Whole grain only
The dough needs to rest for one day before the grissini can be baked. “Great food needs time. Most people will understand that with wine, but nobody sees that with bread”, the baker says. In addition to his grissini, he also bakes fresh rolls every day. Three years ago, in summer, he founded Pastalpina. His goal is to use heirloom grains and produce authentic products. Back then, the trained baker worked as a salesman for a mill. For him, a healthy diet has always been important and he has always acted out of conviction. So producing his own organic wholefood products was the logical next step to take.
From the very beginning, he has been producing three types of grissini – plain, with tomatoes, and with rosemary – and nine pasta varieties including spelt, rye, einkorn wheat, buckwheat and durum wheat. His pasta is all organic and made from South Tyrolean Regiokorn grains and the traditional Austrian einkorn grains. A friend of his, also a baker, does all the milling for him. And the flour is not sifted. “The term “wholemeal” is not clearly defined here in Italy, so companies can go and sell white flour with bran as wholemeal”, Gross complains. “But wholemeal actually
means using whole grains only, i.e. including the outer layers. This also makes the grains easier to digest”.