The Italian excellences our land offers

Italian cuisine is among the most renowned cuisines in the world, both for the quality of its ingredients and for the balance that our recipes, born of tradition, are able to bring to our dishes. Among the most important products at the base of the Mediterranean diet are certainly those made from cereals.

Foremost among our cereals is certainly wheat. In Italy we have a long tradition of wheat cultivation; over the course of our agri-food history we have produced many types and varieties, selecting the most productive seeds and thus improving the crops.

Let us now look at the main varieties of wheat and their key characteristics.

Ancient Italian wheats

Since ancient times, Sicily has always been a region rich in grain. It is believed that its cultivation was introduced around the 3rd millennium BC, as evidenced by the discovery of everyday tools, a millstone and a pestle, in the Neolithic village of Stentinello near Syracuse.

The mythological tale of the abduction in Enna of Persephone, daughter of the goddess Ceres, concludes with the gift of wheat that Ceres gave to the people, ensuring the sustenance and development of the Sicilian civilization. For a long time, the ancient cereals once cultivated in Sicily remained only in the memory of our grandparents. But thanks to the work of some producers who decided to focus their efforts on the cereal tradition of our crops, we are now able to revive the ancient Sicilian wheats. This has been made possible by a long process of selection, grain by grain.

The flours produced today, unlike those of the past, are the synthesis of ancient gestures combined with innovative technological tools. Ancient wheats are generally processed by stone milling, producing a flour less refined than that made from modern wheat.

Timilia Wheat

Among the most famous is the Timilia or Tumminia wheat, an ancient Sicilian durum wheat with a dark grain, already in use in Greek times. It is a rare and prized wheat that is also very drought-resistant. This wheat is used to produce the famous Castelvetrano black bread, a Slow Food presidium, rich in special qualities, with a pleasant aroma of malt, almonds and toasted wheat.

Maiorca Wheat

Maiorca wheat is an ancient variety of soft white wheat, cultivated in Italy for centuries. It is very tall and grows in arid, dry soils. It is a special wheat for several reasons: flavor, nutritional properties, versatility of use and quick cooking time.

Russello Wheat

Russello wheat, very digestible and nutritious, is a wheat with a tall ear that grows to almost two meters above the ground, fragile, reddish in color and cultivated in arid soils. This wheat is used to make a flour for many typical products of the Mediterranean diet, from pasta to bread. Along with the well-known Tumminia wheat, it is one of the 50 or more types of ancient wheat that Italy has to offer.

Cappelli Wheat

Senatore Cappelli wheat was the most widespread durum wheat in our country before being supplanted by more modern wheats. Cappelli is, for all intents and purposes, an ancient wheat. This is because it was selected before the introduction of modern industrial processes, when production was still largely simple and artisanal.

Today, the need to produce quickly and under intensive regimes has disrupted the way wheat is cultivated, favoring the spread of shorter grains with higher protein and gluten content. Senatore Cappelli wheat, however, remains a wheat like those of the past, with tall ears and deep roots, ideal for organic cultivation because it does not tolerate excessive fertilization (it tends to grow taller and break).