farina

Italians rate flours differently from anyone else. Wheat is judged by its hardness: either it grano duro—Italy's famous durum wheat, the secret of its pasta and occasionally breads as well, especially in the south. Flours are labelled semolato di grano duro or sfarinato di grano duro.

Soft flour, for pastry, is grano tenero, is used for nearly everything else.

Tipo is used to describe how finely milled soft wheat is (measured by the ash content; a similar system is used in Germany and France).

farina tipo 00 grano tenero (also called dopio zero): The finest milled, low gluten, low fiber similar to pastry flour in the US; it's also used for making cakes and breads. It's sometimes called fior di farina, the 'flower of flour' (the best tipo 00) (French T45, German T405)

Tipo 0: An all purpose flour, with more of the bran and germ in it (French T55, German T550)