DE
|
FR
|
IT
Contact
EN
FR
IT
Navigation ein-/ausblenden
About Rapunzel
News
Company Portrait
Organic manufacturer
Introducing the next generation of Rapunzel
Vision and Corporate Philosophy
Company History
50 years
40 years Rapunzel - 40 years organic movement
Divisions
Visitor Center
Fairy tale wedding: Zwergenwiese and Rapunzel
Sustainability
Bio-Cent
FAQ
One World Award
Contact
Organic-Fair Farming
Real organic
Turkey Project
Partners and products
Processing in Ören
Impressions & Reports
HAND IN HAND-Fair-Trade-Program
HAND IN HAND fair trade
HAND IN HAND criteria
HAND IN HAND-Partner
HAND IN HAND-donation
HAND IN HAND-FUND Overview
Exemplary Projects in Details
Hekima, a Success Story
A School for the Future of Africa
Organic Partner
Organic quality since 1974
Quality control
Our claim
No GMOs through the back door!
Special Rapunzel quality
Organic cultivation
Agropoisons? No thanks!
Fair organic palm oil
Rapunzel among the forerunners for sustainable palm oil
Palm oil: pros and cons
Important questions and answers
Mauro Rosso
Demeter partner
Rapunzel Products
NEW organic products
Antipasti & spice pastes
Baking ingredients
Spreads
Grains and grain products
Legumes
bioSnacky sprouts equipment
Coconut
Coffee, cocoa and instant beverages
Nibbles and snacks
Muesli and Porridge
Nuts
Oilseeds
Pasta
Rice
Chocolate
Oils, fat and vinegar
Tomato products and sauces
Dried fruits
Sweeteners
Wine and Prosecco
Seasoning, salts, soups, spices
Demeter products
Allergens, Vegan and Raw
Packaging
Recipes
New Recipes
Instagram Recipes
Veggie 4 Kids
Natural cosmetics
Main Dishes
Appetizer
Soup
Salad
Breakfast
Dessert
Beverage
Do it yourself ice-cream
Cake and Pastries
Dip
Delicious for on the Road
Snacks and Nibbles
Rapunzel Partners
Fachhandel
|
Kontakt
|
Jobs
|
FAQ
Rapunzel Products
Pasta
Emmer: the original grain for perfect al dente pasta
Back to the original grain! Emmer (triticum dicoccum) is one of the oldest cereals cultivated by humans.
The firm and robust ancient grain has not been genetically modified and ensures al dente pasta with the perfect bite and slightly nutty flavour.
Dekoratives Bild
Rapunzel Pasta Speciale – the original from Italy
Our Italian pastificio produces the new emmer pasta in the traditional way, using
just two ingredients:
the ancient grain emmer and pure spring water from the unpolluted Cesane plateau.
Slow drying at low temperatures
means that the pasta retains its natural, characteristic flavour.
So far, only
specialists and enthusiasts
have been growing the old grain again. Some Italian farmers in Umbria and the Marche region are such enthusiasts. They know and appreciate the advantages of this
robust variety
. There is now finally enough emmer for all varieties of Rapunzel’s existing spelt pasta range.
In a nutshell: Emmer is...
as compatible as spelt
rich in fibre and full of minerals
pristine & not modified by cultivation
a contribution to sustainable agriculture, biodiversity & the preservation of old varieties
protected from harmful environmental influences by the husk
the perfect grain for crunchy, nutty pasta
Emmer is particularly valued for organic farming to promote biodiversity.
Emmer is particularly valued for organic farming to promote biodiversity.
History & cultivation
Emmer originates from the fertile Mesopotamia region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, where finds date back
to 8,200 BC
. It was also the grain of the Egyptian pharaohs. When Caesar defeated Cleopatra, he is even said to have taken emmer wheat back to Rome with him as victory goods.
Emmer was one of the
most important cereals in Europe
until the Middle Ages. However, the intensification of agriculture from the 18th century onwards with the cultivation of higher-yielding hard and soft wheat varieties increasingly displaced the original grain.
On the ear of emmer, two grains ripen from each heel of the spike, hence the name “two-grain”. The stalks stand far apart in the fields. This gives the soil more light and creates a warm climate - which in turn
promotes biodiversity.
The grain is firmly enclosed in the husk, which protects it from harmful
environmental influences and fungal infestation
. Only after the harvest does the mill separate the husk from the grain.
Even though emmer is less productive to grow than wheat varieties and requires much more effort to process than rye or wheat - the effort is worth it for perfect pasta on the plate and more sustainable agriculture in the field!
Agricultural engineer Francesco Torriani checks the quality of the spikes in the field.
Agricultural engineer Francesco Torriani checks the quality of the spikes in the field.
