# Coppia ferrarese Ferrara's twisted four-horned bread. Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna. Pizza & Bread (Pizze e Pani). > Ferrara's bread of type 0 flour, pork lard, olive oil, malt and lievito madre, a hard dough rolled into four thin twisted horns joined in a soft middle, protected as a PGI since 2001. - Level of proof: EU-codified (Disciplinare europeo). The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made. - Sources checked: 2026-10-29 - Published: 2026-10-28 - Page: https://nonnario.com/recipes/coppia-ferrarese/ ## In short - Type 0 flour, water, pure pork lard, extra virgin olive oil, lievito madre, salt and malt (the specification also requires brewer's yeast); no additives. - For the flour: 35% water, 5–7% lard, 2–4% olive oil and 10% lievito madre. Here 500 g of flour, 175 ml of water, 30 g of lard, 20 g of oil. - A hard dough, kneaded slowly for 15–20 minutes so that it stays cool, refined 15–20 times, then shaped at once, before it starts to rise. - Two ovals of dough, each rolled up into thin spiralled horns whose points are the crostini, then joined in the middle: four horns spread like a fan. - Each coppia weighs 80 g–250 g: golden, with almost blond streaks where the dough is twisted, crisp points and a soft, compact middle. Also called: Coppia Ferrarese IGP, Coppia Ferrarese PGI, Ciupèta, Ciopa, Pane ferrarese, Ferrara bread. ## Where it comes from The coppia, ciupèta in Ferrara's dialect, is the bread of Ferrara and its province: two pieces of hard dough joined in a soft middle, the grop, from which four thin, crisp horns spread out, their points called crostini. In 1287 the town's statutes made its bakers shape bread with orletti, rims, which grew into the twisted bread held to be the coppia's ancestor; the same statutes wanted every loaf marked by its baker, well baked and losing no weight in the oven, on pain of fines. Twisted bread appears at the banquets of the Este court in the Renaissance. Tradition dates the coppia's present shape to a carnival dinner given for the Duke of Ferrara in 1536, and Cristoforo da Messisbugo, steward of the Este court, listed ‘pane intorto’, twisted bread, in the spending estimates he drew up in 1547 for the table of Prince Alfonso II, the future duke, and his brother Luigi. In 1958 the novelist Riccardo Bacchelli called Ferrara's bread a masterpiece of elegance, ingenuity and flavour. The application to amend the specification, published in 2012, counted about 330 family bakeries in the province, making some 50 tonnes of fresh bread a day, about 60% of it as coppie. The crisp horns go with Emilia-Romagna's cured meats and, by tradition, the zia ferrarese salami; the soft middle soaks up sauces and broths; it is eaten alone with a drizzle of oil too, and stale it goes into panata, a bread soup with broth, butter and Parmigiano, and into passatelli. It has been a PGI since 2001, registered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2036/2001: only bread made in the province of Ferrara under its specification may be called Coppia Ferrarese, sold within 24 hours of baking, unless packaged, and never frozen. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1140/2012 amended the specification: it named the yeast as brewer's yeast, banned bread additives, set ranges for the lard and the oil, asked for a strong flour for the lievito madre and raised the moisture allowed. Each bakery makes its own madre, which the specification starts from flour, water and a spoonful of red wine vinegar, grape must or hops; Ferrara's bakers have most often started theirs from the juice of crushed grapes. This page makes four coppie from 500 g of type 0 flour with the quantities of a published home recipe whose proportions sit inside the specification's, and bakes them for 18–20 minutes at 200 °C: the specification in force gives no time or temperature, and the summary published with the application in 2000 gave 18–20 minutes at no more than 240 °C. Made at home it is a home version, not the PGI: your own sourdough starter for the bakery's madre, a stand mixer or your hands for the fork mixer, a rolling pin for the rollers, a stone in a home oven for the hearth. It also leaves out brewer's yeast: the specification requires it beside the madre but sets no amount, the home recipe followed uses none and no serious source gives a home dose, so rather than invent one the dough rises on the madre alone, more slowly. - Defined by: European Union - Reference: PGI ‘Coppia Ferrarese’, Commission Regulation (EC) No 2036/2001; specification amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1140/2012 (single document in OJ C 75 of 14 March 2012), in the text sent by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture in August 2007, first printed as a proposal in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 75 of 30 March 2007 ## Sources - [Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF): production