A few years ago, the owners of Blue Ribbon Farm in Mercer got interested in making pasta, and now they’ve turned it into a business, Pasta Fresca.

The farm’s fresh pasta incorporates local ingredients: Its raviolis are filled with ricotta and chevre from Kennebec Cheesery, and local apples and squash in the winter. The wheat is grown and milled in Maine. The eggs used to make the spinach rigatoni I made came from the farm, as did the organic spinach.

I enjoyed the rigatoni with some marinara, but was quickly filled with regret. I wished I had kept the dish even simpler – a little butter or olive oil and some grated Italian cheese is all this pasta needs. A less-is-more approach lets the ingredients shine.

Blue Ribbon Farm makes more than 20 different pasta shapes, including tagliatelle, penne, fusilli, angel hair and lasagna sheets. Find the pasta in Portland at the food co-op. (The rigatoni costs $4.25 there.) Other nearby outlets include Royal River Natural Foods and Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen in Freeport, Local in Brunswick, and the Portland and Yarmouth Rosemont Markets. For a complete list of stores that carry the pasta, go to blueribbonfarm.net.

Copy the Story Link