Our history starts in a small town in the Province of Piacenza, Gragnano Trebbiense, Italy, almost two centuries ago. This is the history of an entire family, OUR family, which has been working tirelessly since 1832 processing one of the simplest and most prodigious produce ever cultivated: wheat, a pure ingredient that, if treated with care, experience and passion, creates our magic.
Molino Dallagiovanna is founded by Mrs. Ernesta in 1832, originally envisioned as a collection point for wheat, then carried to be grinded elsewhere. Things change later, when the Dallagiovanna family purchased its first ever stone mill.
The Molino steadily grows through the first half of the 20th century, but it is in 1949, when brothers Guido, Renzo and Vittorio opt for installing a roller mill instead of a stone one, that the company truly takes off. Since then, the company has seen its business soar, and has quickly gained visibility in the Italian market.
By the time the year 2000 comes around, the company is fully established in the national scene and launches its own research lab, swiftly followed by an inhouse Bakery (where professionals constantly put our products to the test). The latest addition to the team is the marketing office, opened in 2010, which allowed Molino Dallagiovanna to open its doors to the international landscape, beginning a new and beneficial chapter of its history.
That brings us to today; still guided by the 5th and 6th Dallagiovanna Generation and enriched by nearly two centuries of experience, we are one of the leading mills in Italy and export our products to over 60 countries worldwide, finally including you as well.
Gragnano Trebbiense is an OLD but GOLD Town. Even the name Gragnano would therefore originate from “grano” (wheat) and granaries.
Its territory, like the neighboring towns of the entire province of Piacenza , is rich in soft wheat fields which, as if protected by a blessing, provided abundant and excellent quality productions which made it necessary to build more capacious granaries every
year to store the harvest.
Soft wheat is cultivated in the Nord ‘till part of the Centre of Italy and this specific wheat is used to make cakes, leavened sweets like Colomba or Panettone, pizza and focaccia, fresh pasta and some type of bread.
The Durum wheat grows in the South of Italy and is used to produce dry pasta, bread and is used to be mixed with soft wheat flour to give crunchiness to drawn pasta, bread and pizza and focaccia.
Piacenza is also part of the Food Valley, a geographical area located in Emilia Romagna, a fertile and fruitful
land where the food culture has developed the birth of numerous PDO and PGI products.
THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
It is essential to know how to choose the best one: it needs to come from an excellent wheat and its grains, after an initial air cleaning, are completely washed to eliminate all impurities and facilitate milling.
For the world of unleavened products or those that require a few hours of leavening, the so-called weak ones are mainly used, i.e. with a "W" between 130-190, where "W" indicates the strength of a flour.
The second and important fact to take into consideration is the P/L variable which determines the elasticity of the flour, i.e. how extensible or rigid a flour is.
A strong flour has a more robust structure, more suitable for medium-long leavening such as those that occur in bread-making, while - as in the case of biscuits - weak flours are preferred, ideal for low-leavened doughs.
TYPE 0 - 00 - 1 - 2 - WHOLEGRAIN:
what exactly does that mean?
The more the flour is sifted, the more it will be deprived of the bran parts, of the wheat germ and will take on a white color (types 0 and 00). The less the flour is sieved, the more all the components of the grain with a high ash content will be unaltered.
This is why it is so important, at a professional level, to correctly select the strength and elasticity of a flour, in order to diversify it on the basis of the products to
be made.
