Petra Flour

It depends on your style. 5063 Special, the Petra flour on the AVPN's supplier register, is made for Neapolitan pizza. 0102 HP is an all-round flour for pizza and bread, 5037 suits wet doughs and long, cold rises, and 5078 is for Roman pizza in pala or in teglia. For pizza at home in a smaller bag, try Petra Pizza in 1 kg (2.2 lb).

“HP” stands for High Performance: Petra uses it for flours made partly from sprouted wheat, which it says improves how the flour behaves in the dough.

Petra's distinctive flour numbers are inspired by the Smorfia Napoletana, a traditional Neapolitan system that associates numbers with dreams, symbols, and everyday life. The final two digits of many Petra flour names reference this tradition. For example:

• Petra 5037: 37 represents 'O monaco (the monk).
• Petra 5063: 63 represents 'A sposa (the bride).
• Petra 5078: 78 represents 'A bella figliola (the beautiful young woman).

As a simple key, the 5000s are pizza flours, the 6300s are pastry flours (such as 6384 for panettone), the 8600s are durum wheat (8610 HP and 8612), and 0101 HP to 0103 HP are sprouted specialties, such as 0102 HP for pizza and bread.

Petra 1, 3 and 9 and their HP versions (1 HP, 3 HP and 9 HP). Petra grinds them with what it calls Augmented Stone Milling: millstones first, then cast-iron rollers. We stock Petra 3 (Tipo 1) and Petra Integrale (Petra 9, whole wheat) in 1 kg (2.2 lb) bags, and 3 HP and 9 HP. Petra's pizza and pastry flours, and HP flours such as 0102 HP, are milled on cast-iron rollers.

Both are Tipo 1 flours made partly from sprouted wheat, but 3 HP is stone-ground and 0102 HP is milled on cast-iron rollers. Petra makes 3 HP for bread, pizza and sweet leavened doughs, with rises of up to 16 hours (48 hours in the fridge), and doesn't publish its W. 0102 HP has a set strength of W 320–340 and is made for pizza and bread, from same-day doughs to 24–48 hour cold rises.

5037 is the stronger flour: W 300–340, against 260–280 for 5063. That lets it take wetter doughs (65–85% hydration) and long, cold rises of 24–48 hours. 5063 is Petra's flour for Neapolitan pizza at medium hydration (55–70%), with rises of up to 12 hours at room temperature or 48 hours in the fridge.

For a rustic loaf, use Petra 3, a stone-ground Tipo 1, or 3 HP, made partly from sprouted wheat. For whole wheat, use Petra Integrale (Petra 9) or 9 HP. 0102 HP is a strong, roller-milled Tipo 1 that Petra makes for bread as well as pizza, and to feed a sourdough starter Petra suggests 6384.

6384, Petra's very strong Tipo 00 (W 370–390), for panettone, pandoro and other sweet leavened doughs; we also carry Petra Manitoba Panettone in a 1 kg (2.2 lb) bag. For croissants, Petra makes 0101 HP (W 390–420), for croissants that are proofed, then chilled or frozen before baking.

8612, a durum wheat semola that Petra makes for fresh and extruded pasta, or 7220, a Tipo 00 for fresh egg pasta, made by hand or by machine. We stock 8612 in 5 kg (11 lb) and 12.5 kg (27.5 lb) bags and 7220 in 12.5 kg (27.5 lb) bags.

Petra is milled by Petra Molino Quaglia at its family mill in Vighizzolo d'Este, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Padua, in Italy's Veneto region. Petra picks its wheat each year by the quality of the harvest rather than by a fixed origin; the AVPN describes it as mostly grown in Italy and nearby EU countries. 0201 Evolutiva is made from organic wheat grown in Sicily.

Yes. We carry Petra's gluten-free mixes in 3 kg (6.6 lb) bags: 0001 for pizza and bread, 0009 for pizza, 0003 for pasta and 0005 for cakes and cookies. 0009 is gluten-free but contains wheat starch with the gluten removed; the others are made from starches and flours such as corn, rice and buckwheat. Stock varies, so check each mix's page, and check the label for possible traces of milk, sesame or soy.

Keep the bag closed in a cool, dry, airy place, off the floor and away from heat. Petra's spec sheets advise using a bag within 10 days of opening, so if you bake now and then, a smaller bag stays fresher. Dates on Italian bags read day/month/year, so 06/05/2027 means May 6, 2027.

Right here. We stock Petra flours in 1 kg (2.2 lb), 2.5 kg (5.5 lb), 5 kg (11 lb) and 12.5 kg (27.5 lb) bags and ship them across the U.S. from our warehouse in Richmond, Virginia. In Canada, you can ask for them through our Request a Product page.