I stepped into the kitchen of my friend’s London Thames riverside flat and noticed an odd machine in its corner – something that the Italians call ‘elettrodomestico’ – i.e. an electrically powered household appliance. I asked my friend what it was used for. ‘Why’, she said in surprise. ‘It’s my bread-maker, of course.’ Until that moment I’d never suspected that such machines existed. It was not long, however, that I purchased my own bread-maker and I have never looked back. There is nothing like setting the machine in the evening with the appropriate ingredients and waking up in the morning to the smell of fresh bread: one’s very own bakery in fact.

In Italy, of course, one might say that the local bread is so good that one doesn’t need a bread-maker. As a child brought up in that city I thought how appetizing were those crusty Milanese ‘michette’. This bread roll is the symbol of Milan like the ‘baguette’ is that of Paris. It’s so soft and perfect especially when stuffed with a few slices of salami or, best of all, Nutella.  Getting up early and walking down a street in Milan one is seduced by the smell of freshly baked ‘michette’.

Meanwhile in the UK we had the ‘Wonderloaf’ about which my grandad would quip: ‘It’s called  “Wonderloaf” because it’s a wonder anybody buys it!’ Certainly the sliced, mushy, weak- crusted loaf was, in my opinion, only good for making toast and I hankered after that deliciously crunchy Italian bread. Now ironically the ‘wonderloaf’ type of bread has become quite popular in Italy where it is called ‘pane in cassetta’ which translates as ‘bread in a box’. It’s also known as ‘pancarré’ from the French for square bread.

(PS You can view an original ‘Wonderloaf’ TV advert here: https://youtu.be/yq5zgpsot7I)

When I first tasted Tuscan bread it seemed to compare a little poorly with the Milanese ‘michetta’. However, that’s because the Florentines (and the Lucchesi) often use no salt in their baking. The end product is, indeed, called ‘pane sciocco’ which translates as ‘stupid bread’. Salt used to be expensive in mediaeval times and some parsimonious lucchesi still think it is. Of course, it remains delicious and the focaccie, crostini and bruschette here are to die for.

What is the difference between a ‘panificio’ and a ‘panetteria’? In the UK the same word ‘bakery’ is used for both terms.  But the ‘panificio’ is that part of the business where bread is made. The ‘panetteria’ on the other hand, is the shop where bread and other baked goods are sold.

Longoio has its own ‘panificio’ run by Michela and Celine. Like all panifici they work at night so that the oven-fresh bread is ready for the morning deliveries to the ‘panetterie’. I have sometime stopped there on my way back from teaching English language evening classes and, especially in the often freezing winter, it’s truly a welcome stop to warm oneself in front of the wood-burning oven.

Needless to say the Longoio bread is fabulous – a true crusty farmhouse loaf either baked with white or wholemeal flour and sold in various outlets in Bagni di Lucca. For instance, one can find it at the ‘bottega Del Pane’ which is managed by Silvana opposite the bar Roma.

Penny Market, our local discount at Borgo a Mozzano, has been baking its own bread in-store for some time although obviously the dough is brought in ‘oven-ready’ from outside. More interesting for me, however, is the arrival at ‘Penny’ of three varieties of flour mix which are ready for baking one’s own ‘pane’ in a bread-making machine.

The three varieties are:

Sunflower bread flour.

Multi-cereal bread flour:

Ciabatta bread flour:

I was surprised to find that the ciabatta, which is one of my favourite Italian bread varieties, first introduced into the UK in 1985 by Marks and Sparks and also available in such supermarkets as Waitrose, is a very recent arrival on the bread scene.  ‘Ciabatta’ is Italian for ‘slipper’ and the bread’s flattish shape is supposed to remind one of a pair of bedroom foot-ware. This bread is characterised by the large holes in its soft part (a process known as alveolation – you can see this in the picture on the label of the flour above) and by its brown crunchy crust.  The ciabatta was developed in Adria in the Veneto province of Rovigo by master bakers Arnaldo Cavallari and Francesco Favaron and in 1982, Cavallari registered it as a commercial brand with the name of “Ciabatta Italia”.

I have now tried all three varieties of ‘penny’ flour and can say that the results are quite mouth-wateringly good. In each case the method to be used is quite simple:

Empty first 300 ml of water and then 500 gms of flour into the bread-maker’s container.

I like to add a teaspoonful of olive oil and a little yeast, either in dried or wet form  Strictly speaking the yeast is not needed but for me it gives an extra bounce to the loaf.

Sometimes I add some type 00 flour to give more body to the bread:

I always use the standard programme for making bread. Nothing fancy. I tend to go for the machine’s soft crust setting but medium or hard crust will work with all the flours. It all depends how you like your bread’s outside. Incidentally the Italian for crust is ‘crosta’ and the white (or brown) soft bit of the bread is called ‘mollica’.

Other flour varieties can also be purchased at Fornoli’s Coop and Bagni di Lucca’s Conad. For instance there’s ‘farina integrale’ (wholemeal flour) and also a dark flour variety which is very nice. However, I still have to find flour to make ‘pane segale’ (rye bread) and there’s nothing to beat home-made Irish soda bread as prepared by a visitor from the Emerald Isle who I hope to see again later this year.

I haven’t mentioned the classic potato bread of the upper Garfagnana which lasts for ages after it comes out of the oven or the classic ‘cecina’, a chick-pea flatbread. It’ll just have to wait for another time.

(Today’s fresh bread: multicereale!)