Is Italian flour really better for you? (2024)

When I first moved to Italy, I knew there would be some challenging new hurdles. A language with gendered determiners. The Kafkaesque labyrinth of bureaucratic paperwork. The absurdity that every outfit pairs with your shoes (gave up on that one).

What I didn’t expect to be a new challenge — or different in any way — was choosing flour in the supermarket. Not gluten-free flour or nut flour or anything wacky. Just standard flour.* You know, “All-Purpose.” The most basic of all kitchen ingredients. The actual definition of run-of-the-mill.

Flour is flour, right? So I thought until I found myself in the baking section of the supermarket staring at a wall of flour varieties, all labeled with crazy numbers. 00, 0, 1, 2, W180, W270, W350…What did it all mean? Did I need Dan Brown to uncover the real meaning behind Italy’s gluten enigma?

Well, since Dan Brown didn’t answer my calls, I decided to crack the code myself with the help of some local farmers, milliners, and bakers. It turns out that the flour labeling system in Italy — while a bit more intricate than American “All-Purpose” — actually makes a lot of sense once you understand it.

Before we get into the differences between European and American flour, let’s start with what they have in common.

They both come from the species Triticum aestivum.

Great. Moving on . . .

Difference 1: The plant

The first major difference between European and American flour is the wheat plant itself. Even though 95% of flour worldwide comes from the common wheat species Triticum aestivum, within the species, there is an incredible diversity of varieties, around 30,000 in total.

I know you’re thinking, “Okay, but they’re all still wheat! How different can wheat plants be?” Well, Chihuahuas and Great Danes are varieties from the same species, Canis familiaris. If you’re still not convinced, remember that Pope Francis and Kim Kardashian are both hom*o sapiens, and I don’t think, genetically speaking, they can even be considered different varieties.

In America, the most common wheat (60% of the total grown) is of varieties considered hard and red.

It probably goes without saying that hard wheats are, well, harder than soft wheats. As a result, hard wheats are also more robust, able to thrive in harsh winter conditions that would kill a soft wheat from its very roots. What makes hard wheats harder is that they have more protection in the form of a hard protein called gluten. (That’s all gluten is: the protein in wheat.)

Red wheats are likewise reddish. This not only changes the color of the flour but only adds a slightly bitter aftertaste due to the pigment (which I personally find quite lovely in a rustic loaf).

Soft wheats are less resilient in harsh weather conditions due to having less protein (i.e. gluten). And, being white, they’re slightly sweeter without that bitter afternote.

In America, standard All-Purpose flour is a mix between these two varieties: predominantly hard-and-red, but with some soft-and-white mixed in.

In Italy, on other the hand, almost all T. aestivum wheat (of which there are many types, something I’ll explain below) is 100% soft-and-white.

So, just from the wheat varieties grown in the fields, we already have two very different products. No matter how the flour gets processed, the Italian kind is already softer, slightly sweeter, and lower in protein (i.e. gluten), while American wheat is already harder, slightly more bitter, and high in protein (i.e. gluten).

Now that we’ve sorted out the wheat in the fields, let’s continue our journey to the mill to process the grain.

Difference 2: The refinement

There are 3 components of the grain that we can grind up to make flour:

• The germ: a tiny, fatty seed in the center that comprises the reproductive part of the plant
• The endosperm: a starchy carbohydrate flesh that comprises the largest part of the grain
• The bran: the fibrous outer shell that protects the endosperm and germ inside

If we want to make an ultra-refined flour, we’ll sift out as much germ and bran as possible so that our final product is almost 100% endosperm. If we want a rustic, unrefined flour, we’ll keep the entire grain in the mix.

This is what bakers are talking about when they talk about “flour refinement.” Refinement doesn’t indicate the coarseness, the color, or the quality of the flour. All refinement means is how much of the flour is endosperm. You could have an ultra-refined flour that’s chunky and rough, or reddish, or yellow. As long as it’s 100% endosperm, it’s refined.

That being said, ultra-refined flour does tend to be smooth and white because the endosperm is smooth and white. Refined flour also tends to be finer in texture because the endosperm is soft and easy to grind into a powder.

Unrefined flour, on the other hand, has the entire grain in the flour: the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. In America, this is labeled as Whole Wheat. Because the fibrous bran and fatty germ are more difficult to grind finely, unrefined flour tends to be coarser. And since the bran is brown or red, this flour tends to be brown or red. So there you go.

