The Tuscany bread in the history

Bread is one of the oldest foods of humanity. It has thousands of years but it doesn't seem to have. It has always been the food that, simple and essential, joins all the people.
Composizione a base di pane in una vetrina di una panetteria ad AltopascioCrisp, perfumed and tasty, it's the symbol of peace, harmony and prosperity, almost everywhere. According to Greek mythology, Demetra, goddess of harvest, gave man the wheat from which he could gain the flour necessary to make bread. Bread has always been holy and tied to the fertility of earth, for both Greek and Roman people. Demetra was celebrated during the rites of the "eleusini" mysteries. During the rural holidays, that took place from the half of May till the half of June, she was offered the "Thargelos" bread made with the first reaped flour.

The first cereals used to make bread, were millet and acorns. The grains were broken into pieces and toasted on warm stones. In that way, it was possible to obtain crackers used as food for rituals. Afterwards the stone was covered by a terra cotta obtaining the first rudimentary oven. It's possible to count, al least, one hundred of plants, which can be used (and were used) to obtain flour to make bread (acorns, chestnuts, rise and rye). But the most used cereal is wheat that, together with water, yeast and salt, is one of the fundamental ingredients necessary to make bread.

But what characterizes Toscana most is the way to produce bread: completely without any salt. Simple, crisp, rustic bread with a cellular crumb, which needs a long rising, and a careful and long cooking.

The famous tuscany breadThe principal shapes of this kind of bread are: the round one called "bozza", the extended one, called "filone" and the crushed one, called "ciabatta". The tradition of not using salt seems to go back to 1100, because of the rivalry between Pisa and Firenze. The Pisani, in fact, stopped trading salt in Pisa's harbour, to convince the enemy to surround. According to another tradition, salt was only too much expensive for the Fiorentini who kept on making bread without using it. This habit, which found its roots in poverty, continued along the centuries because the insipid bread well matched the tasty food of the region.

The typical bread of Toscana would need a cooking in an oven, just because of the essentiality of its ingredients. Another peculiarity of this bread is that it can be kept for, at least, one week. This habit is tied to the rural usage, according to which bread was made in oven only every two or three months and then kept in kitchen cupboards, wrapped up in cloths.

Besides, bread represents the most important ingredient of many soups and dishes of Toscana, such as: "ribollita", "pappa al pomodoro", "panata" and "panzanella", just to cite the most famous ones.

So, you can make a complete meal by using only bread (starting from "crostini" and ending with sweets).

Niki

Translated by: Daniela