Bread & Bakers: the best in Italy in the Gambero Rosso Guide

Forty-four addresses for excellent purchases throughout Italy. In Rome the emerging baker of the year, in Trapani the bread of the year is made, in Lombardy the bread that best represents the territory. The list of winners region by region. THE RULES FOR A GOOD BREAD

With the lockdown, many Italians have rediscovered the world of bread. Thousands and thousands of searches on Google have looked at all the possible bread recipes, which Italians have studied to fill the long days at home. Even in the first months of the year, flour and yeast had become scarce commodities, totally disappeared from shops and supermarkets. The "house arrest" that we have imposed on ourselves to protect ourselves from Covid has made us rediscover the value of primary goods and traditionally bread is one of them. In short, we have almost all become experts in bread, bakery, refined flours and semi-finished products. On food and wine sites, on the Facebook and Instagram pages of Italy's best bakers, there hasn't been a day that a recipe for making bread (or pizza) at home hasn't been published.

The second edition of Gambero Rosso's Pane&Panettieri d'Italia, created in collaboration with Petra-Molino Quaglia, a leading company in the production of high quality.

From Piedmont to Sardinia, Bread & Bakers del Gambero Rosso has selected 370 addresses, where to find, beyond experimentation and ingenious creations, an excellent daily bread. A bread born of live sourdough, of ancient grains selected as flowers, of a virtuous circle between millers, farmers and bakers, a supply chain bread.

They are 44 awarded bakeries with the maximum score, the symbol of the Three Loaves. The region with the highest rate of quality bread is Lombardy with 7 award-winning bakeries, followed by Piedmont and Veneto with 6; Emilia-Romagna with 5; Lazio, Puglia and Sicily with 3; Tuscany, Marche and Campania with 2; Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Basilicata and Sardinia with 1.

In addition to pointing out the 44 excellent bakeries, the Guide also awarded three special prizes: Emerging baker to Daniele Marè of the Marè bakery in Rome (“Strong hands, son of a baker, revolutionized the product of the family bakery with research, study and a lot of work”); Bread of the year at the Panificio 'A Maidda in Trapani for Filone with wild fennel, Avola almonds and Pantelleria Zibibbo raisins (“a Sicilian juice to be savored slice after slice”); Bread and Territory to Carlo Eugenio Fiorani of Casterde (CR). (“An acknowledgment to a craftsman who has always been committed to respecting the philosophy of good, close and artisanal”).

THE RULES FOR A GOOD BREAD

An appendix to the Gambero Rosso Guide also provides a series of suggestions for moving with awareness in the world of bread:

Try to get to know the baker who produces the bread we want to buy. Establish a relationship of trust with him, ask him questions about the product he sells, understand what his approach is, the history of the raw material he uses, the attention and professionalism he puts into it.

Just like a good wine, a good bread must smell and taste good. The breads made with live sourdough have richer and more complex organoleptic characteristics, they keep longer, they resist mold very well. It is important that the flours and wheat have all the opportunity to express themselves, even if other yeasts are used.

Appearance shouldn't be overlooked either. So yes to well-grown loaves, with a rightly second crust, clearly the type of bread that the craftsman wanted to make, to be more or less rustic.

It must be able to be kept in excellent condition for a long time. After about three or four days it may be useful to follow the regeneration process: ten minutes in the oven at 150°C.

Follow your own personal taste. This will help us choose the loaf that best suits us, with a more or less cooked and crunchy crust, with a more or less moist, light or airy crumb, with or without flavoring elements. Because every craftsman has his own style and way of working and this gives the priceless added value of product customization.

And here is the list of this year's winners

PIEDMONT

FOBELLO [VC] : VULAIGA

RODDINO [CN]: MARCARINO RODDINO

TURIN: FICINI

PERINO VESCO

LUCA SCARCELLA – THE CORNER OVEN

SPOTO BAKERY WANT BREAD

LOMBARDY

BRESCIA: LIKE BREAD

LEGNANO [MI]: THANK YOU

MILAN: CRUST