Science: What is emmer anyway?
Dr. Friedrich Longin
Emmer (triticum dicoccum) is one of the oldest types of grain. Like spelt, it belongs to the
large family of wheat grains
and is therefore a relative of our bread wheat, albeit a distant relative. Crossing between emmer and wheat is not possible.
For Rapunzel, Dr Friedrich Longin has summarised the essential information about this ancient grain, which has been unjustly forgotten. He heads several research projects on emmer at the State Seed Breeding Centre at the University of Hohenheim.
Emmer originally comes from the Fertile Crescent, an area that includes parts of
present-day Syria, Iran and Iraq
. Alongside einkorn, it was the main source of carbohydrates and minerals in the human diet.
Emmer was an important cereal in Europe until the Middle Ages, but was then gradually replaced by the higher-yielding varieties of spelt and bread wheat.
Like spelt, emmer is a
husked grain
, which means that the grain is firmly enclosed in the husk and remains in it during harvest. The grains are only de-husked in a separate step in the mill.
This means that the
grain remains completely protected
in its husks until it reaches the clean mill and should therefore be colonised by fewer air pollutants or germs than wheat grains. Emmer is currently only grown on a small scale – by
specialists and enthusiasts
. But demand is growing, and rightly so.
For the farmer, it represents a new variety that enriches his crop rotation and thus increases biodiversity in the fields. This not only provides long-term protection against disease epidemics and climate change in the field, but also provides a habitat for many plants and animals threatened with extinction. The long emmer straw offers them protection.
Emmer cultivation is therefore active environmental protection
. Emmer can thrive on poorer soils or later in the crop rotation.
Quality characteristics
Emmer is closely related to durum wheat and therefore has a harder grain. This makes emmer the
first choice for pasta production
.
Emmer tends to have a higher crude protein and gluten (=glue) content than spelt and wheat
. However, the quality of emmer gluten is completely different to that of spelt and wheat. In contrast to wheat, emmer has significantly more gliadins than glutenins in its gluten.
Glutenins
are known to have positive baking properties, which is why they were strongly favoured in wheat cultivation in the 20th century.
Emmer, on the other hand, has been little cultivated.
Special ingredients
Like spelt, wholemeal emmer is
very rich in minerals
, e.g. iron, zinc, selenium and manganese, which the human body cannot produce itself and which must therefore be taken in through the diet. Wholemeal emmer also provides important secondary ingredients. Emmer seedlings are rich in vitamin E, which acts as a radical scavenger against oxidants and thus protects important cell structures in the human body.
A
10 to 20 per cent higher concentration of folic acid
was found in emmer than in bread wheat. Other secondary ingredients, such as lutein, are at a similarly high level as in spelt.
Environmental protection made easy
Everything emmer or what?
So far, unfortunately, no, but we can assume that emmer will slowly but steadily conquer more and more shelf space. It has already been accepted by enthusiasts, but its unique features in the field and in the product will contribute to more and more people wanting emmer – be it in tasty fresh bread and rolls, crunchy muesli or pasta.
Where else can consumers do something so simple and tasty to protect the environment – by consuming emmer, which increases biodiversity and helps farmers to develop alternative crops for more extensive farming.
Source: Dr. Friedrich Longin, State Seed Breeding Institute of the University of Hohenheim
Emmer compact
Nutritional physiology
Emmer contains valuable proteins and minerals. It is an extremely high-quality food.
It is particularly characterised by the considerable amounts of valuable minerals it contains, such as magnesium, iron, zinc and vitamins B1 and B6. The human body cannot produce these itself and must be obtained from food. Emmer also contains important proteins and lots of fibre.
100 g of wholemeal emmer contains:
Protein
12 g
Dietary fibre
5,8 g
Magnesium
98,3 mg (26%*)
Iron
2,6 mg (19%*)
Zinc
3,3 mg (33%*)
Thiamine
0,22 mg (20%*)
*% of the reference quantity
Rapunzel Emmer-Pasta
Emmer wheat Penne semola
Emmer wheat Penne wholemeal
Emmer wheat Spaghetti semola
Emmer wheat Spaghetti wholemeal
Emmer wheat Spirelli semola
Emmer wheat Spirelli wholemeal
Recipes with Emmer-Pasta
Spirelli with yellow cherry tomatoes, zucchini and fresh parsley
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Emmer Pasta
Pasta with hemp pesto
Veagn lentil sauce
You might also be interested in:
Al dente for every taste – our pasta specialities!
Legume pasta: high in protein, low carb and full of minerals
Real organic
Bio-Cent
FAQ
FAQ about Emmer-Pasta
What is gluten?