specification of the PGI ‘Coppia Ferrarese’, as amended, the text sent to the European Commission in August 2007 (Italian)](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/files/4/8/9/D.0737b41954f8db7b65fa/Disciplinare_Coppia_Ferrarese_29ago07.pdf) - [Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF): the same specification as the Ministry lists it today, a scan (Italian)](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/6%252Ff%252F3%252FD.68d87ca0899519333fb1/P/BLOB%3AID%3D3347/E/pdf?mode=download) - [Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 75 of 30 March 2007, pages 54–56: the amended specification, printed in full as a proposal (Italian)](https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2007/03/30/75/sg/pdf) - [EU Official Journal C 75 of 14 March 2012: the application to amend the PGI, with its single document (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52012XC0314(03)) - [Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1140/2012, approving the amendment (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32012R1140) - [Commission Regulation (EC) No 2036/2001, registering the PGI (EUR-Lex, Italian)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32001R2036) - [EU Official Journal C 366 of 20 December 2000: the application to register the PGI, with the summary of its specification (Publications Office, Italian)](http://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/b19c1bcb-1827-4152-8639-6e18dc37acb7.0008.01/DOC_1) - [Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 215 of 15 September 2007: the decree of 31 August 2007 protecting the amended specification in Italy until the EU decided (Italian)](https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2007/09/15/215/sg/pdf) - [EU register eAmbrosia: the entry for Coppia Ferrarese (PGI-IT-0120), with its publications](https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/eambrosia/geographical-indications-register/details/EUGI00000013572) - [Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita): Coppia Ferrarese IGP, product sheet (Italian)](https://www.qualigeo.eu/prodotto-qualigeo/coppia-ferrarese-igp/) - [Regione Emilia-Romagna, agriculture: Coppia ferrarese IGP (Italian)](https://agricoltura.regione.emilia-romagna.it/dop-igp/prodotti-dop-e-igp-emilia-romagna/tutte-dop-igp-emilia-romagna/coppia-ferrarese-igp) - [Agrodolce: Pane ferrarese, la coppia ferrarese, a home recipe (Italian)](https://www.agrodolce.it/ricette/pane-ferrarese) - [Strada dei Vini e dei Sapori della Provincia di Ferrara: Coppia Ferrarese IGP (Italian)](https://www.stradaviniesaporiferrara.it/prodotto/coppia-ferrarese-igp/) - [Istituto Vergani Navarra, class 4B, on the Comune di Ferrara's website: Il pane ferrarese, a school presentation (Italian)](https://www.comune.ferrara.it/attachments/file/view?hash=e2f0cf6fe492c259c1b911d917382c8a&canCache=0) - [Gazzetta del Gusto: La Coppia ferrarese IGP, un po' pane e un po' grissino (Italian)](https://www.gazzettadelgusto.it/cibo/la-coppia-ferrarese-igp-un-po-pane-un-po-grissino/) ## Ingredients For 4 servings, in metric units. ### For the lievito madre: the refreshment, in the morning (for each batch, not scaled with servings) - 30 g lievito madre (sourdough starter), active (your own starter) - 40 g strong soft wheat flour, type 0 (a strong bread flour (W 300–350 on Italian bags), as the specification asks for the madre) - 18 ml water (at room temperature; 45% of the flour) ### For the dough (four coppie) (for each batch, not scaled with servings) - 500 g soft wheat flour, type 0 (plain, not strong; with nothing added) - 175 ml water (cool, about 20 °C; 35% of the flour) - 50 g lievito madre, from the refreshment (10% of the flour) - 30 g lard (strutto) (pure pork lard, soft, at room temperature; 6% of the flour) - 20 g extra virgin olive oil (4% of the flour) - 9 g salt (fine) - 5 g barley malt syrup (malt extract) - soft wheat flour, for dusting (a little) ## Equipment - Kitchen scale accurate to 1 g - A lidded jar or container for the lievito madre - A stand mixer with a dough hook (or a large board and patience: the dough is hard) - A rolling pin, or a pasta machine - A dough scraper or a knife - Two cotton cloths - Baking paper, two sheets of about 35 cm by 30 cm, and a peel or two upturned baking trays - A baking stone or steel, or a heavy baking tray, at least 35 cm by 30 cm - Probe thermometer, for the water and the bread - Wire rack ## Method Hands-on 1 h 11 min, cooking 41 min, resting at least 6 h. One long day, mostly waiting, and you need an active sourdough starter. In the morning refresh it and let it double, 4–5 hours. Then about 20 minutes to knead, 10–15 to refine the dough, half an hour to shape the four coppie, 1½–2 hours of rising (switch the oven on after the first 45 minutes), two bakes of 18–20 minutes and half an hour of cooling: about 8–10 hours in all. You need 500 g of type 0 flour for the dough, 40 g of strong flour for the lievito madre and a little for dusting. The quantities make four coppie of about 200 g of dough each. ### In the morning: the lievito madre The specification raises the coppia with a lievito madre that each bakery makes in the province from strong flour (W 300–350) and water, at 45% water. At home, refresh an active sourdough starter of your own the same way: strong flour, 45% water. Once it has risen, in 4–5 hours by the specification's account, it is ready. 