History
We create quality pasta since 1900
The entrepreneurial turnaround happens thanks to Valente who senses a good chance to trade in this sector.
The collaboration with his seven children and the boost of an excellent intuition do grow so quickly the workload that soon comes the need to resort to animal power for mixing the dough in a large squeezer.
In the following years, among Valente sons, Pietro (born in 1887) wants to give further incentive to production purchasing, in October 1911, a steam boiler to replace the squeezer workforce previously obtained from a donkey.
In 1921 the "Pastificio Palandri Valente and Sons" was forced to change venue for the need of more space for storage, the ideal place was found in the immediate outskirts of Pistoia, outside the village of Bonelle.
Thanks to the presence of the stream Brusigliano our pasta factory also could exploit the hydraulic power to move a turbine that, with lower cost, put in motion a kneading machine.
With the ability to harness electricity, a few years later, there was another important development by purchasing a "continuous press" built by a Pistoia craftsman.
From the '30s until World War II the activity continued and under the leadership of Pietro and his son Ulderigo, born in 1913, production increased in tandem to modernization of the systems.
With the advent of war our pasta factory was framed in the system of food rationing and "pass" distribution, resulting in a stagnation of production and other completely unexpected issues, as "the assault" pepetrated by Bonelle starving population towards the end of the conflict.
At that time Pietro Palandri tried in every way to oppose, until after moments of strong tension, his sons convinced him to open the doors of the company that was rapidly emptied of its precious content.
Soon the situation deteriorated further, as the German troops retreated to the Gothic line in Pistoia mountains.
The bridge on the Brusigliano next to the pasta factory was blown up in September '44, damaging the settlement roof and affecting all machinery in a more or less severe way.
It was almost starting from scratch, repaired cars served the last savings to buy a load of flour to restart production, but the black period was not yet finished.
In 1948 a short-circuit developed into a large fire which led to a new collapse of the roof and damaged five electric motors for a total of eight million of liras of damage, the number of employees dropped from 15 (before the war) to nine.
A real rebirth occurred only in 1952 when the pasta factory, with a new staff of 16 employees, was completely refurbished and opened again in the presence of the prefect, the Bishop and the city authorities.
Thereafter the production of Palandri pasta factory has remained more or less unchanged in amount, with a constant attention to quality improvement.
Over time, larger companies have focused on increasing production by intervening especially on the drying process by increasing the temperature to over 85-90 degrees.
Unfortunately, while it is true that times are reduced, it is also true that there is a reduction of pasta's nutritional value.
Professor Pier Paolo Resmini, from Department of Food and Microbiological Science and Technology from Milan University argues that a temperature rising over the traditional 60-65 degrees "significantly decreases the amount of lysine, an important protein that can undergo a reduction ranging from 20 to 50%, also letting deteriorate some compounds in the dough (creating substances like furosina, which does not exist in nature and which harmlessness is decidedly dubious) in higher gradation.
Starting from these assumptions the current owners Aldo Palandri and his sons Luca and Monica have set the production while maintaining the pace of yore, preserving quality with low drying temperatures and a careful selection of raw materials.
The result is a pasta fruit of the experience of five generations of pasta makers masters, and succeeds both in Italy and abroad: from Europe to the United States and China, everywhere it is appreciated quality without compromise.