Caputo …….the secret of the cupboard ………and a choice

Now, in our house I take pizza as it comes, although that said I prefer a thin base.

And that has taken me to the store cupboard, where we have a shelf devoted to a range of different flour from plain white to strong white, several bags of self-raising, along with gluten free.

But prominent amongst the lot are  Caputo Red and Caputo Blue, which we use for pizza.

The red is ideal for thinner crust pizza.

It has more gluten and protein in it than the blue flour, and provides a little more elasticity to the dough and is ideal for slow rises.

So, there you have it, I come across a red bag and a blue bag and I have instantly discovered some of the science behind making a pizza dough.

Added to which I know that Caputo is reckoned to be the finest Italian flour for making pizza, and that ‘00’ on the bags refers to how finely the wheat flour has been ground, and the overall texture, with the roughest graded at ‘1’.

Of course, this will not be new to foodies or those who spend hours inside the pages of cookbooks, but for me it was a revelation.

And set me off looking for the Caputo company, which began in 1924 and is the last mill, in Naples.*

Its site offers up little on its history, other than a  fascinating picture of the family and staff, sometime long before now.

As you would expect there is plenty there on their products, and an interesting link to Granonostrum, which is, “the first agricultural chain of soft wheat in Italy …… and provides for the traceability of all agricultural practices starting from the search for raw materials through the sowing of wheat, scrupulously monitoring every single production process up to the collection and storage, up to the final processing of the product.

The entire production process will use only two varieties to be cultivated according to the climatic and soil peculiarities and above all the products that the pasta masters must make, obtaining a wheat and a final product qualified as superior”.**

And here I confess that I had no idea that those two bags of flour would lead me off on a trip around southern Italy.

But that is what you do when you go looking for the  things we store away.

All of which leads me back to those two bags of Caputo flour, and the pizza choices we make.  

Leaving aside this the choice between thick vs thin, there is that debate on what constitutes an acceptable topping.   

Everyone is of course entitled to place what food they fancy as a topping. 

For the Italian side of the family along with Italian friends the only authentic pizza has been cheese and tomato.

That said everyone knows my fondness for mushrooms, but like the family I draw the line at pineapple.

Location; Chorlton, and Naples

Pictures; Blue and Red Caputo, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and finished pizza, from the collection of Balzano, 2020

*Caputo Mill,  info@molinocaputo.it  Corso San Giovanni a Teduccio, 55

80146 Naples, Italy

**Grano Nostrum, https://www.granonostrum.it/