1. **Refresh the lievito madre** (Hands-on 5 min). Knead 30 g of your active starter with 40 g of strong type 0 flour and 18 ml of water into a smooth, pliable ball. Put it in a lidded container and mark its level on the side. Check: A smooth ball, soft and pliable but not sticky, with no dry flour, its level marked. Tip: Our guide: these quantities follow the specification's madre, a strong flour with 45% water; you need 50 g for the dough and keep the rest as your starter. Tip: No starter? The specification's own method makes one in about six days. Our guide, its quantities divided by ten: knead 100 g of strong type 0 flour with 45 ml of water and 1.5 ml of red wine vinegar or grape must by hand for 10 minutes into a soft ball, and leave it 24 hours, covered, away from any heat. Tip: Then, every 12 hours for five days, knead in about 20 g of strong flour and 9 ml–10 ml of water and leave it again. On the last day knead it well and leave it in a container under a cotton cloth; the next day it is ready to refresh as above. If mould appears, throw it away and start again. 2. **Let it double: 4–5 hours** (Rest 4–5 h; 26 °C). Leave it, covered, at about 26 °C until it has doubled, 4–5 hours. Check: It stands at twice its mark, domed, full of small holes when torn, and smells pleasantly sour. Tip: Our guide: if it has not doubled in 5 hours, the starter is weak: refresh 30 g of it again the same way and wait once more. ### The dough: hard, kneaded slowly and refined The specification's proportions, for the flour: 35% water, 5–7% pure pork lard, 2–4% extra virgin olive oil and 10% lievito madre, with brewer's yeast, salt and malt, and no bread additives. This page makes four coppie from 500 g of flour with the quantities of a published home recipe whose proportions sit inside those (35% water, 6% lard, 4% oil, 10% madre), with the specification's type 0 flour in place of that recipe's 00, and that recipe's 9 g of salt and 5 g of malt, for which the specification gives no figure. The specification requires brewer's yeast too but sets no amount; that recipe uses none and no serious source gives a home dose, so this page leaves it out rather than invent one: the dough rises on the madre alone. 3. **Dissolve the madre** (Hands-on 5 min; 20 °C). Pour 175 ml of cool water, about 20 °C, into the mixer bowl, stir in 5 g of malt and break in 50 g of the lievito madre, squeezing it with your fingers until it has dissolved. Check: Cloudy water with no lumps of madre left; the thermometer reads about 20 °C. Tip: Our guide: cool water keeps the dough from warming during the long knead. 4. **Knead slowly for 15–20 minutes** (Hands-on 15–20 min; follows the official text). Work all the ingredients in the mixer for 15 to 20 minutes. The slow movement mixes them evenly, spreads the fat through the dough and keeps it from warming, which a hard dough (pasta dura) needs. Check: A firm, smooth, compact dough that no longer sticks to the bowl or your hands, cool to the touch. Tip: Our guide: add the 500 g of type 0 flour and mix at the lowest speed with the dough hook until it comes together, about 3 minutes. Add the 30 g of lard in small pieces and knead until it has disappeared, then the 20 g of oil and the 9 g of salt, and knead on at the lowest speed to make up the 15–20 minutes. Tip: Our guide: the specification's fork mixer turns slowly; the lowest speed of a stand mixer is the home version. By hand, push the dough away with the heel of your hand and fold it back, for the full time: with so little water it is hard work. Tip: Our guide: about 790 g of hard dough is a heavy load for a home mixer: if the motor labours, finish by hand. Tip: Do not add water to soften it: the specification's 35% makes a hard dough on purpose. 