Italian Pizza Flour (2024)

FAQs

What type of flour do Italians use for pizza? ›

The secret to the tender yet stretchy pizza crust at your favorite pizzeria is probably 00 flour, a powdery fine Italian flour that you can find online or in specialty grocery stores.

There are different types of 00 flour, depending on whether you want to use it for making pasta or pizza dough. The main difference between these flours is gluten content, as pasta-making requires a slightly lower gluten flour than pizza. They will usually be clearly labelled as '00 pasta flour' or '00 pizza flour'.

"00" refers to how finely ground the flour is milled and how much bran and germ have been removed. "00" is the finest grind of flour and can be used for breads, pastries, and most importantly, pizza! In Italy, flour is classified as either type 2, 1, 0 or 00.

For those who pursue high-performance flour without the gluten, we have created Caputo Gluten Free. The result of years of research and development, this product is crafted by the masters in Naples using only pure, top quality natural starches and gluten-free flour, blended precisely for superior performance.

Italian Pizza Flour Produces the Best Pizza

Caputo 00 flour is renowned across Italy— and now, the world—for its purity, superior texture and quality wheat blends. Other exceptional brands of pizza flour come from Molino Grassi, Cinque Stagioni, and Molino Spadoni.

The Antimo Caputo brand is the de facto standard for pizza flour. Their product is so well known that many simply refer to the flour as the “red bag” or the “blue bag”, depending which one is being used. So, you may be wondering what's the difference between Caputo Blue (Pizzeria) vs Caputo Red (Chef)?

The best flour for making Deep-Dish Pizza Dough is all-purpose flour. In bakeries and pizzerias, Pizza Flour is often used because it is a high-protein flour that produces a light and airy crust. However, all-purpose flour will also work well for Deep-Dish Pizza Dough.

All this said, it's generally fine to substitute all-purpose flour for “00” flour. You'll notice a texture difference if you grew up in Europe or are very familiar with with products made from “00” flour, but all your recipes will still come out just fine.

To sum up, Italian flours allow the cook to choose both the composition (gluten or protein content) and how finely ground the flour is. Italian flour grades are simply more specialized, thereby providing the cook with more choice!

Doppio Zero (as it's called in Italian) is the whitest and finest flour. It has about 8% protein and a low extraction rate. There are no extra bits of grain and it is milled to a very fine particle size. It's more expensive because millers lose about 30% of the grain.

Is 00 pasta flour ok for pizza? ›

This soft, powder-like flour is perfect for creating that irresistibly airy, crispy crust. So while you can use type 00 flour for coatings, breadings, pasta and baked goods, type 00 flour really shines in the pizzeria as the foundation for superior pizzas, calzones and focaccia breads.

Ingredients. BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN (A B VITAMIN), IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), ENZYMES, FOLIC ACID (A B VITAMIN). Contains Wheat Ingredients.

However, 00 flour is not without its drawbacks. The cost, accessibility issues, and the need for a wood-fired oven to reach its full potential, make it less practical for some pizza aficionados. Additionally, the final crust preference is subjective and some might favor the denser chew that bread flour provides.

In practical terms, both will make excellent pizza. If you're making a pizza dough and plan you make it into pizza on the same day, there's a good chance that the blue label will yield a more tender crust while still having plenty of structure.

Caputo® Pizzeria "00" Flour is Italy's highest-rated pizza flour. Elastic gluten and soft starch helps doughs to get great hydration. It produces a soft, light crust with extraordinary taste.

Caputo "00" Bread Flour

This is the gold standard of pizza flours by which most others are judged, but there's quite a bit of confusion as to exactly what it is. You'll read in countless sources that Italian Tipo "00" flour, like the Caputo, is a "soft wheat flour," with a low protein content.

For Crispy and Chewy Pizza Crust, Use 00 Flour

00 flour is finely ground Italian flour that contains about 12% protein, or 12% gluten. It's the traditional flour used to make Neapolitan-style pizza. Since its gluten content is similar to bread flour, it also produces a pizza crust with chew.

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).

The best flour for making Deep-Dish Pizza Dough is all-purpose flour. In bakeries and pizzerias, Pizza Flour is often used because it is a high-protein flour that produces a light and airy crust. However, all-purpose flour will also work well for Deep-Dish Pizza Dough.