In the last seventy years, the population has halved and, between 2017 and 2022 alone, two thousand have left. The inhabited center of Monte Sant'Angelo at about 800 meters above sea level, on the first slopes of the Gargano, in 15th place in the ranking of Apulian municipalities by surface area, but among the last for population density it is the worrying photograph of an unstoppable process, the abandonment of the mountains, a phenomenon that knows no latitude limits throughout Italy. The era in which the mountain offered a safe refuge from the ravages of barbarian incursions, or in times of war, from the passage of enemy armies is over, today people flee from the hard life of the mountain due to the lack of services, the unsustainable cost of living in the face of the low profitability of the work, to seek better luck and comfort in the downstream cities. And with the abandonment of high lands, biodiversity decreases, centuries-old traditions are lost, small communities with their ancient knowledge disappear, leaving room for the advancement of forests that make the land unproductive. Last but not least, the risks of hydrogeological disasters increase.
But among those who remain in Monte Sant'Angelo, however, there are those who continue to proudly and stubbornly defend theirroots, a food production that is a real culture: that of bread, still cooked in ovens that are always on, all year round, except Christmas Day and January XNUMXst.
A cooking of more than two hours for a bread that keeps for a long time, the secret: local tender grains and long processing
And what bread, because that of Monte Sant'Angelo is traditionally large in size, requires highly experienced cooking and keeps for a long time. In ancient times the loaves were hooked and hung outside the shops: very large forms, weighing 5 or 6 kilos, and with a diameter of 70-80 centimetres. The ingredients for its preparation are the Type "0" soft wheat flour, water, salt and natural yeast (in local dialect lu increasing). The flour is mixed with natural yeast and then diluted in water with the addition of salt. The dough thus obtained is left to rise and after that it is shaped to obtain the loaf of bread. Once this is done, the loaf of bread is left to rest in wooden boxes first put it in the oven at a temperature of 200° for at least 2 hours (the traditional cooking method wants the bread to be cooked in wood ovens). Another variant of bread involves adding boiled potatoes to the dough to make it softer.
In the country that is depopulating, the ovens remain lit all year round to safeguard a precious local tradition
Fortunately now the Bread of Monte Sant'Angelo has entered a be part of the Slow Food Presidia and this is equivalent to a guarantee for the safeguarding of a unique product of its kind not only for its flavor but for the cultural heritage of the territory.
«Each loaf takes between four and five hours to be ready» explains Domenico Notarangelo, contact person for the producers participating in the Presidium, without considering the preparation times of the sourdough, which is processed at least twelve hours before the actual dough . “We start at half past one in the morning and bake more than three hours later, thereleaving it to cook for about ninety minutes with a technique known as "falling", i.e. with the temperature gradually decreasing – continues the producer -. I use a wood-burning oven that is more than fifty years old, but in addition to the type of cooking, the difference is made by the climatic conditions, the temperature and the humidity: even just five kilometers from Monte Sant'Angelo, the same baker, with the same ingredients and the same oven, he would not be able to make the same bread».
Monte Sant'Angelo bread has two particularities: the first concerns its size and weight, which it can even reach five kilos. The second is the raw material: it is one loaf of soft wheat flour, almost unique in a region where durum wheat is the masterAnd. "In some mountain areas such as the Gargano there are niches where the cultivation of the soft one has a long tradition," explains Felice Suma, agronomist and member of the Presidia task force in Puglia. «Over the decades, thanks to the abandonment of these areas, however, the number of farmers has decreased, to the point of convincing many bakers to choose imported Italian and foreign soft wheat flours. The Presidium aims to unite growers and producers to return to cultivating ancient varieties of soft wheat such as risciola and frassineto and to use them for the bread of Monte Sant'Angelo».
«The Slow Food Community of the Presidium involves 12 bakers and two growers of ancient grains – adds Longo -. Some bakers this spring complained that they were forced to raise the price of bread due to grain speculation due to the war in Ukraine. Sourcing from local producers and using local flours also means freeing yourself from all this: if ancient grain flours cost more today it is because, for decades, we have snubbed our native varieties. That's why we generate short supply chains, because they do good for the local area and the economy. If this is not regeneration!».
