handcrafted Archives | Community Food Co-op

Local Vendor Profile: Bellingham Pasta Co.

by Alana Smith, Outreach and Front End Teams

February 2020

katie hinton working the production line at her business bellingham pasta co

Katie Emlaw Hinton founded the Bellingham Pasta Co. in 2007.

She is proud to run a zero-waste facility, where even the pasta’s packaging is derived from corn and entirely compostable.

Every ingredient in her fresh pasta is pronounceable, and all the wheat used in the pasta is unenriched and non-GMO.

Photos by Wyeth Stiles and Victory Ralston

The Early Years

When Katie Emlaw Hinton founded the Bellingham Pasta Co. in 2007, she had no food production experience. Instead, she had a passion for fresh pasta and had been making triannual pilgrimages to Portland, Oregon, to replenish her personal supply when she decided to skip the commute and hang out her own shingle.

She taught herself the business in six months and began selling her own brand of pasta to local retailers and restaurants.

There were hiccups along the way—the Italian-made extrusion machines she used were too small for the scale of her operation—but she figured it out. She rented time from La Fiamma’s commissary kitchen until 2010 when she took on partners and opened her own restaurant. Three years later, she bought out her partners and continued to run the restaurant until it closed in 2016.

The Business Expands

That year, Katie decided to expand her wholesaling business. Bellingham Pasta Co. relocated to a bigger production facility on Marine Drive and joined the Puget Sound Food Hub when the Hub began accepting value-added products.

Now Bellingham Pasta Co. distributes more than 30 different cuts and flavors of pasta across western Washington.

fork with a different variety of pasta from Bellingham Pasta Co swirled on each fork

The varieties of fresh pasta made by Bellingham Pasta Co. are as beautiful as they are delicious! Every batch of pasta is handcrafted and delivered to our stores.

Choose from nine varieties: Linguine, Lemon Black Pepper Linguine, Roasted Red Pepper Linguine, Fettucine, Spinach Fettuccine, Gemelli, Shells, and Lasagne Sheets.

Quality Regional Ingredients

The key to the company’s exciting growth is the simplicity of its products and the quality of its ingredients.

The unenriched semolina flour that Bellingham Pasta Co. uses gives its noodles their distinct, vibrant color and can be sourced to the precise acre in Alberta where the coarse grain is grown. The wheat necessary to mill semolina is not grown west of the Rockies; for this reason, especially, Katie is pleased to have met the farmers that make her business possible.

Because Bellingham Pasta Co. uses 3,000 eggs a week and no single local farm can meet that demand, the company’s eggs are sourced from Snohomish County.

Flour and eggs account for nearly half the ingredient list on any package of Bellingham Pasta Co. pasta. A light dusting of brown rice flour coats the hand-packaged pasta to keep it from sticking to itself—aside from water and sometimes spinach or roasted red pepper—that’s it.

Every ingredient is pronounceable

Every ingredient is pronounceable, and all the wheat used in the pasta is unenriched and non-GMO. Katie is proud to run a zero-waste facility, where even the pasta’s packaging is derived from corn and entirely compostable.

Fresh is Best

Katie is excited to teach people not to be intimidated by fresh pasta, which has a very different texture and cook time compared to its dry counterpart.

In that spirit, Katie shared her vegetarian Bellingham Pasta Co. Lasagna recipe with us.

a perfect serving of vegetable lasagne made with Bellingham Pasta Co fresh lasagna sheets displayed on a white place with fork/knife

Behind the Scenes

From the unenriched semolina flour to finished product. Each batch of Bellingham Pasta Co. pasta is handcrafted in Bellingham.

a vat of fresh semolina flour that is used in production at bellingham pasta co

staff grabbing a bundle of fresh Bellingham Pasta Co spaghetti being extruded from the mixer

staff at bellingham pasta co twist bundles of spaghetti on the production line

hands of staff at bellingham pasta co twist bundles of fresh pasta to prepare them for pacakaging

Bellingham Pasta Co staff sprinkle a bit of flour on bundles of spaghetti before they are packaged

several shelves with tubs of Bellingham Pasta Co fresh pasta in containers waiting for lids

Learn More

Learn more on the Bellingham Pasta Co. website and watch a short behind-the-scenes video of the pasta-making process and three informational cooking videos including a step-by-step demonstration of Katie's lasagna technique.

plate of Bellingham Pasta Co's roasted red pepper linguine in a bowl stopped with grated parmesan cheese and a few sprigs of parsley

Acme—The Height of Delicious

by Laura Steiger, Publications Coordinator

At Acme Ice Cream, new flavors are always in development.

You can even submit a suggestion for a new ice cream flavor at Acme’s rather adorable website.

Being of a certain generation, when I think “Acme,” I used to think Wile E. Coyote, and all those ingenious Acme products he purchased that invariably backfired on him. But, now when I think “Acme,” I think ice cream!

Although Acme Ice Cream is now made in Bellingham, its birthplace was the small town of Acme. Their website explains that, “acme means the highest or summit of achievement, and we think Acme is the perfect name for our ice cream.”

Though in business for little longer than one year, Acme Ice Cream has already developed a devoted following—our stores alone sell nearly 100 pints of Acme Ice Cream every week—and deservedly so.

Acme strives to include as many local ingredients as humanly possible

Gabe Tucker, general manager, explained that Acme strives to include “as many local ingredients as humanly possible,” and that includes milk from hormone-free Whatcom County cows, strawberries from local grower Curt Mayberry, and coffee from Hammerhead Coffee, among many others local suppliers. Additionally, it is made in small batches of only 50 to 100 pints at a time, so the ice cream in the store today was guaranteed to have been made in the past month, or more likely the past week or two. That freshness results in peak flavors that are fresh on the palate.

When you’re talking to an ice cream maker, you just have to ask how much ice cream he eats in a typical day, right? Gabe says he eats a spoonful of each flavor every day, as quality control (uh-huh). With about a dozen flavors, and new flavors always in development, that seems like a sensible RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of ice cream.

The newest Acme flavor to hit the freezer case is Boundary Bay Oatmeal Stout—rich and smooth. By the way, you can submit a suggestion for a new ice cream flavor at Acme’s rather adorable website (acmeicecream.com). No guarantees, but perhaps Acme Ice Cream can make your ice cream fantasy come true!