At Italia Regina we select the best Italian products to offer to our international customers and Senatore Cappelli pasta is one of them.
The history behind Senatore Cappelli wheat
Released in 1915, Senatore Cappelli was born in Italy. The “agrarian” Nazareno Strampelli “invented” it at the beginning of the twentieth century by mixing that and other varieties to combine the best features in order to create an extraordinary product.
This new wheat variety was dedicated to the Abruzzese marquis Raffaele Cappelli, senator of the Kingdom of Italy, who, in the late nineteenth century, together with his brother Antonio, started agricultural transformations in Puglia and supported Strampelli in his activity, making experimental fields, laboratories and other resources available to him.
Cappelli wheat had great success in Italy thanks to its wide adaptability, its rusticity, and the excellent quality of its semolina and is still cultivated after almost a century, particularly in southern Italy (Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia, Sicily, Sardinia).
From the beginning of the last century until the 1960s, Senator Cappelli represented the basis of the genetic improvement of durum wheat and is in fact present in the genetic heritage of almost all the durum wheat cultivars grown today in Italy and numerous others internationally.
Why you should eat Senatore Cappelli pasta
According to statistics, pasta sales have fallen by 3% this year. However, the ones made with Italian wheat are rising just like Senatore Cappelli’s.
Want to know why? This pasta uses a kind of wheat that was widely grown in Italy, in fact when the wheat battle started around the 20s and 30s until the 60s it was the most common durum wheat in our country before being replaced by more modern grains and almost risking to disappear.
We want to highlight the fact that it is made of an ancient wheat. This is because it was selected before modern industrial processes were introduced, when the productions were still mostly simple and handcrafted. Today the need to produce pasta in big quantities and quickly, has favoured the spread of lower, more protein and more gluten-free grains.Therefore, this allows the Senatore Cappelli pasta to have better properties. Studies showed a presence of flavonoids and antioxidants in ancient grains, anti-inflammatory properties and even the ability to reduce cholesterol. Not to mention the digestibility and reduction of intestinal inflammation. So overall it has better nutritional values. If we compare the nutritional values of a modern durum wheat pasta and those of the Italian Senatore Cappelli wheat pasta, a lower protein content is evident, but also a lower sugar intake. This means that Cappelli wheat pasta will provide more vitamins and minerals compared to modern durum wheat with an equal number of calories (or even less).
Lastly let’s not forget about the taste of wheat: Senatore Cappelli taste is aromatic and persistent with a rich flavor, even after you have finished eating the pasta, its flavor will remain in your mouth like an echo. Another very important point is that it’s totally organic and you can not make Senatore Cappelli pasta with industrial methods.