Gluten, also known as gluten protein, is a group of certain proteins found in cereal grains such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats. The gluten content is of decisive importance for the baking properties of a flour. Gluten protein binds up to three times its weight in water when it becomes moist. In the process, it develops rubber-like, elastic properties. Like a skeleton, the gluten threads run through the bread dough and ensure that a fine-pored, loose dough forms. The quantitatively and qualitatively highest gluten is provided by wheat, to which it also owes its excellent baking properties. Some people are allergic to this protein due to a metabolic disorder. With sprue or coeliac disease, the medical names for this intolerance, a lifelong gluten intolerance remains. Coeliac disease and sprue are chronic diseases of the small intestine that manifest in childhood or do not appear until adulthood. Since the organism has an intolerance to the gluten protein, those affected must eat a gluten-free diet. The following grains are gluten-free in their unprocessed state: Rice, maize, millet, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa.
mehr erfahren
What are the black dots on Rapunzel pasta?
All Rapunzel pasta still contains parts of the bran. This is quite natural for wholemeal pasta, but semola pasta is also made from so-called ground durum wheat semolina (types between 812 and 1050). These bran particles, which consist to a considerable extent of dietary fibre, darken more than the rest of the ingredients when the pasta dries and become visible as small, dark dots in the pasta. For you as a customer, this is an indication that even in semola quality there is still a proportion of bran that represents neither contamination nor mould.
mehr erfahren
Are the edge layers and the seedling removed when making wholemeal pasta?
For Rapunzel wholemeal pasta, the grain is ground to semolina, to a grain size of approx. 200-500 μm. During the production of the wholemeal semolina in Italy, the outermost part of the fruit skin is removed. Wholemeal semolina contains approx. 90% of the grain, i.e., most of the husk and 100% of the germ. Rapunzel wholemeal pasta corresponds to an average flour type of 1600. This process is typical for an Italian durum wheat pasta without egg. The outermost part of the hull is removed to ensure optimal consistency and cohesion of the pasta. This also has a positive effect on the taste.
mehr erfahren
What is the degree of grinding of Rapunzel Semola Pasta?
The light Italian pasta is made from ground durum wheat semolina. For this purpose, the bran is sieved off and thus contains only 50% of the germ. Classic pasta semola contains approx. 65% of the whole grain, which corresponds to an ash content (= flour type) of approx. 850 on average. The so-called “flour type” is usually only a common indication for flour, but this number provides information about the ash content of the milled grain product and suggests the amount of husk in it.
mehr erfahren
Which cereals belong to the so-called original cereals?
The original cereals include einkorn, emmer, spelt and kamut.
mehr erfahren
What is emmer pasta and how does it differ from durum wheat pasta?
Emmer, also popularly known as summer spelt, is one of the original cereals. The Italian emmer for Rapunzel pasta is sown in November and harvested in July. It is protected from harmful environmental influences and fungal attack by its hard husk. Emmer pasta has a slightly darker, more yellowish colour. It tastes slightly nutty and is more aromatic than the classic durum wheat pasta. In terms of cooking properties, both varieties are comparable.
mehr erfahren
What are the advantages of emmer over spelt?
The close relationship of emmer to durum wheat makes it the perfect grain for original Italian pasta. Its firmer grain compared to spelt gives the pasta the perfect al-dente bite.
mehr erfahren
Why is emmer also known as “summer spelt”?
Summer spelt is the common name for emmer. Unfortunately, nobody can say for sure today why it was given this name in the vernacular. However, it shows the long history of cultivation of the original cereal in Germany
mehr erfahren
How does emmer pasta differ from durum wheat pasta?
Emmer pasta has a slightly darker, more yellowish color. It tastes slightly nutty and more aromatic than classic durum wheat pasta. In terms of cooking properties, the two varieties are comparable.
mehr erfahren
What is the advantage of the spelt grain emmer?
Emmer grain is protected in a hard husk. This was a great advantage in the primitive storage conditions of early agriculture. Even today, the husk has an important benefit - it protects the grain from harmful environmental influences and fungal attack.
mehr erfahren
Is emmer a winter or summer cereal?
Emmer is available as both a summer and a winter grain. The Italian emmer for Rapunzel pasta is sown in November and harvested in July. It is therefore a winter grain.
mehr erfahren
HAND IN HAND
Fair trade and organic farming are central for Rapunzel
LEARN MORE
Useful Links
Rapunzel News
Rapunzel Products
Rapunzel Recipes
FAQ
Foreign Distributors
We distribute our products around the world - our local partners are happy to help you.
LEARN MORE
Rapunzel Naturkost
© 2025 •
Imprint
&
privacy protection
•
privacy settings
•
Print version