Italian Bread: all you have to know

Italian bread is one of the most popular foods abroad, along with pizza and pasta. Even though bread is a carbohydrate, just like pasta, Italians often eat it after eating pasta. As an accompaniment to sauces and they make ‘scarpetta‘, for example they eat the bread with the leftover pasta sauce.

Every Italian region has its own bread, different in length and shape. In the north it is customary to eat bread with less salt; on the contrary, in the south they use more salt.

In some regions, such as Tuscany, unsalted bread is accompanied by ‘affettati‘ (sliced ham, salami, mortadella) to give it more flavour.

In different places it takes different names: in Lombardy there is ‘ciabatta‘ or ‘michetta‘. In Piedmont there are ‘grissini piemontesi‘, in Marche ‘gnocco fritto‘, in Puglia ‘pane carasau‘. We also remember the famous Hearty italian bread at subway and the Italian focaccia.

Italian bread is poor in ingredients, it is made from raw materials such as cereals, flour, water and brewer’s yeast. During the Renaissance period, the baker was a very common profession and everyone made bread and sold it. With the Industrial Revolution, however, bread became an industrialised product.

The European Union, in order to guarantee the typicality and genuineness of Italian regional breads, has created the IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) and DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) marks, which still allow the survival of so many specialities ‘crumbled’ throughout Italy.

Italian bread: how to make it by yourself

Baking bread at home is really easy! The ingredients you need are water, flour, salt and brewer’s yeast. All very cheap. Bread and pizza can be made with the same dough.

First combine all the ingredients together in a bowl, in order: flour, yeast, salt and water. Then you knead until you obtain a homogeneous dough and cover it. The dough is left to rest for at least 20/24 hours. After the dough has risen, bake the bread in a preheated oven at 250° for 30 minutes, finally remove the lid and continue baking for another 10 minutes. It would taste amazing!

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