The Caputo flour is nice, but it's a whole different animal; made from soft European winter wheat, as opposed to the hard spring wheat that most American flour is made from. The gluten character you'll get in the dough, and the resulting chew, are quite a bit different. The Caputo flour can get a reasonable crisp on it if it's baked properly, but the chew will never be the same as you'd get from an American flour.
I worked with caputo Americana quite a bit at a coal fired pizzeria I was consulting for. That was the flour they were using when I first began working with them. The reason they needed my help to improve their crust wasn't a problem caused by the flour they were using (it never is), but I suggested bringing in all trumps and a few other flours to do side by side shoot outs like I always do when consulting. I do this to show people how small of a difference different brands of flour will make in the finished product as long as they are in the same general protein range and the proper mixing and recipe adjustments are made.
The unanimous decision was that the pizza we were making with all trumps and the one we were making with Caputo Americana were so similar that there was no need to spend all that extra money on the imported flour. Admittedly, this was a 4-5 minute pizza, so not true NY style, but im not sure it would be any different with a slower bake.
Some things to consider:
Caputo says publicly that they bring in some of the wheat that they use in their blends from North America
Caputo says publicly that their Manitoba product is made with hard spring wheat, so why wouldn't they use that as part of the blend in their Americana product?
Caputo is one of the most technologically advanced millers in Italy and they were supposedly trying to copy all trumps.
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