Tropical trip ends with couple bringing Italian cuisine to Ogema

The owners of Solo Italia Fine Pasta say they couldn’t run their pizza and pasta factory without each other.

Marco de Michele and Tracey Johnson run their business in Ogema, a village 115 kilometres southeast of Regina.

“It’s a challenge, and it’s also more rewarding,” Johnson said. “I think it would be boring to be married to someone just like you.”

The two have brought a slice of authentic Italian cuisine to the prairies since 2013.

They first met while on vacation in Costa Rica. Johnson was from Ogema and spoke no Italian, and de Michele was from Italy and spoke no English. For the first year of their relationship they spoke Spanish.

They married 13 months after they met, in 2009. The newly-weds lived in Italy before de Michele convinced his wife to pivot.

“After three and a half years, I say to Tracey ‘I don’t want to die in the same place I was born,” de Michele said.

The pair returned to Johnson’s hometown, Ogema.

de Michele and Johnson stand with their son in front of Solo Italia Fine Pasta. (Machel Photography/ Submitted)

De Michele said the two began their business making handmade pasta in the basement of their home. They saw success with their first customer, former Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco, who bought for his restaurant.

The two quickly outgrew their basement, with sales taking off.

“We couldn’t keep up with the orders,” de Michele said. “In fact, for three days we work day and night without stopping, without sleeping.”

The pair were encouraged by friends and family to open a factory in Ogema. The business operates primarily as a factory, with an option for take-out service.

A pizza heads into the wood fired oven that de Michele built. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)

The factory even has its own wood fired pizza oven, built by de Michele, after being dissatisfied with electric ovens.

“Italian is a little more extreme,” Johnson said. “It’s good, they care about food. Everything revolves around food.

“They care more about what you ate and what you are going to eat, than the weather or anything else.”

De Michele insisted the factory’s products must be made using authentic Italian recipes, which is why the business has been a success.

“I believed in original food from Italy and I would never change a thing,” he said.

Since opening their businesses doors, Johnson said people from across Canada, the United States and even Europe have come to try their food.

“It’s nice because I think most people thought that it would never work, and then making it work and having people see that … it helps others in their goals or dreams or whatever they want to do,” said Johnson.

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