Pastificio La Molisana: where pasta is produced
An unstoppable path
Since 2011, the year it was acquired by the Ferro family, La Molisana has embarked on a profound transformation, becoming a modern, advanced, and sustainable company.
An entrepreneurial project founded on two strategic assets: continuous innovation and the value of people. Two levers that, only when working synergistically, generate lasting results.
Over €100 million invested in ten years—€27 million of which in the last two years alone—has involved all key sectors: production, packaging, logistics, automation, and self-generation plants. This integrated approach allows for the combination of economic sustainability, production efficiency, and increasing product quality.
Today, La Molisana is among the top four players in the domestic pasta market, with steady growth in international markets as well. This milestone has been achieved despite the complexities of doing business in Central and Southern Italy, where the industrial fabric often faces structural and infrastructural obstacles.
What made the difference was the ability to react with up-to-date skills, strategic vision, and operational tenacity, transforming environmental constraints into an opportunity to build a more efficient and distinctive production model.
Innovation has not only allowed us to optimize costs and improve performance, but also to leverage expertise built over more than a century of history. It has raised food safety standards, reduced environmental impact, and strengthened a recognizable brand identity, capable of combining Italian identity and industrial culture.
But if innovation is the driving force, people are the company’s soul. Every achievement is the fruit of the labor of those who produce, control, ship, and promote with passion, expertise, and team spirit. Tenacious spirit—like our pasta—feels like challenges.
Contribution to Agenda 2030
2. ZERO HUNGER
Target 2.4
By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, help conserve ecosystems, strengthen the capacity to adapt to climate change, extreme weather, drought, floods, and other disasters, and progressively improve soil and soil quality.
8. DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Target 8.4
Progressively improve global resource efficiency in consumption and production in an effort to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead.
8. DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Target 8.8
Protect labour rights and promote a safe and secure working environment for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment.
Upon arrival at the pasta factory, just a few meters from the mill, the fresh semolina is stored in various silos, sorted by type.
This is followed by an initial sifting phase.
The actual pasta-making process begins, with the kneading of the dough, which is composed of 70% semolina and 30% water.
After about 15 minutes, the dough is pressed and passed through bronze dies, the molds used to give the pasta its characteristic shape, in both short and long shapes. Bronze dies, which are more expensive and produce less quality than Teflon dies, leave the pasta’s surface porous and rough, perfect for absorbing sauces. The pasta emerging from the dies is cut with special blades to obtain the final dimensions of the various shapes.
It is then placed in large ovens where the drying process takes place, lasting from three hours for short shapes to ten hours for long shapes. La Molisana has chosen a medium temperature for the drying process to preserve the semolina’s organoleptic properties.
The pasta emerging hot from the ovens is then stabilized, humidified, and cooled.
From this work of subtle and expert balance, La Molisana pasta is born every day, characterized by its unmistakable warm golden yellow color, an intense wheat aroma, a high protein content never lower than 14%, and great tenacity when cooked.
Then we move on to packaging.
Certified quality and safety
From this work of subtle and expert balance, La Molisana pasta is born every day, characterized by its unmistakable warm golden yellow color, an intense wheat aroma, a high protein content never lower than 14%, and great tenacity when cooked.
From classic pasta to special shapes, from whole wheat pasta rich in fiber to organic products, the philosophy is always the same: extremely high quality and food safety, certified by strict internal and external controls and analyses, conducted during various stages of the process (for impurities, weight, or defects) and by adherence to the most important international standards. Based on the hazard analysis, La Molisana defines a strict control plan that covers:
- Raw materials
- Finished products
- Marketed products
Product innovation
An asset that has distinguished La Molisana over the years is innovation and continuous research into shapes.
The first major step was taken with Spaghetto Quadrato, launched in 2013 and immediately becoming a bestseller and the flagship of the Molise pasta factory.
