Young couple’s pasta start-up champions 100% British spelt
© Northern Pasta Co Imogen and Matt Royall have turned a shared passion for British food into a successful pasta-making business producing 100% British spelt pasta.
Neither originally set out on a food-based career path. Matt came from a background in building, while Imogen worked as an interior designer, but they always shared a passion for food.
Now, operating as the Northern Pasta Co, the husband-and-wife team are working with a cluster of farmers in England and a Cotswold-based miller to champion British pasta.
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How did it begin?
The business venture was ignited after a series of events.
The pair were living on a remote island in Croatia doing up a property when Covid struck, and they quickly realised just how detached from food they were.
“We’ve always been food fanatics but this made our perspective on food change,” says Imogen.
“With supplies limited and highly seasonal, we no longer had the luxury of getting what food we wanted, whenever we wanted it.”
On the couple’s return to the UK, they were greeted with panic buying in supermarkets, with limited supplies of common food products such as pasta and flour.
Matt and Imogen Royall © Northern Pasta Co
This further sparked the realisation of the fragility of food systems and planted the seed in their minds for the new venture.
This led Imogen to the next step in her career, working in an artisan bakery. Here, she worked closely with growers across the UK and started exploring heritage grains.
Tracing the stories behind the grains, she questioned why the supply chain was not backing British farmers.
“I became increasingly aware of the disconnect between British agriculture and everyday food products,” she says.
“Pasta is one of the biggest commodities, with most households eating it at least once a week. Despite it being a staple in most households, very little of it is made using British grain.”
This led to the creation of the Northern Pasta Co and Imogen and Matt began aligning themselves with the supply chain.
They source high-quality ingredients from regenerative farms, working closely with Cotswolds-based regenerative farmer Ed Horton and miller Bertie Matthews at Matthews Cotswolds Flour.
“Both are so inspiring and extremely passionate about agriculture and regenerative farming. It’s been amazing to work with them,” says Imogen.
The first sales
In June 2022, Matt and Imogen began selling their pasta at a local farmers’ market in their hometown of Kendal, Cumbria, where their pasta manufacturing is based.
What started as a tentative launch quickly gained momentum. “We initially thought: who is going to buy this? Who is going to come back?
“But people were so passionate about it, and they liked the connection to the farmers and the supply chain. People want to know where their food comes from and there was a real buzz and energy around it.”
Within months, demand started to grow, further boosted by television exposure on James Martin’s Saturday Kitchen which significantly accelerated their reach.
“It was such a powerful and pivotal moment for us. We didn’t realise the extent of the power of TV,” she says.
Their pasta is now stocked by supermarket chain Booths, and launched in Waitrose in April this year, marking a significant milestone for the business.
The pasta-making process
From the outset, Imogen and Matt chose to produce pasta with heritage grains as it fits well with regenerative farming systems.
“Spelt offers a distinctive flavour and texture, but is certainly more challenging to process than conventional durum wheat,” explains Imogen.
The pasta-making processes is deliberately slow and handled with care, and is highly sensitive to factors such as temperature.
The dough is pushed through an extruder and shaped using specialist dies, creating a rough, porous surface that helps sauces soak in better.
Matt focused on refining the production process and training a small team to help.
Unlike standard mass-produced pasta, which is made using Teflon dies and high temperatures, their approach uses bronze dies and prioritises quality over speed.
The result is a lighter, more flavourful product that reflects the grain it is made from.
The company currently works with a small number of farmers, but plan to expand as demand increases. The pasta making process takes about 24 hours.
The couple remain committed to their original principles: producing high-quality food, supporting farmers and maintaining sustainable practices.
This includes product packaging being 100% plastic-free – it uses recyclable paper and a cellulose window.
Q&A with Ed Horton, grower for Northern Pasta Co
How did you get involved with Northern Pasta Co?
I became involved through a longstanding relationship with Matthews Cotswold Flour, which mills our spelt into flour for the pasta. From the outset, it felt like a natural fit.
There’s a real sense of pride in supporting a British start-up that is championing British-grown grains and helping create demand for alternative cereals like spelt.
What does it mean to supply a small start-up British company?
It means a great deal. As a farmer, it’s incredibly rewarding to see the crop I’ve nurtured through the seasons turned into a premium product by a young British company with real passion and ambition behind it.
There’s a strong sense of connection throughout the whole process – from field to flour to finished pasta – which you don’t always get within larger supply chains.
Farming can often feel quite disconnected from the final product, so being part of a more transparent supply chain is really positive.
How long have you been growing spelt?
We’ve grown spelt for seven years. It fits well within our rotation as a second winter-sown cereal crop. It’s typically sown after wheat and before a break crop such as peas, beans or oilseed rape.
It’s become an increasingly important crop for us and one we genuinely enjoy growing – it supports soil health and diversity across the farm.
How much spelt do you grow, and what percentage is sold to Northern Pasta Co?
We currently grow 85ha of spelt each year, producing roughly 550t annually of which 40% goes direct to Northern Pasta Co.
It’s fantastic to have a significant proportion of the crop go to a business where we can clearly see the end product.
Crop agronomy – what are the inputs?
Our farm isn’t organic, but we grow spelt with limited inputs compared with conventional milling wheat.
Typically, we apply 60-80kg/ha of nitrogen to the crop, compared with roughly 220kg/ha for breadmaking wheat.
What are typical spelt yields?
Spelt yields about 6t/ha including the grain and its outer hull. The grain needs to be de-hulled after harvest, which reduces the final usable weight by 25-30%.
Although yields are lower than some modern cereal crops, the environmental and rotational benefits make it worthwhile.
Is it a profitable crop to grow?
Yes, within our wider and diverse rotation, spelt is one of the more profitable crops we grow.
It’s a crop that performs well within a lower-input system and helps support the long-term health and resilience of the farm, which is becoming increasingly important for the future of British agriculture.
New cookbook
© Northern Pasta Co
Imogen and Matt have launched their own cookbook, Pasta for the People, which focuses on simple recipes packed with delicious ingredients.
The aim is to reconnect consumers with food and encourage a greater appreciation of where food comes from.
“Pasta is more than a staple, it’s a vessel for flavour, and it’s a great way to champion British,” says Imogen. “People should love food, talk about food, and enjoy food.”
Pasta for the People is published by Murdoch Books, with a RRP of £20.
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