Founded in 2015, the Melle et une Pâte company sells pasta made 100% in the former Poitou-Charentes, flour included. Selected in various made in France fairs, they are available in many flavors and even invite themselves into the plates of local schoolchildren.
The Festival of Lights 2022 in Lyon
No need to afford a return trip to Rome: in Melle, in Deux-Sèvres, Rodolphe Neud makes 100% Picto-Charentaise pasta. Before being processed in his workshop, the cereals do not have a long way to go:“When I set up, my goal was to work only with local flours,” remembers the craftsman, “so I have two flour suppliers, from a mill, the Moulin de Courson which is in Charente-Maritime just after Niort, and in organic, I work with the Moulin du Chêne, which is in Vernoux-en-Gâtine” .
Rodolphe was a cheesemaker for more than 20 years before setting up his business in 2015. He quickly mastered his machine for making pasta, and for drying it, he has a few tricks of his own: “The first drying is very slow, lasting 16 to 18 hours at 50 degrees maximum,” he explains, “by not exceeding this temperature, we will keep all the good vitamins, the good things that are inside the flours.”
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In this company, the team itself is very local, since Brice, the boss’s son, was hired a few months ago. He takes care of the packaging, part of the administration and deliveries: “I am very family already”he confides, “Working as a family, I love it, and in addition working with a product that everyone eats, and which is good and healthy for your health, it’s even better.”
The company produces 300 kilos of pasta per week. Pasta with amazing flavors: seaweed, nettles, chilli, angelica, and even coffee. Something to surprise the taste buds: “It’s very good, yes, with game,” he advises. He works with a local grocer “who roasts his own coffee” with whom he has established a partnership: “We try to find new recipes!”
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Sales are exclusively local. Rodolphe delivers his pasta to all the schools in the community of communes, and he supplies a few stores, such as the farmer’s grocery store, still in Melle. This is where it all started, when Fabrice, the creator of the shop, came up with the idea of pasta made in Melle: “It’s true that pasta was an everyday product and we didn’t have local production” he says. “It was a shame to miss it so Rodolphe motivated himself to do that and then he did well since the quality is quite there.”
The family business has no shortage of ideas… To date, it has 35 different pasta recipes.
