Last night was one of the greatest Italian dinners I have had in a long time. My 
longtime friend, and another media writer, Debbie Hall and I dined at Manzo’s in Eataly inside Park MGM. This was our third time to go to a fantastic media event at this truly authentic Italian restaurant. “Pure Flour from Europe: Your Organic and Sustainable Choice!” was the feature for this grand event.
Christina Conte and Manuela Barzan were our two hosts for the evening. There were 28 of us, in a restaurant that holds 80 and we were treated in the grandest fashion. Upon entering we were poured a glass of I Perazzi wine and treated to a huge selection of Parmesan cheese and antipastos.
ITALMOPA – The Italian Association of Millers – established in 1958 and with more than 80 flour companies from across Italy — has launched an ambitious initiative to promote exports of organic soft wheat and durum wheat flour and semolina to the U.S. and Canada and to raise awareness of their high quality. Their campaign is called “Pure Flour from Europe: Your Organic and Sustainable Choice!” and is co-funded by the European Commission.
Organic milled flour and groats from Europe featured in new campaign from ITALMOPA to boost exports to U.S. and Canada
This week in Las Vegas was the yearly International food and beverage show at the Las Vegas Convention center and they made their debut at Bakery @ SIAL America. ITALMOPA had representatives from three of the group’s largest producers at its booth: Molino Grassi, Molino Casillo, and Molino de Vita.
Pure Flour from Europe will last three years and include consumer and trade events with product demonstrations led by chefs featuring such well-loved Italian foods as pizza, pasta, pastries, and breads. They are going full out on social media and advertising campaigns and going to well-known trade shows, trying to highlight food service and food manufacturing sectors. Along with those efforts they will be offering farm tours of organic flours and semolina in Italy.
Years ago when I owned the #1 restaurant in San Diego, John Tarantino’s on the waterfront of Point Loma, we took a two week tour of Italy visiting the premier wineries, cheese factories, prosciutto and saffron producers, but never had the luxury of visiting any flour manufacturers.
“We see great opportunity in North America to grow exports of organic soft wheat flour and durum semolina from Italy. More than ever before, home cooks and chefs are looking for premium ingredients that are healthy, nutritious, and grown without synthetic fertilizers. They also want to respect the environment,” says ITALMOPA President Emilio Ferrari. “Organic flour from our member companies delivers on all these needs and elevates the quality of most any culinary creation.”
Louise Kramer
The U.S. and Canada are some of the countries with the highest demand for organic products, according to ITALMOPA. Their goal is to increase exports up to 300% compared to 2020 for Canada and the U.S.
POS EU Flour will focus on five large urban markets: Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, and New York. In Canada, the target will be on the provinces Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. All have high organic consumption and demographics.
Founded in 1958 and based in Rome, ITALMOPA is the most important industrial flour association of the European Union and represents 82 flour milling companies across Italy. Member companies mill flour for the production of pasta, breads, pastries, pizza and more.
So a little about the menu that we tried. The antipastos included Pomodore E Basilico, 
Funghi e Formaggio and Carciofi e Olive, appetizers. The wines were Bastianich Chardonnay and La Mozza Sangiovese. Pasta dishes featured Ravioli Agli Spinaci, with spinach and ricotta and tomato sauce on fresh homemade ravioli, Agnolotti Al tartufo Bianco, agnolotti filled with Calabrian Ricotta and Urbani White Truffle butter sauce, and for the third dish we had Ravioli Di zucca—ravioli with Pumpkin, Brown Butter, Sage and Parmesan Cheese. The dessert was a marvelous Torta Marmellate, made with the organic flour, blood orange marmalade, and Chantilly cream. All of our hosts were so informative and gracious.
If you’re a restaurant and wanting to use the best, you should use Pure Flour. If you need more information, please email me at shelleystepanek@aol.com and I will put you in touch.
*Top photo credit: Simone Caponigro
