The Pasta Lab was born from a desire to share the flavor and variety of freshly-milled flour with our community. We actually arrived here after a persistent obsession with bread baking at home. Years ago we explored bread with a focus on the sourdough process and the exclusive use of freshly milled grain. We bought a tabletop grain mill, ordered as many varieties of wheat that we could get our hands on, and started turning this into incredible bread. Soon enough, we started substituting this stone ground flour with any recipe that called for white flour. The flavor of our creations were suddenly amplified.

Commodity wheat - most of what you find in the grocery store - is processed in such a way that the nutrient rich germ and bran are removed from the flour. The germ contains oils that tend to go rancid if not removed from the flour before prolonged storage. The bran can not be milled as finely as the rest of the grain and so it acts as little scissors - interrupting the stretchy gluten network that bakers (and pasta makers) try so hard to develop. These parts of the grain are often removed to create a flour that is predictable and stores well at room temperature - all at the expense of flavor.

We chose to focus our lens on pasta as the vehicle for sharing these unique flours with our community. Each of our products not only contain a generous percentage of freshly-milled local grain - but also a variety of other ingredients sourced from small producers in the Northeastern United States. For as long as Italians have taken residence in this country, there has been a desire to import the hard-to-find specialty items from their homeland and share them with a new audience. While we appreciate the artistry that goes into producing a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano or Prosciutto di Parma, we feel there are locally produced products that offer an equally compelling story and flavor profile. For this reason, we’re committed to sourcing local ingredients that highlight the best that our region has to offer.

Our pasta can be found at a number of farmers’ markets in and around Philadelphia. Click here for more info. We hope our pasta finds a special place on your dinner table for years to come.

 Some of our favorite producers are linked to below: