The Ultimate Caputo Flour Guide: How to Choose the Best Flour for Pizza, Bread, and Pasta

If you’ve ever browsed the baking aisle or shopped at an Italian deli, you might have spotted the colourful bags of Caputo flour — each with a different name, colour, and purpose. Caputo, based in Naples since 1924, is one of Italy’s most respected millers. Their flours are trusted by both professional chefs and home bakers for making authentic Italian pizza, bread, pasta, and pastries.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced baker, this Caputo flour guide will help you understand the differences between each type and choose the best flour for your recipe.

Why Caputo Flours Are Special

Caputo doesn’t make one “general” flour — they create specific blends designed for different baking needs. Each flour is made from selected wheat with a unique protein content (which affects dough strength), gluten quality (which affects texture), and grind size (which affects smoothness).

Think of it like choosing the right pasta shape for your sauce — you can use any shape, but the right one gives you the best results.

The Caputo Flour Range and When to Use Each

Caputo Nuvola – The Airy Pizza Flour

Best for: Light, fluffy Neapolitan-style pizzas with big air bubbles.
Nuvola can handle more water in the dough, which helps create those beautiful, airy crusts you see in pizzerias. Perfect if you love a soft, chewy bite with a crisp outer edge.

Caputo Doppio Zero (00) – The Italian All-Rounder

Best for: Pizza, fresh pasta, focaccia, and pastries.
This extra-fine flour is smooth and silky, giving dough a soft, elastic feel. Ideal for thin-crust pizzas or pasta sheets that roll out without tearing. It’s the easiest Caputo flour for beginners to start with.

Caputo Manitoba Oro – The Strong Bread Flour

Best for: Brioche, panettone, and tall, airy breads.
With its high protein content, Manitoba Oro is excellent for doughs that need to rise for a long time or hold a lot of rich ingredients like butter, eggs, and sugar.

Caputo Semola – The Golden Pasta Flour

Best for: Fresh pasta, rustic bread, and dusting dough.
Made from durum wheat, Semola has a golden-yellow colour and a slightly coarse texture. It gives pasta a beautiful bite and adds a rustic, nutty flavour to bread.

Caputo 100% Italiano – Made from Italian Wheat

Best for: Bread, focaccia, and pizza with an authentic Italian flavour.
This flour is milled only from Italian-grown wheat, giving your bakes a unique aroma and taste. A great choice if you want to keep your cooking true to Italian tradition.

Caputo Pizzeria – The Professional Pizza Flour

Best for: High-heat pizza ovens.
Pizzeria flour is blended for baking at very high temperatures, such as in wood-fired ovens or modern outdoor pizza ovens that reach 450–500°C (840–930°F). It gives the perfect balance of crispness and chew for authentic Neapolitan pizza.

How to Choose the Best Caputo Flour for Your Recipe

• If you’re new to baking pizza: Start with Caputo 00 or Pizzeria for consistent results.
• For rustic breads or pasta: Try Semola for colour, flavour, and texture.
• For sweet breads: Choose Manitoba Oro to give the dough strength.
• For a light, airy pizza crust: Use Nuvola.
• For authentic Italian flavour: Pick 100% Italiano.

Pro Tips for Using Caputo Flour

1. Mind the water – Flours like Nuvola and Manitoba Oro can take more water, which makes a softer, more open crumb.
2. Don’t rush the rise – Many Caputo flours work best with slow, cool fermentation for deeper flavour.
3. Match the flour to your oven – Pizzeria flour excels in high-heat ovens, while 00 flour is perfect for standard home ovens.

Final Word

Choosing the right Caputo flour is like picking the right tool for a job — it makes everything easier and the results far better. Once you know which flour suits your recipe, you’ll see (and taste) the difference.

You’ll find a great choice of Caputo flours with us, ready to help you bake authentic Italian pizza, bread, and pasta in your own kitchen.