Some other information about our PGI Pasta and the grain used.

Just to get ready for the pasta you will see and try this saturday at the Clifton Hill Food Market, we thought to give you some more news about the quality of the primary products we use.

From our new Youtube Channel comes this video of the harvest from the past June. It's in Italian, but i think you will appreciate the amazing view of fields, the color of the grain and the love in the farmers' eyes.

Giuseppe di Martino, owner of the brand Pastificio dei Campi says:

"The field you see in this video is 10 hectares, but it's just one of those from which come the durum wheat used by thePastificio Dei Campi. This process takes about one hectare of wheat a day because, in favor of quality, requires low yields, between 12 and 25 tons/hectare per day, compared to the average 55 for the more commercial grain. From that we get the wheat bran (60%), which, mixed with water, becomes the Gragnano Pasta by Pastificio dei Campi (about 25 tons per day).

When the Pastificio dei Campi started (which involved a careful study of the crop) the farmers who adhered to this type of production (made from low yields, regular rotations, organic farming, etc) were 7, all near the area between Apricena, Casalvecchio di Puglia and Lucera.

Last year the Pastificio dei Campi’s farmers/suppliers have become 35. In 2011 we arrived to 47! All owners of small plots, engaged in a crop that focuses on the quality.

But not all the wheat fields of the pasta factory comes from Puglia, in fact, we have trials field this year in Basilicata and Molise and in the provinces of Avellino and Benevento too. "

I hope to see you this saturday at the Clifton Hill Food Market to try the product and be amazed by it.

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"When the nature calls you need to run"

This has been the phrase I heard the most in these days. For a long time I have tried to plan my trip to Italy to be there during the harvest and to take part in this amazing event of pure life.

Unfortunately none can plan this trip before time,  because it's the nature to call and to decide when the magic moment will come. So this year the phone call came on a sunday afternoon, quite late in the days (normally is around the 13th of june) and everything was planned for the 24th of june. I needed to comeback in London on the 20th so I messed the event but here are the pictures from the Grain Harvest 2011 taken by Mafaldina Dei Campi.

Like a miracle, every year around these days in the De Vita Mills (FG) the grain complete its growth and reach its best, and this year even more with an extraordinary composition: an higher protein percentage, higher gluten percentage, a lower humidity, and a fantastic look and color. Everyone was really impressed and the farmers and the "De Vita" mill's owners too.

The images of these never ending yellow fields and the mountains of grain in the mill just speak for them self. 

After the harvest, the wheat is stored, controlled, carefully cleaned and placed in steel silos  then, once cooled, transferred to the cement silos that will keep the temperature stable up to the time of milling. In late August will begin the production of flour, that will be then used to create the Pasta di Gragnano "Pastificio dei Campi".

This is then the first step of the process that will bring an high quality PGI pasta on your plate. All is transparent, all is reported and all is traceable. That's quality food!

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A quiz and some tips to know a bit more about pasta.

Following the recent Oxfam survey that shows the pasta be the favorite food ever, we decided to play a bit with you.

Do you think to be a real pasta lover or an expert of italian pasta dishes? Here there is a little quiz (from the International Pasta Organization) for you and some interesting information: do you know the country that eat and produce more pasta? can you name all these shapes of pasta?

If you didn't guess all the name, don't worry. Here for you are some tips to help you a bit. As The National was reporting today: "The suffix often provides an indication of size: "oni" suggests large (as in conchiglioni - large shells or spaghettoni - thick spaghetti); "ette" or "etti" denote something small (as in spaghetti or cappelletti - small hats) and "ine"or "ini" suggest tiny (hence spaghettini )." Being italian I never thought about this, but now i can see this could bee a good start for you all.