5. **Refine the dough: 15–20 passes** (Hands-on 10–15 min; follows the official text). Pass the dough through the rollers 15 to 20 times to refine it. Check: Smooth, silky and slightly shiny, with no tears or dry patches; cut through, it is dense and even. Tip: Our guide: on a lightly floured board, roll the dough with a rolling pin into a sheet about 1 cm thick, fold it in half, give it a quarter turn and roll it again. Count 15–20 passes. Tip: Our guide: or cut it in four and pass each piece through a pasta machine at its widest setting, folding it in half each time. Tip: Shape straight after: the specification wants the coppia shaped completely before it starts to rise. ### Shaping the coppie Each coppia is two pieces of dough. Each piece is pressed into an oval, the pastella, and rolled up into thin, spiralled horns whose points are the crostini; then the two halves are joined in the middle and pressed hard, the stretta. Keep the pieces you are not working under a cloth so that they do not dry. 6. **Divide: eight pieces, in pairs** (Hands-on 5 min; follows the official text). By hand, break the dough into pieces of the weight you want, then divide each piece in two. Check: On the scale: eight pieces of about 98 g, in four pairs. Tip: Our guide: the dough weighs about 790 g. Cut four pieces of about 197 g, then halve each: eight of 95 g–100 g, for four coppie of about 195 g–200 g. Tip: Our guide: cover them with a cloth or film at once. 7. **Press each piece into an oval: the pastella** (Hands-on 8 min; follows the official text). Press each piece with your hands until it takes the oval shape called the pastella. Check: An even oval about 1.2 cm thick, about 14 cm long and 6 cm–7 cm wide, with no cracks. Tip: Our guide: flatten the piece with the heel of your hand into a rough oval, then roll it lightly with the rolling pin, lengthwise, to an even 1.2 cm. 8. **Roll up the crostini** (Hands-on 12–16 min; follows the official text). Working the two pastelle at the same time, one in each hand, roll the dough up until the crostini have their final shape. Check: Each piece is a tight roll about 15 cm–18 cm from point to point and about 3 cm thick in the middle, tapering at both ends to thin, spiralled points, with a short flat tail of dough left unrolled. Tip: Our guide: lay a pastella with a narrow end towards you and hold that end flat with the fingertips of one hand. With the other, fold over the far tip and start rolling it towards you under your palm. Tip: Our guide: roll in short strokes. Push the roll away from you so that it unrolls a turn, pressing so that the dough under your palm thins and widens, then draw it back, rolling it up further than before. The roll grows longer sideways, and its two ends draw out into thin, spiralled horns whose points are the crostini. Tip: Our guide: stop about 2 cm from the end you are holding, leaving a short flat tail. Bakers roll two at once, one under each hand; at home, one at a time is fine. If the dough springs back, cover it and give it 5 minutes. Tip: Our guide: the sizes in the check are our estimate from the dough's weight, not measured on Ferrara's coppie: if your roll is much shorter and fatter, give it a few more strokes. 9. **Join the halves: the stretta** (Hands-on 5 min; follows the official text). Join the two half-coppie by hand, pressing them together. Check: Two rolls bound together by a flat middle, like a ribbon, with four thin twisted horns spread out like a fan, an X about 15 cm–18 cm across the points and 10 cm–14 cm deep. It holds together when you lift it by the middle. Tip: Our guide: lay two rolls side by side, parallel, with their flat tails towards each other. Lay one tail over the other in the middle and press the overlap down hard with both thumbs, pushing the middle of each roll in towards the join: the four points spread out into an X. Tip: Our guide: lay each coppia on a sheet of baking paper as you finish it, two to a sheet, side by side with their long sides parallel and at least 4 cm apart, the sheets on boards or upturned baking trays. ### The rise 10. **Rise under a cloth: 1½–2 hours** (Rest 1 h 30 min to 2 h; 26–28 °C). Cover the coppie with a cotton cloth and leave them somewhere warm, about 26 °C–28 °C, for 90–120 minutes, until they pass the check. Check: Visibly puffed, the middle soft and swollen; a light finger press there leaves a dent that springs back slowly. Tip: The specification lays the shaped bread on wooden boards under a cloth and gives it 70–90 minutes, depending on the room temperature; its dough has brewer's yeast as well as the madre. Our guide: without it the home dough is slower, and the home recipe this page follows gives it 90–120 minutes. Tip: Our guide: if they have not passed the check at 120 minutes, leave them covered and check every 15 minutes. Tip: Our guide: only the first pair bakes at the end of this rise; the second waits about 30 minutes more (see the baking steps). 