Italian food truck: pasta, piadina and the right trailer
Pasta, risotto, piadina, arancini: what an Italian food truck needs for cooking, water, cold storage and allergens, and which trailer goes with it.
Romain BarreauFounder of Food Truck Store · 4 min readAn Italian food truck can serve a bowl of pasta in moments, a piadina filled to order or arancini straight from the fryer. Here is what a pasta food truck needs: a hood for the steam, water in and out, fresh produce kept cold and a short menu.
Pasta, risotto, piadina: the menu.
Italian street food travels well: a bowl of pasta, a filled flatbread, a fried snack. Each one needs its own appliance, so your menu decides what goes under the hood.
- PastaFresh or dried, cooked in portions and tossed in its sauce: the star of a pasta food truck.
- RisottoRice cooked slowly in stock and served as soon as it is ready.
- PiadinaA flatbread from Romagna, cooked on a hot plate and filled to order.
- AranciniFried rice balls from Sicily, filled with ragù or cheese, easy to eat on the move.
Boiling water, under the hood.
A pasta cooker boils all service long and a fryer turns out arancini: steam, heat and grease. On the Chef+, the hood covers the whole cooking area where your appliances sit.
- 130 cmextractor hood on the Chef+ AIR 220, 180 cm on the BOLD 270
- 126 × 60 cmlowered cooking area on the AIR 220, 180 × 60 cm on the BOLD 270
- 0 to +5 °Crefrigerated counter: 150 cm with two doors on the AIR 220, 200 cm with three on the BOLD 270
- €13,495the Chef+ AIR 220, excl. VAT ›
Water in, water out.
EU rules call for enough drinking water in a mobile food outlet and for hygienic waste disposal (Regulation (EC) 852/2004, annex II, chapter III). Pasta water comes on top of what the sinks use.
- Cooking waterAsk whether the pitch has drinking water; if not, bring enough for the whole service.
- Waste waterIn Ireland, the FSAI wants it drained into a covered container marked ‘waste water’.
- Double sink as standardAn automatic double sink on the stainless steel worktop, on every layout.
Fresh pasta, kept cold.
Fresh pasta, cream and soft cheeses are perishable, so they stay in the refrigerated counter until you need them. Limits are national: 5 °C or below for high-risk food in Ireland.
Fresh produce comes out of the fridge as the orders come in.
Allergens on every plate.
Allergen information is mandatory for unpackaged food, and each country decides how you give it (Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, art. 44 and annex II). Italian classics contain several of the 14 listed allergens.
Gluten in pasta, piadina and breadcrumbs, eggs in fresh egg pasta, milk in cheese and cream, celery in many ragù bases, fish in anchovy sauces: check every recipe and every label.
Italian food truck: choose your trailer.
Take the free FTS Academy quiz to confirm the layout, then compare our food truck trailers. Planning tacos as well? See our taco food truck guide.
A team, a short menu and a queue that keeps moving.
Your questions answered.
Got another question? Just ask us ›The Chef+, our hot-food layout and the only one with an extractor hood. Your pasta cooker sits on its lowered cooking area, 126 × 60 cm in the AIR 220 and 180 × 60 cm in the BOLD 270. It starts at €13,495 excl. VAT in the AIR 220.
No. You choose the pasta cooker, the hot plate for piadina and the fryer to suit your menu. The Chef+ provides the hood, the cooking area, the refrigeration, the stainless steel and the double sink.
Both work. The gas bottle box is an option on every model, and a qualified professional in your country installs and inspects the gas. For electric appliances, the trailer is wired for 230 V single phase: plug in both of its inlets.
Gluten in pasta and piadina, eggs in fresh egg pasta, milk in cheese and cream, and often celery in a ragù. All are on the EU list of 14 allergens; for unpackaged food, allergen information is mandatory, and your country decides how you give it.
Register your food business with the competent authority, make sure everyone handling food is instructed or trained in food hygiene for their work, and get permission for each pitch from the council, market or event organiser.
Food Truck Store only sells trailers: you unhitch the kitchen on the pitch and your car stays free. The AIR 220, at 750 kg gross weight, can be towed on a category B licence behind a car rated to tow it.
By Romain, founder 
