Aurora Echo began her Wildly Beloved pasta journey in 2022. Wildly Beloved pastas are now available at PCC Markets, and beyond! She says: “What began as a craving for vibrant spinach pasta and a love of sharing food with others, evolved into a flourishing pasta business now in 10 PCC Markets, Co-ops and specialty shops in the Seattle area.” Wildly Beloved Pastas are also available at Payless Foods in Freeland.
These pastas are done in small-batches and packaged in compostable materials-- and always using the Italian organic semolina flour that she recognized as exceptional.
She adds: “Aside from tasting incredibly light and delicate, yet toothsome and different from other pasta, these dried pastas cook in less time. That is because large factory-produced pasta is dried using very high heat, to get it in and out and stable for efficient, profitable distribution. At Wildly Beloved Foods, they dry using ambient air, the old and slow way. It doesn’t produce the starch wall that must be broken down with 10–12-minute cook time, and therefore cooks in about half the time.
A unique characteristic of this Italian organic flour came to light after selling pasta at the local and area Farmers Markets last year: this flour and the pasta she manufactured from it, acted as a Safer Gluten! Her customers who reported gluten intolerance and sensitivity were able to eat her pasta without consequence. It inspired some customers to declare it “Life-changing pasta”. When pasta makes you feel sick, and suddenly you can eat it again, it changes your life!
Was this the reason people were reacting to domestic flour? Aurora pondered this, and in her own attempt at market research, she came across the US export of semolina flour to Italy, where it is made into pasta that will even read “Product of Italy”. So simply knowing and verifying the source of flour was now of the utmost importance for sensitive eaters, and the growing and random sample of her intolerant customers inspired her to continue down this path and invent the term Safer Gluten, bringing a focus on the organic flour she was getting directly from the Italian mill in Parma, Italy.
Wildly Beloved Foods is growing with the support of the local Whidbey community.. Aurora has a growing team of employees and remains a supporter of the local food bank, Whidbey Island Nourishes, and local non-profits and community and arts organizations.
New to their offering is a selection of Italian, French and Spanish wines for sale (organic and biodynamic) in Clinton at the Wildly Beloved Foods Marketplace. Pasta and wine? Yes, please!
If you haven’t tried their pasta, be prepared to re-define pasta. Wildly Beloved Foods was a name inspired by people’s raw reaction to eating her spinach pasta over the years.
Come visit the Wildly Beloved store at 6348 Frost Avenue in Clinton. Marketplace hours are Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
For Marketplace and wholesale inquiries, please call (360) 321-5000
