Regional Recipe
Pane di Cerchiara
Calabrian country loaf with a folded crust
This is a naturally leavened country loaf of soft-wheat flour and bran, folded by hand so a raised ridge forms along one side.
Tested and written by Erika A. Cochran
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Prep
40 minutes, plus 12–16 hours rising
Cook
1 hour
Serves
1 large loaf (documented loaves run 0.5–12 kg)
Difficulty
Advanced
Region
Cerchiara di Calabria, Cosenza, Calabria
What you’ll need
Ingredients
Written for 1 large loaf (documented loaves run 0.5–12 kg).
Showing quantities at 1× the original recipe.
- 4¾ cups soft-wheat bread flour (type 0 or 1)
- 1¼ cups stone-ground wholemeal flour
- 1¾ oz wheat bran, plus more for the crust
- 7 oz active natural leaven (pasta acida)
- 2⅛ cups water
- 2⅔ tsp fine sea salt
At the stove
Instructions
Mix the flours, bran and water and leave to rest for 40 minutes.
Work in the leaven, then the salt, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Rise at cool room temperature for 8–12 hours, folding two or three times in the first two hours.
Shape into a round, then perform the scanatura: fold one side of the dough over itself so the loaf sits with a raised hump along one edge.
Roll in wheat bran and prove in a floured cloth for 2–3 hours.
Heat the oven to 480°F with a stone or heavy tray inside. Bake with steam for 20 minutes, then at 375°F for 40 minutes more, until the crust is very dark. Cool completely before cutting.
Recipe notes
A home adaptation. Cerchiara's bread holds a De.Co. (municipal designation) and is traditionally baked slowly, around two hours, in a domed wood oven fired with oak, beech or chestnut.
The fold is practical, not decorative: it reduced a loaf's footprint so more loaves fitted in one oven firing.
Documented flour blends vary among local bakers — types 0, 1 and 2 with bran all appear. Provenance confidence: high.
Context
Cerchiara di Calabria, in the Pollino area of the Province of Cosenza, is recognised as a 'City of Bread', and its pane scanato carries De.Co. recognition. The De.Co. record places the practice in domestic breadmaking passed from mothers to daughters and in women's gatherings to make festive bread. Households with wood ovens baked weekly or fortnightly to build a supply that lasted several days. Documented loaves run from 0.5 to 12 kg, with some reaching 20 kg.
Sources: Calabria Straordinaria — Bread of Calabria: (opens in a new tab); Calabria De.Co. — Il pane di Cerchiara (municipal De.Co. record); Gambero Rosso — Cos'è il pane di Cerchiara: (opens in a new tab); Home adaptation by Casa Magnelli Kitchen
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