Sunday, September 29, 2013

Pasta with a Heart

After reading an article or two and signing a few petitions, I started hunting for independent pasta makers focusing on organic pastas and offering vegan-friendly egg-free shapes. Delightfully I declare there's an army of these artisan makers! I don't yet know about their socio-political leanings, but at least they are compassionate and aware of what they do and how it affects people and the planet. They put their heart into their work. And that's a good place to start.  :)

Plus you get extraordinary creations like Organic Black Bean Spaghetti, Rasta Pasta, Beet & Carrot & Sweet Pea Penne, Lemon Pepper Thyme Linguini, Everything Bagel Fusilli, Vegan Parsnip, Carrot, & Sage Ravioli...yumza!

Artisans abound...
Dalla Terra Pasta -- Appleton, WI
Earth Angel Organics -- Hungry Horse, MT
Flour City Pasta -- Pittsford, NY
Pastamoré -- Denver, CO
Sfoglini -- Brooklyn, NY
The Phoenix Pastificio -- Berkeley, CA

Additional advice...
• Check out your local specialty store, health food store or co-op to find locally-made artisanal pastas...be sure to read ingredients and watch for eggs, dairy and honey.
• Search your favorite vegan blogs for handmade pasta recipes...you'll find everything from buckwheat pastas to bean-based pastas...then practice, practice, innovate and practice!
• Explore youtube channels and raw/vegan blogs too...you can learn to spiralize or noodlefy a zillion oodles of fruits and veggies

Have you ditched corporate brands for handmade alternatives? Do you spiralize? Who is your favorite pasta maker?
Yes, yes and my Aunt Clare.  :)

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for all of the ideas! I love that you not only decided against terrible companies, but you also helped your readers out by doing some research. Those pasta shapes look adorable. I hope more people are going to be boycotting Barilla.

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    1. Thanks Randi! It was fun doing the research and pleasantly surprising to find so many...and these are just the tip of the pasta iceberg! :)

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  2. How lucky you are to have all that great artisan pasta! We don't buy the mainstream brands any more either, though our range is a lot more limited here in the UK. At the ,moment we have in our kitchen Dove's Farm gluten free fusilli (rice and corn), Iris wholemeal penne and King Soba 100% buckwheat soba noodles, all organic. I would spiralise if I had one, but sometimes make zucchini tagliatelle with a y-shaped peeler.

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    1. I'm not sure which of these are vegan, bit it looks like Biona and La Terra e il Cielo have several vegan pastas, and Wild Harvest might too.
      They get high scores environmentally too! :)

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  3. I like the organic pasta by Montebello - we used loads of them in our pasta dishes, have you ever heard of it? For example, we used it for our Linguine Carbonara dish, the pasta tasted so good!

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  4. Here's the link to the dish: http://veganmiam.com/recipes/linguine-carbonara-peas-toasted-garlic

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    1. LOL...that's actually one of your recipes that I bookmarked to try. Peas, pasta and garlic are one of my favorite combinations! :)

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  5. Thank you Peace Patch for including Dalla Terra Pasta in your research selections! We are a family owned business located in Appleton, Wisconsin and strive to produce the absolute best artisan pasta for our wonderful customers. It's hard work, but we are so fortunate to have farmers and produce growers who work even harder to provide us with premium ingredients for our ever-changing line of pasta! Mangia!!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to try your saffron and beet and spinach pastas and so much more! :)

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