What is Libera Terra?

Confiscated property, returned to the community

Italian law 109 of 7 March 1996 allows property confiscated from mafia organisations to be returned to the community. Seized farmland is entrusted to social cooperatives, which farm it. One of them, the Placido Rizzotto cooperative, was founded in 2001 in San Giuseppe Jato, Sicily; Libera Terra now counts eight. On its packs, the brand calls itself the agricultural soul of the cooperatives that, under the banner of the Libera association, run land and buildings confiscated from the mafias.

From wheat to pasta

The durum wheat is sown in autumn, in rotation with legumes, and harvested fully ripe, from mid-June to the end of July. The semolina is cold-milled, below 40 °C, to keep the taste of the wheat. The pasta is bronze-drawn, which gives it a rough surface that holds the sauce, then dried at 60 °C at most for at least sixteen hours. Cooked al dente, the spaghetti keep a slight bite and a clean taste of grain. The wheat grows on the cooperatives’ land; the pasta is made under contract by Pastificio La Sovrana in Canosa di Puglia.

The passata is made from Siccagno tomatoes, grown without irrigation, which give a dense purée with no added water. The peeled tomatoes contain nothing but tomatoes, tomato juice and salt.

What your purchase supports

Libera Terra products are made for the Consorzio Libera Terra Mediterraneo in Corleone, Sicily. The wheat in our spaghetti comes from these cooperatives, which grow it on land taken back from the mafia. On the same land, people who had been far from work take part in the cooperatives’ work and in the life of the area.

Our Libera Terra products

We carry the spaghetti, penne rigate, rigatoni, fusilli rustico and wholewheat penne, along with the Siccagno passata, the peeled tomatoes and a few preserves. Our recipes bring them to the table: spaghetti al pomodoro or penne all’arrabbiata.