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Surprise, Surprise
Of all the things I remember from our one and only trip to Naples—not the splendiferous Farnese collection, not even the titillating Secret Room of ancient erotica -both are found at the National Archaeological Museum—the most vivid memory was pizza. More precisely, the pizza.
It was not at the famed Da Michele, which our taxi driver waved off with Neapolitan authority. He had a better idea. We wound up at a white-tablecloth establishment whose name, I cannot recall—but my husband still declares it served the best pizza of his life.
It was a somewhat formal room, filled with what looked like well-fed, well-connected Neapolitan families and a smattering of wide-eyed tourists like us. The service… let’s just say it was not democratic. All tourists were ignored in a manner worthy of an over-starred Parisian restaurant while locals were served with confident rhythm, Our very tall and somewhat portly waiter in a tasteful vest and apron placed our wine and first course on a sideboard, looked past us with the cool detachment, and vanished.
After some time and a few failed attempts to catch his eye (while calming down the head of the family), we got up—quietly, like the mousy tourists we are—to leave. This triggered a sudden change: our waiter reappeared, murmuring a somewhat incoherent apology as he whisked over a stunning antipasto platter, the wine, and then with perfect timing, the pizzas.
All’s Well That Ends with Pizza
Afterward, as we descended the staircase from the dining room, I spotted a glorious wall of red flour
bags stacked ceiling-high—Caputo, it read. I snapped a photo. Once back home, I tracked down the US distributor at a restaurant supply expo. The variety I had seen was labeled Rinforzato—now renamed Saccorosso. It was only available in 50lb bags, so we broke them down into 5lb packages and featured it in our store newsletter. Red Rinforzato became runaway success.
Compared to the American flours our customers were used to, this particular Caputo flour was stretchier, puffier, and more flavorful. At the time, there were few widely available flour brands in the U.S., and certainly not many that could compare in flavor to the varieties in Italy or France. Orlando Foods, Caputo’s U.S. distributor, couldn’t have been more helpful as we expanded our offerings to include several of their flours.
A Reversal in Immigration
Caputo’s origin story reads like the inverse of the typical American dream. Two brothers, Carmine and Pasquale Caputo, had emigrated to the U.S. and built a pastry business in New Jersey. But in 1924, they returned to their hometown of Capua near Naples with the intent to marry two sisters—and sold off their American holdings. A humorous back story to the marriages of the two brothers to the two sisters – their father had said to the Caputo brothers that he was not allowing his daughters to emigrate to the US so that if they wanted to marry, the brothers would have to return to Capua. Back in Italy, they purchased a pasta shop that came with a flour mill attached.
They ran both operations until Carmine’s son Antimo inherited the business. In 1939, he sold the business in Capua and purchased a mill in San Giovanni a Teduccio, just outside Naples, which remains the headquarters of Mulino Caputo today. Antimo’s son, also named Carmine, said in an interview that while his father was a visionary, his mother was a driving force in the survival of the company.
Since the 1960s, the Caputo family has focused solely on milling flour, shifting their resources toward blending wheat varieties for specific culinary uses. The company’s research center includes wood-fired and electric ovens, and a lab to analyze protein, gluten, and starch content from different harvests and wheat varieties And all their flours are non GMO.
They are deeply committed to wheat—no additives, no bleach, no flavor enhancers. All Caputo flours are milled with precision at low temperatures using metal cylinders and sifted 25 times. Most commercial mills—including the romanticized stone ones—can damage the wheat’s protein and starch structure, limiting the flour’s elasticity and hydration potential. Not so with Caputo.
Flour for Every Pizza Nation
While Saccorosso was my first Caputo love, it’s far from their only pizza flour. The family became
intrigued by New York-style pizza—a completely foreign concept to them—and invited some American “esperti” to Naples to help them understand it. The result? Caputo’s Americana, a flour blended with malt that’s ideal for the longer, lower-temperature bakes typical in the U.S. Unlike the charred, puffy Neapolitan crusts, the Americano blend yields a thin, crisp-yet-flexible crust that can handle a pile of toppings
Today, high-temperature pizza ovens like the Ooni and Gozney have reenergized the art of pizza-making at home. We were blown away with the pizza made in the wood fired Ooni of our videographer Nils Bertrand. Even our Italian grandson, who if given the chance, would eat pizza for breakfast lunch and dinner, pronounced Nils’ Ooni pizza made with Caputo flour as the second best pizza he has eaten.
Sustainably Ground
Caputo continues to innovate, adding blends like Nuvola (the Cloud) which can produce airy focaccia or Frolla for sweet pastries , and Americana Super to their lineup. But beyond their dedication to flour science, Caputo takes its environmental and social responsibilities seriously. They invest in sustainable farming within their region, their newest mill runs on renewable energy, and they package exclusively in paper. The wasted bran and chaff from flour production are turned into livestock feed. Even their meticulously engineered yeast comes in a sensible aluminum container with a resealable lid—no single-use sachets in sight.
Where to Find It
Caputo now has a dedicated U.S. website: caputoflour.com, with some of their products for sale online. and their American distributor, orlandofoods.com, can point you to sellers near you. We used to buy our 50lb bags through International Gourmet Foods. Some sharp eyed KD readers have even spotted Caputo flour at Costco
So before you fire up your oven, here’s a video worth your time—it shows two ways to prep your dough balls for the long rise, and more importantly, how to stretch the dough properly before topping.
Buon Appetito!
Kitchen Detail shares under the radar recipes, explores the art of cooking, the stories behind food, and the tools that bring it all together, while uncovering the social, political, and environmental truths that shape our culinary world.
