Semolina is the coarse, pale-gold meal milled from the endosperm of durum wheat (Triticum durum), the hardest of all cultivated wheats. Where ordinary bread wheat grinds to a fine, soft white flour, durum's flinty, deep-yellow grain shatters into gritty granules rather than powder, and that sandy, sunny-coloured grist is semolina. It is the backbone of dried Italian pasta and of North African couscous, the dough of Roman gnocchi and of countless puddings and porridges, and the dusting that keeps loaves and pizza bases from sticking. The flavour is mild, faintly sweet and distinctly nutty, with a malty, cereal warmth and a pleasant earthiness.