This could be another easy tip to get the right pasta with the right sauce: "Slim, fine pasta (for example spaghetti, spaghettini, angel hair, linguine, linguettine) is best served with a smooth, quite thin sauce. This allows the sauce to coat the delicate strands, without overpowering the flavour of the pasta completely. Thicker ribbons of pasta (fettuccine, pappardelle, fettuce, perciatelli) can stand up to heavier, more substantial sauces, such as ragus or rich, creamy dressings. Shaped pasta (conchiglie, conchiglioni, orecchiette) or types with holes or ridges (fusilli, rigatoni, penne) work well when the sauce is chunky or if the there is a lot of it, as the pasta then holds the sauce"

And finally some other little curiosity: in Italian, fettuccine means ribbons; stelline means little stars; and capelli d’angelo means angel’s hair.

I think now you are ready to surprise your guests when you will cook pasta for them next time.

And if you want to have more news, stay tuned because you will see soon all the picture from the harvest.

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In the pasta from Gragnano (PGI) Pastificio dei Campi,  you can trust.

 
In these days we are receiving lots of scary news about food: contaminated, unhealthy, not controlled... Even under radiations!
 
It's something awful for everyone and really tragic for all the people working in the field: now are the peasants in danger, but some years ago were the farmers the category most attacked by the problems with cows and chickens. So any now and then some fear is affecting our food decisions and daily menus.  
What about pasta then? Just few days ago in Italy an article came out  about the quality of the grain used in the big pasta productions and how the control made on it can be fine for adults but not enough for babies, especially if the production is made with a low quality grain.

Pastificio dei Campi , certified 100% Made in Italy, makes of its quality and safety its main characteristic:  for the production of quality pasta - which is good and healthy at the same time - its fundamental the selection of the good raw material.

Pastificio dei Campi is committed in the use of durum wheat only from some of the most suitable Italian regions (Puglia, Basilicata and Molise), where maize is cultivated with great care and where humidity levels are so low that it’s hard to produce any mycotoxins. Together with the Molino de Vita, Pastificio dei Campi makes a very accurate selection of durum wheat, following the work from planting to the harvest.

Our pasta from Gragnano is totally traceable from farm to table, to provide full transparency for consumers who need to know exactly what to bring to the table! Every external and internal process inherent to the production of the pasta is monitored in a data bank. Google Maps connects to our data bank, allowing everyone to see all the information relative to every single package of Gragnano pasta from our pasta factory.
 
So don't panic and trust in us! Have a plate of pasta and enjoy!

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Introduction to the pasta world and the next recipe

This twitter tale comes from an italian blogger, Massimo D'alma, who tried to put together a myriad of Twitter messages published in the night of the 23rd of January 2011 by @giudeicampi,Giuseppe Di Martino, owner of the Pasta of the Fields, as well as president of the consortium "Gragnano City Pasta." 

The pasta born and became what is now, thanks to its "capacity" to be a supply of food, being originally dry. 

Even in the Roman era the "lagane" with chickpeas, as told by Ovidio, were and are strips of pasta from durum wheat semolina cooked in a soup of chickpeas and vegetables. 

This "dish" cooked in the Roman time even before the 3rd century AC,  used to be made exactly like today in the south of Italy.  "De re coquinaria" of Apicius gives you the recipe for "lagane and chickpeas".

But let's start from the beginning: during the period of maximum expansion of the empire, Rome had hundreds of thousands of citizens, the wheat used to came from the colonies and was stored, without treatments in town's silos. 

Few months after the harvest, these silos were starting to swarm with insects that were eating all the cereals, which were mostly durum wheat coming from the south of the Mediterranean from Sicily, or Lebanon or Egypt. 

If grains were strongly attacked by insects, the silos were opened and the wheat given to all: great parties, social peace obtained and emptied silos ready for the next grain coming from other parts of the imperial world. 

The same was happening in northern Europe, where the harvest was made just before the autumn in a lower temperature. Here too people were hoarding and retaining the wheat. 

These obtained free of charge, should be kept for the dark times, and then ground it. In fact this mechanical action between stones could kill the insects and their eggs, but was making it impossible to maintain, because, to avoid friction burn between the stones the corn was wet. 