Between 2018 and 2020, four new products with unusual shapes entered the market, designed to ensure toughness when chewed, resistance during cooking, and that new pleasure that inspires original recipes: Trighetto, Spaghetto Quadrato Bucato, Quadrotto, and Cubetto. In 2021, this creative research culminated in the launch of a symbolic shape: Rigacuore. It all began with a social media post for Valentine’s Day, featuring the image of two pasta hearts and the phrase “Fall in love every day.” The community’s enthusiasm was overwhelming, and many asked if this shape actually existed. From this authentic listening, a new design was born, developed to ensure aesthetic harmony and excellent cooking resistance. Thus was Rigacuore born: the first pasta shape designed with direct consumer input, now beloved by chefs and enthusiasts.
In 2025, Rigacuore returns to the forefront of an emotional campaign celebrating its symbolic power, set to the tune of the original song “Rigacuore,” performed by Creta, a young talent launched by La Molisana. Her authentic, intense, and contemporary voice lends depth to the story of a shape born from a collective idea and taking shape as a loving gesture brought to the table.
Beyond form, La Molisana is dedicated to innovation in substance: since 2016, the company has chosen to invest in its Wellness Line and in engaging with an increasingly broad target of consumers focused on health and the quality of its ingredients.
This has led to a profound overhaul of its Whole Wheat Line, completely redesigned, starting with the bronze-drawing process, which gives the surface a scratched texture that absorbs sauces and a warm, opaque, and inviting color.
In addition to its high percentage of vitamins and minerals, La Molisana whole-wheat pasta stands out for its high protein content (over 14%) and high fiber concentration—approximately 8 g per 100 g of product—which aids digestion, increases satiety, and helps maintain a low glycemic index.
In a short time, the brand established itself as a co-leader in the dried whole-wheat pasta segment and a benchmark for a product that combines flavor, well-being, and nutritional performance.
Today, the Whole-Wheat Line includes over 14 shapes, from long shapes like Linguina Integrale 6 or Spaghetto Quadrato Integrale, to short shapes for everyday cooking, to specialty shapes like Farfalle Rigate 66, Radiatori Integrali 73, Orecchiette Pugliesi 30, and many other new additions that consumers appreciate for their quality, yield, and benefits.
In 2024, La Molisana takes another step forward in the world of functional nutrition with the launch of a new pasta made with lupin flour, designed as a natural, Italian, and sustainable response to the growing demand for protein-rich pasta.
Made with 77% durum wheat semolina and 23% lupin flour, this product offers a balanced nutritional profile, with a high protein content, a significant fiber content, and a delicate yet full-bodied flavor.
Lupins, a legume rich in high-quality proteins and naturally gluten-free, represent a valuable source of nutrients for promoting a more balanced diet and reducing the environmental impact associated with animal protein consumption.
With this product, La Molisana contributes to promoting a more sustainable, accessible, and everyday eating model, which aims to increase the consumption of high-quality plant-based proteins without sacrificing taste, texture, and culinary versatility.
A practical alternative to 100% legume pasta, which often lacks flavor and cooking performance, La Molisana’s lupini pasta holds its shape perfectly, offering a mouthfeel similar to traditional pasta, and is ideal for those seeking health, flavor, and a healthy lifestyle all in one.
Pack innovation
Alongside product innovation, La Molisana continues to invest in responsible packaging solutions. The first step was the introduction of paper packaging. An even more ambitious goal is coming in 2025: compostable packaging, which can be disposed of in organic waste and composted in 87 days.
As evidence of its concrete commitment to sustainable growth, the company has published three Sustainability Reports in recent years, transparently reporting on the actions undertaken and objectives achieved in three key areas: economic, environmental, and social.
An integrated vision that puts the product, the planet, and people at the center, to build a more sustainable and sustainable food industry every day.
Sense of belonging
Whole wheat pasta sales also saw a sharp increase. Today, technology can simulate quality and reproduce successful models borrowed from others, but it lacks the ability to generate passion, loyalty, and a sense of belonging.
Investments in the past six years, exceeding €42 million, have affected the entire plant: from two new production lines with top-of-the-line machinery, to packaging, and the brand-new automated warehouse.
