Bread  - Il  Pane  Toscano

The very first time I have been asked from our guests “where can we buy some good bread?”, I was surprised. Then this happened again and again ... 

Somebody who wanted to be polite, told me “any food in Tuscany is good, but bread!”. Pane Toscano is made of a crunchy crust with a white heart of soft crumb, but its crucial characteristic is to be totally unsalted so it may taste a bit weird, if you are not used to.

In the other hand Pane Toscano is the base of many traditional Tuscany recipes like Ribollita, Bruschetta, Crostini, Panzanella, Pappa al Pomodoro and they would taste very differently if made with a savoury type of bread. The reason of such a strange custom has been investigated and fascinating stories have been guessed of taxes and duties between competitor City-States in the Middle Ages, as well as geographical reasons like the distance from salt flats. What I believe of this matter, yet, belongs to my grandma’s wise words, “bread must be unsalted, because Prosciutto is tasty!”. Which means Pane Toscano must be unsalted to be the solid, but neutral companion of many different flavours.

Opposite of Pane Toscano is Schiacciata, a golden flatbread with fingertip holes to prevent dough leavening, topped with salt and olive oil. It may be plain or with addition of many different flavours like oregano, rosemary  onions, potatoes, tomatoes, olives etc. Schiacciata is the savoury bread in Tuscany and for this reason is the perfect match with a different kind of cured meat, mild in flavour and major in scent; mortadella. Nowadays, however, bakeries propose large selections of bread types, as supermarkets do, which make easy to find your own favorite bread type during holidays, but before going, make sure you try two slices of Pane Toscano with prosciutto and then you'll let me know if grandma was right.