The flour obtained, was then mixed with water and then rolled out, dried and then cut into strips or rectangles, becoming free from infestation and food for storage and easily transportable. 

In Herculaneum and Pompei were found jars with grains that were used in the creation of "pulses, vegetable soups and leaves". These were then enriched with"lagane" broken, which, releasing starch, thickened soup and made a meal of slow-release energy, or as we would say today, with a low glycemic index. 

Alternatively, these were used to prepare some mix of sweetbreads, vegetables and meat cooked, with a final look very similar to our lasagna. 

So the pasta as we know it comes from the need to store grain, but the Roman Empire could not do it, "in a centralized way", and found the way to get it done in the home. 

There is no doubt that this was not a rural but a urban need especially developed in the south: the harvest is done mostly in the south of the Mediterranean in May and June, when is hot and it'sand it's more common the development of insects' activities. Pasta was born in the urban summer in the south of the Mediterranean, and more than 1000 years before Marco Polo!

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Some tips to recognize a really good pasta from the most common one.
 

After speaking about the recent English passion for food, and after the quick look at some tech tools that can help you in the kitchen, it's time I gave you some important related tips starting with some basic facts.

 

For an Italian dinner, pasta is your main ingredient and has to be chosen with care and attention: you will need to keep these tips in mind when you want to buy and eat the best pasta!

What really determines a good quality of pasta? Color, texture, smell, ingredients, origin and packaging. And I will explain why!

It all starts from the durum wheat. For Pasta dei Campi for example, it uses just italian grain, taken from an area of about 250 km around Gragnano. For the Pastificio it's very important that the grain has been cultivated in a place with historical tradition in a region like Puglia, Basilicata, Molise or Irpinia. This durum wheat has a protein content of around the 14%, compared to a normal value of about 10,5% found in classic production. It is also rare to find this type of pasta in Italy. This  amount of protein will give the consistency, taste and smell to the pasta.

 

The harvest happens just in the right moment of the maturation of the grain, the stocking follows straight away and it’s done in the same area for a perfect conservation of the prime product.
This will then be milled with care (with a low power machine) to maintain all it's original fragrance. The preparation of the mix is a delicate equilibrium between lots of components: the water temperature, semolina grain and the climate conditions. The pasta maker will coordinate them in a way to always reach the best mix possible.

Another very important factor is the bronze extraction. This material entering in contact with the pasta, will create that rough surface that will help the union with the sauce. But this has to be made in the right measure: not too rough and not too smooth.

Then there is the drying process that has to be slow and at a low temperature to maintain the fragrance. It is essential to complete all of this work and the work mentioned previously in the best way possible. This will give the pasta the right color, which should be yellowish and not amber or orange.

Finally there is the packing, completed by hand to avoid destroying the pasta. The combination of these methods should result in the highest quality pasta.

So next time you are in the supermarket, check where the pasta is made, what the ingredients are, if it looks a bit rough, and finally if the color is yellowish and not amber, dark or closer to orange.

Then if you will try Pastificio dei Campi, you will really understand the difference!

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Ready for the new pasta?

Tomorrow it's definitely starting the autumn and with it lots of new fresh products will be on the market: mushrooms, pumpkins, truffles and chestnuts. But September it's also the time of the year when in the countryside everyone is very busy. It’s harvest time and tomatoes, olives, grapefruits and a big quantity of fruits and vegetables are at their best!

In reality it's not the same for the pasta or better for the grain. The best time to cut the grain is instead in June-July and here you can see the amazing images from the harvest of this year! The sun, the colors of the earth in Gragnano and the power of the tradition behind this event, can't just leave you indifferent!

However, what instead is happening in September it’s the use of the grain collected in June to create the new pasta. After the harvest, the grain goes in the process to become durum wheat semolina and now it's exactly the time when it's ready to be used! This is something that needs to happen not too quickly to give time to the traditional process and to make an high quality product.

So waiting for the new pasta to come, I will go to the harvest market this sunday to pick up some fresh seasonal products and prepare a new recipe!

Are you coming too?

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