Business - Made in Whatcom

POSTED: Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009

Bellingham women start fresh pasta company

Fresh pasta can be hard to find, so two Bellingham women decided to make it a business of their own.

Anna Rankin and Katie Hinton recently started Bellingham Pasta Co., making a variety of noodles for local consumers. Here is a closer look at the company:

What it makes: Fresh pasta in a variety of shapes and flavors. Rankin and Hinton were both born and raised in Portland, Ore., where fresh pasta was plentiful, and, after separately moving to Bellingham, Rankin and Hinton decided to fill the void with their own fare.

Bellingham Pasta Co.'s noodles - spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, fusilli and penne rigate - come in four different flavors: semolina, whole wheat, roasted red pepper and spinach. The pasta is organic and made from locally produced ingredients. Its container is also compostable.

Volume: The two-woman team churns anywhere from 180 to 288 packages of fresh pasta a week and then delivers the goods to local vendors.

Recent business news: Rankin and Hinton's pasta has been selling well since it was released to stores right before Thanksgiving. In fact, a week's worth of pasta sold out within two days at the Bellingham Community Food Co-op. The two women had to restock the Co-op's shelves three times that first week.

Bellingham Pasta Co. was never a home kitchen endeavor. From the beginning Rankin and Hinton have been in the wholesale business, renting space in a commercial kitchen in town twice a week. After the initial chaos of running a company sets in, the duo plans to produce a few seasonal pasta flavors, like artichoke for the summer. Handmade ravioli is another project that Rankin and Hinton hope to explore and market later on.

Marketplace: Bellingham Pasta Co. noodles can be picked up at the Community Food Co-op, Terra Organica and Haggen Fairhaven Market. Next month the pasta should be available at other Haggen stores in Whatcom County. People can also order Bellingham Pasta Co. dishes at The Cliff House Restaurant.

Production process: To make a batch of semolina pasta, Rankin and Hinton first crack eggs and weigh semolina flour portions before dumping them into a box-shaped machine called an extruder. The extruder mixes the ingredients into dough, which is then forced through a cylinder that is situated at the bottom of the machine. A circular brass piece, called a die, is fitted on the end of the cylinder. Different dies create different pasta shapes.

As the pasta is passed through the die, it takes on the desired shape. For the long pastas, like spaghetti, Rankin or Hinton will use a pastry cutter to slice even cuts of noodles as the dough comes out of the die. The noodles are then sprinkled with rice flour to keep them from sticking together. Then the pasta is left in bunches on a table or drying racks for a period of time before being packaged and then delivered to local stores.

Workforce: 2

BELLINGHAM PASTA CO.

P.O. Box 5381

Bellingham, WA 98227

441-7855

bellinghampasta.com