A Tuscan bread made with potatoes
Today we are talking about the Pane Garfagnino, a speciality that has been preparing for centuries in the house and born from an ancient recipe traced back to 1817 within the volume of Nicolao Tomeoni, written for the Committee of encouragement of potato cultivation and present Inside the state archive of Lucca..
Interesting facts related to bread Garfagnana
The potato has always been considered a food essential to its ability to ensure the survival and satiate hunger. Small red potatoes, mainly, were cultivated in large quantities in altitude in the area of Sillano.
The low cost and high nutrient supply made it the main food of the whole territory and due to the ease of cultivation, became l' ideal ingredient to add to bread dough even for saving flour.
A Slow Food Presidium protected production
The intense flavor of Pane della Garfagnana is what characterizes it.
The aroma and taste of potatoes are perceived on the palate and nose nor taste, but the presence of potatoes makes the dough more flavorful Tuscan bread; softer and more preservable.
The humidity of the potatoes causes should indeed take many days before the bread becomes completely dry! The Slow Food Presidium, which now protects the production, was created to protect the value of the products of local agriculture, i.e. wheat and potatoes that compose it.
Recipe and food pairings
To prepare the bread Garfagnana you must work to leaven the night before by serving with an integral flour preferably.
In the morning, when the yeast grew, lies within a boiler a quantity of potatoes compared with respect to the flour used. You need to be quite precise, and therefore not go beyond Garfagnana's potato 1/3 and 2/3 flour.
The potatoes are boiled and peeled Once cooled, and subsequently worked with the rake of or with the traditional wine press, which some use for this topic.
What comes out is a liquid paste, needed to mix almost all the flour.
Prepared the bread, it is helpful to let it rise in a warm place, employing longer fermenting compared to ordinary bread. You can bake in oven warmed bread that will be preserved for a long time without harden, ready to be served at table and revived during the week in conjunction with the local products.
The loaves, cut into slices, are perfect to combine with the meats of Garfagnana as biroldo or mondiola, but also with the lard, another Tuscan specialty.
