There's a wheat that fed generations of Italians and helped build part of our identity at the table — in bread, in pasta, in Sunday focaccia. Its name is Senatore Cappelli, and it's much more than a durum wheat variety: it's an Italian story of science, sun-baked fields and daily bread.
An Italian invention from 1915
Senatore Cappelli was born in 1915 from the work of Nazareno Strampelli, a geneticist and agronomist from the Marche region and one of the most important figures in Italian agricultural history. Strampelli obtained it through genealogical selection from a North African landrace, Jenah Rhetifah, seeking a plant that was hardy, adaptable and able to yield a high-quality semolina [1].
The name pays tribute to the Marquis Raffaele Cappelli, a senator of the Kingdom of Italy and a promoter of agrarian reform in Puglia: it was he who made the land of his estate in the Tavoliere delle Puglie available for the experimental field, with the aim of improving farm productivity and the living conditions of southern farmers [1]. That's no small detail for us: this wheat was born, quite literally, in our own land.
Strampelli's work, it's worth remembering, later became part of the so-called "Battle for Grain" (Battaglia del grano), the 1920s campaign aimed at the country's cereal self-sufficiency [2].
The king of Italian fields
Distributed to farmers from 1923, Cappelli spread quickly, starting from the province of Foggia. Loved by farmers for its resilience and hardiness, and by pasta makers for the quality of its semolina, by 1949 it covered 57% of the national area sown with durum wheat, remaining Italy's most widely grown variety until the 1960s [1].
Then it gave way: the plant is tall (150–160 cm), late-maturing, with only mediocre resistance to lodging and a modest yield compared with modern short-strawed varieties [1]. In an agriculture chasing yields, these traits made it less convenient. But Cappelli never disappeared — and it has returned to the spotlight precisely where its weaknesses become strengths: organic and artisanal farming.
The "father" of modern wheats
Here lies the most surprising part. Senatore Cappelli is considered the genetic ancestor of a great many contemporary varieties: according to CREA, around 80% of the durum wheats grown in the world today carry a part of its DNA [1]. When we bring a plate of pasta or a slice of semolina bread to the table, we are most likely eating a little piece of its legacy too.
What makes it special in the kitchen
Technically, Cappelli has a large, vitreous, amber-coloured grain, with a high protein concentration and excellent technological qualities [1]. However, it has a gluten considered "weak" by today's industrial standards [1]: this is why it gives its best in slow, respectful processing — such as artisanal bronze-drawn pasta or bread made with re-milled semolina — rather than in high-speed industrial cycles.
Translated into the kitchen: a warm colour, a pronounced wheaty aroma and a versatile semolina — capable of yielding pasta with a rough surface that holds sauce well, but also the bread and semolina focaccia of the Apulian tradition.
Nutritional value: what the research actually says
On the nutritional front, it's only fair to be precise, with no shortcuts. The scientific literature describes Senatore Cappelli as a source of protein, dietary fibre and bioactive compounds — including polyphenols and other antioxidants — with good adaptability even to marginal environments [3]. Studies on pasta made from this wheat confirm a good protein content in the raw material and, especially in wholegrain versions, the presence of phenolic compounds that partly survive cooking [4].
A note of caution, though: the idea that "ancient grains" are inherently healthier or more digestible than modern ones is still under study and shouldn't be taken for granted. What we can honestly say is that Cappelli is a wheat with an interesting nutritional profile, particularly suited to organic and wholegrain production, and with a sensory character that makes it special [3][4]. The rest — the flavour, the history, the bond with the land — is what brings it to the table.
Senatore Cappelli in our Filiera Punto Zero
For Molino Bongermino, Cappelli isn't a nostalgia operation: it's consistency. It's a wheat born in Puglia, one that demands respect and slow timing, and that fits naturally with the way we work — a short supply chain, traceability and no rushing. From its grain comes our organic Senatore Cappelli pasta — bronze-drawn orecchiette, capunti and maccheroni — and the same semolina gives its best in baking too: bread, focaccia and taralli of the Apulian tradition.
A hundred-year-old wheat, still able to tell the world who we are.
Sources
- CREA — Pecchioni N., De Vita P., Vaccino P., Alle radici del grano d'Italia/2: il Senatore Cappelli, CREA Futuro (news outlet of the Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy, CREA), 28 September 2025. https://creafuturo.crea.gov.it/15323/
- CREA — Alle radici del grano d'Italia/1: Nazareno Strampelli, il pioniere, CREA Futuro. https://creafuturo.crea.gov.it/15321/
- Bioactive molecules in wheat "Senatore Cappelli" food chain: Extraction, analysis, processing, and beneficial properties, Food and Chemical Toxicology, Elsevier / ScienceDirect, 2025. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691525002431
- Durum wheat grain and pasta from locally-grown crops: a case-study on Saragolla (Triticum turgidum ssp. turanicum) and Senatore Cappelli (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) wheats — study on composition, starch digestibility and antioxidant compounds of the pasta, 2020.