I love your Senatore Cappelli pasta and now I have also bought the wheat sheets made with this Italian grain too, that are very tasteful by the way, but which variety of wheat is it?
The Senatore Cappelli (Triticum durum) is an ancient variety of durum wheat from North Africa, rediscovered at the beginning of the twentieth century and obtained by genealogical selection. Named after Senator from Abruzzo Raffaele Cappelli, who supported the agricultural research by providing plenty of land to promote the cultivation and development.
Senatore Cappelli durum wheat has been growing for decades more common in the South, especially in Basilicata and Puglia, even coming to be called "master race" in the '30s and '40s.
Later, however, because of its poor quantitative yield it was replaced by more productive wheat varieties and which were'nt subject to lodging. In fact this type of wheat also comes to mt. 1,80 in height, and it's therefore much higher than common wheat, but it's also more prone to fall beacuse of atmospheric agents such as wind and water and therefore to suffer losses of harvest.
The wheat Senatore Cappelli has now grown by few farms, and exclusively by organic methods.
Its content in fiber, protein, magnesium, potassium and zinc would be higher than that of other grains. It is preferred by many because it is considered highly digestible.
