About Caputo
- Based in
- Naples, Italy
- Founded
- 1924
- Known for
- 00 flour for Neapolitan pizza
Brothers Carmine and Pasquale Caputo founded a mill and pasta factory in their hometown of Capua in 1924, after gaining work experience in the United States. In 1939 Antimo Caputo moved the business closer to Naples, to San Giovanni a Teduccio, which is still where the flour is made. Four generations of the family have worked in it.
Caputo blends up to seven or eight varieties of wheat in its flours. The mill is best known for 00 flour, the Italian grade for the most finely milled, most refined flour, with the least bran left in it, and above all for flour made for Neapolitan pizza.
Caputo questions
What does 00 mean on Italian flour?
Italian flour is graded by its ash content, the minerals left when a sample is burned, which shows how much of the wheat's outer layer, the bran, is still in the flour. 00 is the softest, finest and most refined grade, with the least fiber. Caputo, a family mill in Naples, is best known for 00 flour made for Neapolitan pizza.
Why does Caputo blend different wheats?
Wheat varieties differ in how much protein they carry and how their starch behaves in a dough, so grain from different fields and years does not behave the same. Caputo's quality team selects grains from around the world and blends up to seven or eight varieties in each flour. Blending keeps the flour consistent from year to year, even as weather, harvests, soil and seed change.