11. **Heat the oven** (Hands-on 2 min; 200 °C). After about 45 minutes of rising, put a baking stone, steel or heavy baking tray on the lowest shelf and heat the oven to 200 °C, top and bottom heat, no fan. It needs at least 45 minutes. Check: When the first coppie are ready, the oven shows 200 °C and has been heating for at least 45 minutes. Tip: Our guide: the specification bakes on a fixed hearth heated from below; a hot stone low in the oven is the home version. ### Baking 12. **Into the oven, then shut it** (Hands-on 2 min; 200 °C; follows the official text). Bake on a fixed hearth heated from below. Load the bread with the vents open, then close the vents and the doors, so that the steam formed in the first part of the bake stays in and helps the bread grow. Check: Two coppie on the stone, and the door shut within a minute. Tip: Our guide: slide one sheet of baking paper, with its two coppie, onto the hot stone and shut the door at once. A home oven has no vents: keep the door shut. Add no steam: the specification keeps in the steam the bread makes. Tip: Our guide: as soon as the first pair goes in, move the second sheet, still covered, somewhere cooler, about 20 °C, so that it rises more slowly while it waits its 30 minutes or so. 13. **Bake the first pair: 18–20 minutes** (Cooking 18–20 min; 200 °C). Bake for 18–20 minutes at 200 °C with the door shut. The specification in force gives no time or temperature; the summary published with the application in 2000 gave 18–20 minutes at no more than 240 °C. Check: Golden all over, with paler, almost blond streaks along the twisted horns; the points are dry and crisp, the base sounds hollow when tapped, and a probe in the middle reads at least 95 °C. Tip: Our guide: if the middle is still pale, give it 2–3 minutes more; watch the thin points, which colour first. 14. **Take the first pair out** (Hands-on 2 min; follows the official text). Reopen the vents when you take the bread out, to let out the moisture gathered in the oven. Check: The first pair is on the rack and the oven door is shut again. Tip: Our guide: a home oven has no vents: opening the door does the same. Lift the coppie onto a wire rack with their paper, then shut the door. 15. **Let the oven recover: 5 minutes** (Cooking 5 min; 200 °C). Leave the door shut for 5 minutes, so that the oven and the stone come back to 200 °C. Check: The oven shows 200 °C again. 16. **Bake the second pair: 18–20 minutes** (Cooking 18–20 min; 200 °C). Slide the second sheet onto the stone, shut the door at once and bake for 18–20 minutes at 200 °C; then open the door, as before, and lift the coppie onto the rack. Check: Golden all over, with paler, almost blond streaks along the twisted horns; the points are dry and crisp, the base sounds hollow when tapped, and a probe in the middle reads at least 95 °C. Tip: Our guide: by now this pair has risen about 30 minutes longer than the first: 2 minutes to load, 18–20 to bake and 7 to take out and let the oven recover. That is about 2 hours if the first pair went in at 90 minutes, and about 2½ hours if it needed 120. Tip: Our guide: the cooler wait keeps it from rising too far. If a finger pressed in the middle leaves a dent that no longer springs back at all, it has risen as far as it should: bake it the moment the oven is ready. 17. **Let them cool** (Rest 30 min). Leave the coppie on the rack for at least 30 minutes before you eat them. Check: Cool to the touch; the points snap cleanly and the middle is soft and compact. It smells strong and appetising, and tastes well salted (sapido). Tip: Our guide: the middle goes on setting as it cools; broken warm, it is gummy. ## Good to know - Keeping: A few days, closed in a paper bag inside the bread bin, and it stays compact. Keep it away from strong-smelling food. ([source](https://www.qualigeo.eu/prodotto-qualigeo/coppia-ferrarese-igp/)) ## Common mistakes - Letting the dough rise before you shape it: the coppia is a hard dough, shaped completely before it starts to rise. - Adding water to make the dough easier: the specification sets the water at 35% of the flour, and the dough is meant to be hard. - Kneading fast: the specification kneads slowly, so that the dough does not warm up. - Swapping the lard for butter, or leaving it out: the specification uses pure pork lard, 5–7% of the flour. - Adding bread improvers or other additives: the specification rules them out. - Joining the halves lightly: pressed hard in the middle, the coppia holds together as it rises and bakes. ## Cooking it outside Italy - Only bread made in the province of Ferrara under the specification is Coppia Ferrarese: sold within 24 hours of baking, never frozen, each piece marked with its logo. Anywhere else the same method makes a home version, not the PGI. - Type 0 is an Italian grade of soft wheat flour. Outside Italy, an unbleached plain (all-purpose) flour with nothing added is the nearest for the dough; for the lievito madre, a strong bread flour (W 300–350 on Italian bags). - Strutto is pure rendered pork lard: buy pure lard, not vegetable shortening. - The specification allows malt as it is or as an extract: barley malt syrup, sold as malt extract, will do. - No sourdough starter? The specification's own method makes one in about six days (see the first step), or a piece from a bakery that keeps one can be refreshed. --- From Nonnario, the documented recipes of Italy: https://nonnario.com/recipes/coppia-ferrarese/. Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources.