What Is 00 Flour — Pizza and Pasta Flour (2024)

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What Is 00 Flour — Pizza and Pasta Flour? ›

00 Flour: Also known as "doppio zero," this Italian flour is milled to an extremely fine texture. It comes in different protein levels tailored to specific uses, but typically, it has a protein content similar to all-purpose flour.

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'.

In cake recipes it can be replaced with plain flour; in bread, pizza and pasta recipes it can be replaced with strong white bread flour. It is often lower in protein than British flours and so produces a much crisper crust in bread, and a finer texture in cakes.

Due to its super-fine texture, 00 flour absorbs water much faster than a coarser flour. As a result, dough made from 00 flour tends to require less water, which in turn results in a crispier pizza crust when cooked at a very high temperature.

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.

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.

Durum Flour: Ground from extra-hard wheat (durum comes from the Latin word for hard), this strong flour is high in protein and finely textured. Its strength means you can use it for shaped pastas, like orecchiette, as well as extruded pasta, such as spaghetti.

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.

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.

For thick, chewy pan pizzas: Bread flour

You need bread flour. Why bread flour works: King Arthur bread flour has a higher protein content (12.7%) than all-purpose (11.7%). Because the protein in flour is what forms gluten in your dough, higher protein means more gluten.

What flour do Italians use for pasta? ›

Semola and semolina flour are mainly used for making pasta, couscous, and some rustic cakes. Semolina has a coarse texture similar to polenta, while semola is flour. You might use semolina to make a breakfast porridge or sweet pudding, or under your pizza dough to keep it from sticking.

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.

For cookies, bars, cakes/cupcakes, biscuits, scones, or anything that needs a tender crumb, use Farina di grano tenero, 00. This is your “cake flour.” Nobody wants a chewy cake. For bread, I recommend starting off with Farina di Manitoba, grano tenero, 0; this is similar to standard American bread flour.

Caputo, milled in Naples, is famed as a pizza and pasta maker's flour, formulated for maximum extensibility and milled to a talcum-powder fineness.

Pasta dough also needs some plasticity for it to be moulded into all of those wonderful shapes. All-purpose flour does what it says on the tin, so it's perfectly fine to use for making pasta. However, most pasta recipes will recommend either semola or “00” flour.

Italian flour, like other European flours, is categorized differently, on a numerical scale: 2, 1, 0 or 00. This number does not refer to the percentage of gluten or protein in the flour, but rather, to how finely ground it is (2 being the coarsest and 00 being the finest).

Pasta is generally made from semolina flour, whereas all-purpose flour is used to make pizza dough. This is because pasta dough requires a lower gluten content than pizza. In addition, pizza dough contains yeast because it must be leavened, whereas pasta dough does not.