In Italy, like most European countries, flours are labeled according to their level of refinement. The most refined option is Type “00,” which is no less than 99.45% endosperm by Italian law (yes, there are legal definitions for flour types). Type “double zero” flour is perfect for delicate pastries like croissants or egg pasta — anything that requires uniform, translucently thin sheets of dough. This would be called “pastry” flour in the USA.

Type 0 and 1 are somewhere between the ultra-refined “00” and completely whole wheat: maybe what would be called a “semi-whole wheat” in the USA. These types work best for old-fashioned baked goods, bread, and pizza.

Type 2 is what would be called 100% whole wheat in the USA and works best for anything you want to give a rustic feel, where a little bit of clump won’t cause any trouble. Type 2 also works for anyone seeking the healthiest option, as the vitamins, proteins, fiber, and fats are stored primarily in the germ and the bran. Type 2 takes the organic, dairy-free cake when it comes to nutritional value.

Difference 3: The strength

Yet refinement is only one way we classify flour in Europe. European flours are also labeled according to their protein content (AKA gluten).

Especially when it comes to baking, the gluten content is crucial. These proteins bind to create sticky, gooey elastic webs that can trap air inside, which allows dough to rise. The more gluten in the flour, the more water it absorbs. The more water it absorbs, the more gluten proteins bind. The more the proteins bind, the more the dough stretches and rises. In baking, we refer to the gluten in flour as its “strength.” Flours with more gluten are considered “stronger,” while flours with less gluten are considered “weaker.”

Flour strength is measured by a W-value. A weak flour usually has only 8–9% protein, which corresponds to a W-value between 90 and 180. Super strong (i.e. super glutinous) flour can have up to 15–16% protein, which corresponds to a W-value between W 350–380.

So if I want to make pasta, for example, I want a weak flour, because I want the dough to stay flat and retain its moisture (not absorb all the water and dry out). If I want to make pizza, I’m probably going to look for medium-strength flour around W250, so that it absorbs some water but doesn’t absorb so much that it becomes thick and dry. If I want to make a tall, airy ciabatta bread or a Christmas panettone, I need all the elastic, gluten goodness that I can get and will go for the strongest flour possible, W350 or higher.

This is why you can’t just say “All-Purpose Flour” is equivalent to X flour in Italy. Because even if two flours have the same refinement, they might not have the same strength (and vice versa). This is also why bakers in Europe can be more precise in their baking: they can choose both the composition and the gluten content of their flour.

Of course, there is a relationship between refinement and strength — an inverse relationship, to be precise. That is, the less refined the flour, the stronger it tends to be. This is because 25% of the grain’s protein lies in the bran and the germ (the germ, while tiny, is 24–35% protein). So ultra-refined flour, being almost entirely made of starchy endosperm, tends to have less protein than whole-wheat flour, which includes the protein-packed germ.

However, the refinement of the flour is only a contributing factor to the protein content. Equally important factors are the variety of the wheat and the season during which it was grown. Hard, red wheat naturally has more protein than soft, white wheat. And wheat grown in winter tends to be stronger than wheat grown in spring.

So, even though refined flours tend to have less protein, an ultra-refined “00” flour derived from hard, red, winter wheat can have more protein than a Type 2 (i.e. Whole Wheat) flour from white, soft, spring wheat.

Since most flour in America comes from hard, red wheat, and 70–80% of it is winter wheat, American flour is typically much stronger than European flour, with much higher levels of protein (i.e. gluten).

So which flour should you use?

Let’s so you’re American and find yourself with a beautiful bag of imported Italian flour. How do you use it in your recipes?

Once again, the number system and the wheat varieties are so different between Italian and American flours that they simply don’t translate — you can’t simply say that X flour is equivalent to Y. However, given that most Italian flour is of the same wheat variety and grown primarily in the North (Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto and Piemont … in southern Italy they grow mostly durum wheat, which is another species and for another article), the strength is pretty consistent, which is why we can create the closest thing to a conversion chart. While not perfect, this chart should be comparable enough that you can substitute one for the other in your recipes and the final result will be just fine.

Of course, the best way to figure out the best flour to use in the best proportions is to play! Even the same flour types from the same region with the same strength can be different because no two fields of wheat produce the exact same crop. Then comes all the other variables of the kitchen: the humidity in the air, the temperature of the countertop, the egg’s yolk-to-white ratio… baking is a never-ending experiment. No two baked goods are ever the same. This is the beauty and the magic of flour.

(This is the first article in a two-part series on flour. Read the next article here.)

*unless specified otherwise, “flour” as discussed in this article refers solely to production from the common wheat plant, T. aestivum, which comprises about 95% of worldwide flour.