically, pastas and lasagnas are served just after the appetizer in an Italian meal and just before the main courses. So in many ways, the fresh pasta, homemade sauce and lasagna that is selling out at the market is just a warm-up for Flaminia with the support of her husband, Marco Assirelli.

The much-anticipated grand opening of their restaurant at 385 River Parkway in Idaho Falls was pushed back by four weeks due to ongoing delays in the local construction industry. But the Assirellis are already coursing their handmade meals to the Idaho Falls community, one fettuccine plate at a time.

“We just love your food,” says a customer as Marco hands them a pile of hand-rolled gnocchi.

“Everything here is real," Marco said to a customer. “It’s all real. We import much of the ingredients from Italy, from the olive oil and the tomatoes, to Parmigiano-Reggiano and the prosciutto — everything is genuine.”

If there is a secret in the sauce, it's “love,” Flaminia says when asked what drives her labor. She has been up since 4 this morning making fresh pasta and burrata salads.

“What is burrata?” asked a customer, butchering the word with an East Idahoan dialect.

“It’s the best,” smiles Flaminia, who is dressing the fresh burrata (which is mozzarella and cream) with tomato-infused olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction — both her own recipes.

The Assirellis are from Amatrice in the Province of Rieti, Italy, about two hours north of Rome. Marco has enjoyed a career with Sensor Medica and met Flaminia, a lawyer and talented chef in her own right, when she walked into a restaurant he owned in Rome some years ago.

Sensor Medica is an international company that produces diagnostic equipment used in various medical fields that includes podiatry, orthopedics and sports medicine. The company established its North American headquarters in Idaho Falls and the couple, along with their 9-year-old son, would eventually follow in 2012, before the devastating earthquake that leveled Amatrice in 2016.

If you’ve never been to that part of north-central Italy (or read "Eat, Pray, Love"), Rieti — and more specifically, Amatrice — is home to the most classic Italian pasta dish, Amatriciana — a foundational dish once served to popes and Roman emperors that defines classic, modern-day Italian cooking. Flaminia’s sauce is a burst of flavor held firmly to the homemade fettuccine noodles, not overly seasoned and made to showcase the true taste of the tomato — a signature style of the Rieti region.

She’s been cooking in a small public kitchen in Idaho Falls after she had to move from the city’s community kitchen earlier this year when the space was needed for the vaccine rollout. Her current space is tight, and both she and Marco are looking forward to getting into their own space once the restaurant opens just after the Fourth of July.

“What I love about cooking is adding my impression and my love to the dishes,” Flaminia said. She turns to another customer pointing at a pasta salad. “Everything is homemade, fresh, very tasty and healthy.”

For more information, visit mamafla.com.