Easy Italian Recipes

TYPES OF FLOUR

Strong flour
Because of the proteins in the grain used to make strong flour, it yields higher quantities of gluten. The extra gluten makes bread-making more successful. Although most countries measure their flour in terms of gluten levels, Italy does not, which means you cannot directly compare Italian flour with flour from other parts of the world.

Semola and semolina
Creamy coloured semola is milled durum wheat. Its name means 'semi-milled' indicating that it is coarser than regular '00' and '0' white flour. Semola rimacinata is more finely ground and this is used to make pasta or bread by hand in the south of Italy.

Semola acts like little ball bearings on a pala (the thin board for shunting pizza or loaves into the oven). Rather than sticking, the dough glides from the pala onto the hot baking tray in the oven.

As semola is difficult to find in the UK, a good substitute is the finest semolina, made from soft wheat that has not been completely ground to flour. The recipe for Semolina Bread (see page 50) makes a particularly tasty loaf that lasts well, and here semolina is combined with strong flour.

Plain flour
This 'soft' flour is not available in Italy, but because it is finely milled, it is similar to '00' flour. Plain flour contains less gluten than '0' or '00' flours, making it suitable for cakes and pastry which do not need a high gluten quantity. Do not use it for making bread.

Self-raising flour
Simply flour with baking powder added, this is unheard of in Italy. Instead, Italians use '00' flour and add little blue packets of pane degli angeli, baking powder that may contain vanilla flavouring. Since there are also E numbers in these sachets, I prefer to use plain or '00' flour and add my own baking powder. If I need vanilla, I use the seeds from a pod or vanilla extract.

Wholemeal flour
This is becoming more popular in Italy among artisan bakeries and those adopting healthy or high-fibre diets. All bread and pasta was once wholemeal. However, over time the rich opted for white flours, and there is still a snobbery about only eating white-flour products. Cetina, who made bread with me in Sicily, said rather disparagingly, 'Only people on diets use wholemeal bread so they only eat small amounts, hence all the sfilatini - long, small loaves - in the shops'.

Farina di grano Saraceno - buckwheat flour
This is not suitable for bread, although it could be added for flavour. It is used for making pizzoccheri pasta.

Farina di grano Turco - corn flour
Corn, or maize, came to Italy from America, but it was assumed at the time that it came from Turkey hence the name 'Turkish grain'. Finely ground corn flour is used to thicken sauces such as crema pasticcera. When corn is semi-ground, it is used to make polenta. Polenta is sometimes used in bread-making to form a crusty coating on bread or breadsticks.

Farina di segale - rye flour
Common in Central Europe, where it is used to make the traditional brown bread - and vodka - rye is common in northern Italy, especially in Valle D'Aosta and Trentino Alto Adige, where the traditional food has been influenced by Austria
and Switzerland. Often breads made with rye flour are flavoured with caraway seeds. As rye gluten is very weak, it needs to be mixed with strong white flour for bread-making.

Farina di farro - spelt or emmer wheat
Spelt and emmer wheat are types of farro, which is the most ancient cereal used by humankind. It has a high level
of fibre and it works really well for baking. Some people say that the Romans won their empire on farro, because their soldiers could fight and travel for longer on the slow-releasing carbohydrate gained from mush made from the grains. The gluten contained in farro is more easily digested than in wheat, making it good for people with a wheat intolerance. The hard exterior to the grain gives it protection against insects and therefore the crop does not require pesticides.
The flavour is good too. It may be psychological, but I am sure I feel better when I have baked a farro loaf.