Meet Your Farmer: Baia Pasta
We are excited to introduce you to Renato Sardo and Dario Barbone, the founders of Baia Pasta: a true artisanal company. All of their pastas are manufactured in their own facility using an old-fashioned drying process – a key component of the texture and flavor of their pasta.
For 8 years, Renato was the Director of Slow Food International, an organization that promotes local, sustainable and fair food worldwide. Upon moving to California, Renato helped organizing national and local Slow Food events for the San Francisco chapter, where he met and eventually partnered with Dario. Baia Pasta is their life-project to convert Slow Food theory into practice : to make delicious food that is also good for the people who grow/produce it, and good for the Earth.
Photo credit: Baia Pasta
Inspired by their roots in Piemonte (Northern Italy) and the food scene in the Bay Area, Renato and Dario wanted to make delicious food that was also beneficial for the people who grow and produce it, while being good for the earth. Rento realized that most of Italian pasta is made from American and Canadian wheat that is shipped to Italy to be transformed into pasta and then shipped back to America. He found that it was impossible to find quality pasta made in America and that is when he started Baia Pasta in 2011.
Photo credit: Baia Pasta
Baia Pasta combines the art of traditional Italian pasta making with great American-grown grains: its traditional short cuts of pasta are available in 5 different organic flours (durum, whole durum, spelt, whole spelt, and whole khorasan wheat). The pasta is kneaded with cold water, extruded gently in small batch through brass dies, and dried at low temperatures (never above 40-45 degrees), therefore preserving the original protein and gluten content of the wheat.
Photo credit: Baia Pasta
Patterned plates, or dies, are the molds through which the dough is pushed (extruded) to give pasta a particular shape. At Baia Pasta, they only use brass dies because of the desirable texture that they generate. The textured surface of their pasta allows sauces to adhere to it and impart an artisanal touch to every dish. Their pasta is traditional in every sense: rough, thick and with an amazing “al dente” texture, with a deep wheat flavor. We are proud to offer a variety of different Baia Pastas that you can add to your deliveries when you Customize Your Order.
Photo credit: Meaghin Kennedy
We love that Baia Pasta is such a small-scale operation. Because of this, they think of as a small family: it’s just Renato, Dario and three amazing employees (Matteo, Gerardo and Jamal). The five of them make it all happen in one space: production, packaging, deliveries, sales, marketing, accounting, and distribution. What a team!
Find and follow Baia Pasta on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
How To Add Baia Pasta to Your Delivery:
Full Circle members – head on over to our online Farm Stand Market to customize your upcoming delivery. Market is open from noon on Thursday until 6 pm on your cutoff date. After you confirm your produce items, click the orange button “Confirm and Continue To Other Farm Products” to add farm products to your delivery.
Not part of our farm family? Find out if we deliver to your neighborhood.
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