There’s a new pasta company in Pittsburgh that’s taking the town by storm: Forma Pasta. With flavors like heirloom tomato and ricotta basil cappelletti and red wine and beet fettuccine, this chef-made, seasonally driven pasta is nothing like what you’d find in the grocery store. And what’s better is that you don’t have to go to the store to get it – Forma is a pasta subscription!
This venture is the brainchild of Rebecca Romagnoli and Cole McLaughlin, a couple who both grew up in the Greensburg area. By day, they are the executive chef and operations manager, respectively, at The Vandal, the popular all-day cafe in Lawrenceville, Pa. Forma launched on August 1, 2019, and started off with 12 subscribers; after a nice write up from Good Food Pittsburgh, that number jumped by 30, and Romagnoli and McLaughlin had to put a temporary pause on new subscriptions while they tweaked delivery routes and logistics. But now, they’re back in action, ready to send their gorgeous handmade pastas to food-enthusiasts in the greater Pittsburgh area!
We caught up with Romagnoli to learn more about this awesome culinary startup in the the ‘burgh!
PA Eats: Can you tell us a little more about how Forma came to be?
Rebecca Romagnoli: Cole and I bounce ideas back and forth all the time, because eventually, we want to open our own place. This idea itself was inspired by Salty Pork Bits, the salami subscription service that Justin Severino created. That’s something he crafted and specializes in, and I feel the same way about myself with pasta. So, I thought, why can’t we do something similar with pasta?
Why is pasta your passion? Did you learn the craft organically through your work as a chef?
I come from a big Italian family, so I suppose it started with family traditions and having homemade pasta at grandma’s house. I’ve acquired the skills through self-teaching, following other people on Instagram, and looking up videos to learn how to make certain shapes. I also have two very specific cookbooks that I use: Flour + Water, from the pasta restaurant in San Francisco, and Mastering Pasta by Marc Vetri. I’m basically self-taught through those. At The Vandal, the previous chef let me take over [the pasta program] and the pasta has become some of the most-sold items on the dinner menu. Pasta has become a huge part of this restaurant, and will be if I ever open my own place.
Did you have a specific vision for the kinds of pasta you want to make through Forma?
I wanted to take tradition ideas and give them unique, new, modern twists. We’re not just making plain egg noodle spaghetti, but creative shapes and fillings, all very seasonal. I want big bright flavors and cool colors that are eye-catching and appealing. I constantly ask myself, what makes this unique? For me, that means that you can’t just go anywhere and buy it. For instance, this coming month we’ll have a corn-filled pasta and a pepper pasta dough … you’re not going to just find those at the store.
It seems like the subscription started with a bang! Were you expecting that?
Before we launched, almost everyone we spoke to said it was such a cool idea. But I had my concerns that people would be like, “What’s so great about this?” because we really want to make it something special. But the response, and being a little overwhelmed, and having to put the subscriptions on hold are good problems to have. I think ultimately, we’re going to max it out at 100 subscribers, because it’s just the two of us working out of The Vandal, during its off hours on Mondays. I’m there making it while Cole is out hand-delivering the boxes, which are packed with dry ice. We’re balancing working 55 or 60-hour weeks at The Vandal and running this business!
Do you think you’ll expand beyond just the two of you? Forma is a brand-new company, but do you already have future plans?
Neither of us have any plans to leave The Vandal, we love what we’re doing here. So, our expansion has to play along with our careers. We’d love to open up a storefront and hire a few employees in the near future, but I’m not sure how near that is, to be quite honest. We’ve started talking to some restaurants; we talked to Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance about selling through them. And we’re reaching out to different vendors about doing collaborations. We’d love for it to turn into something successful and great!
To learn more about Forma Pasta or to sign up for a subscription box (which comes with recipes!), check out its website and follow along on Instagram!
- Photos: Forma Pasta
