inspiration
Michelle and David Valicenti started their busy farm-based business, Valicenti Pasta Farm in Hollis, by making jars of homemade tomato sauce and selling them at area farmers’ markets.
Recipe for Success Valicenti Pasta
Farm uses only locally grown
ingredients in
its products, all made in Hollis.
D
avid Valicenti is the consummate small
the company’s line of sauces and fresh pasta,
business owner, wearing multiple hats
like wild garlic scape linguine or asparagus and
at any given time. Today, he’s taking
brie ravioli. David might also be found in the
a call on his cell phone, a quick respite from
on-site greenhouse, checking on the vegetables
fixing a broken well on the Hollis farm that’s
and herbs used in his creations. Michelle, a
home to Valicenti Pasta Farm (formerly Vali-
former pastry chef, supervises operations and
centi Organico), the burgeoning gourmet pasta
works with the growing number of farmers’
and sauce business he owns with wife Michelle.
markets in New Hampshire and Massachusetts
“Something’s always broken on a farm,” he says
where Valicenti Pasta Farm sells its products.
good-naturedly.
“When I run into friends and they ask what I’m
Valicenti Pasta Farm, however, is working
doing, I almost don’t want to answer because
just fine. When he’s not farming, David—a
we’re doing so many things: cooking, growing
former chef—is dreaming up creative ideas for
and selling,” David says.
By Debbie Kane | Photography by Joseph St. Pierre 88 | New Hampshire Home
september/october 2016