Genzano di Roma, Lazio
Pane casareccio di Genzano
Genzano's bran-dusted country bread
Genzano's bread of type 0 or 00 flour, lievito naturale, salt and water, built on a biga, dusted with wheat bran and baked in a very hot oven, as its PGI specification has set since 1997.
- Course
- Pizze e PaniPizza & Bread
- Serves
- 12
- Hands-on
- 47 min
- Cooking
- 1 h
- Plan
- 2 days
In breve
In short
Also called Pane di Genzano, Pane casareccio di Genzano IGP, Pane casareccio di Genzano PGI, Pane casereccio di Genzano, Pane Casareccio Genzano and Genzano bread.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Type 0 or 00 soft wheat flour, lievito naturale, salt and water, dusted with wheat bran: no additives, and no brewer's yeast.
- For every 1 kg of flour: 20 g of salt, 15 g of lievito naturale and about 700 ml of water.
- A biga made at least two hours ahead, about 20 minutes of kneading, about an hour's rise, then about 40 minutes in a cloth-lined box, dusted with bran.
- Baked at 300 °C–320 °C for 35 minutes to about 1 hour 20, by size, for a dark crust about 3 mm thick over a spongy ivory crumb.
- A round pagnotta, with soft sides where the loaves touched in the oven, or a long filone, weighing 500 g to 2.5 kg.
La provenienza
Where this recipe comes from
Pane casareccio di Genzano is the bread of Genzano di Roma, one of the Castelli Romani, the hill towns near Rome, on the outer slope of the crater that holds Lake Nemi, reached from Rome along the via Appia. Families once made their own bread and baked it in wood-fired ovens called soccie, and baking day was a feast for the whole town. Historical accounts say that by the 1600s bread was so much a part of Genzano that Prince Cesarini Sforza, beside whose palace the town grew, offered it to the Pope as a gift. In the 19th century it was already prized for its aroma and fragrance, which last seven or eight days, and from the 1940s it won a great name in Rome, where it was carried by night to be sold in the city's bakeries the next day. Its wood-fired ovens traditionally burn bundles of chestnut wood, whose smell mixes with the bread's in the streets from early morning. It is eaten with porchetta or cured meats such as the local prosciutto crudo, toasted and dressed with raw extra virgin olive oil for bruschetta, and, stale, in slices browned in oil and baked under a cream of slowly cooked onions and grated Pecorino Romano.
It has been a PGI since 1997, registered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2325/97 on the application of the consortium of Genzano's bakers. According to the EU register, it was the first fresh bread protected in Europe, and the first Italian name in the register's class of breads and baked goods: the only bread protected before it, Crete's Kritiko paximadi, is a rusk. Only bread made in the town of Genzano under its specification may carry the name, and the specification, kept by the Ministry of Agriculture, has not been amended since. It makes it from type 0 or 00 flour, lievito naturale refreshed every day, salt, water and cruschello, a fine wheat bran, with no chemical or biological additions, and sets the method stage by stage, for a loaf of 0.5 to 2.5 kg. It does not say how big the biga is: this page builds it from the 1.5% of lievito naturale and part of the dough's own flour and water, so the totals stay the specification's, scaled to one loaf from 1 kg of flour. Made at home, it is a home version, not the PGI, and it changes only what a home kitchen cannot do: a starter of your own, refreshed once; a biga left overnight, far beyond the two-hour minimum, so that the small dose of leaven can ripen it; rests that may run longer than the approximate times, by the baker's same check; a bowl lined with a cloth instead of the wooden boxes; a home oven at 250 °C and then 220 °C instead of 300–320 °C; and one loaf baked alone, without the soft sides where loaves touch.
- Provenance
- The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made.
- Defined by
- European Union
- Reference
- PGI ‘Pane casareccio di Genzano’, Commission Regulation (EC) No 2325/97; specification as registered in 1997, in the text kept by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture
- Sources
- Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF): production specification of the PGI ‘Pane Casareccio Genzano’ (Italian)
- EU register eAmbrosia: Italy's application for registration (Article 17 procedure), with the summary of the specification (Italian)
- EU register eAmbrosia: the English summary sheet of the application, fuller than the Italian
- EU Official Journal L 322 of 25 November 1997: Commission Regulation (EC) No 2325/97, registering the name (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- EU register eAmbrosia: the entry for Pane casareccio di Genzano (PGI-IT-1553); the register lists every protected name by class and date
- ARSIAL, the Lazio regional agency for agriculture: Pane casareccio di Genzano PGI (Italian)
- Qualigeo (Fondazione Qualivita): Pane Casareccio di Genzano IGP, product sheet (Italian)
- Italia.it, Italy's official tourism portal: Genzano (Italian)
Ingredienti
Ingredients
For the lievito naturale: the refreshment, the afternoon before (doesn't change with servings)
For the biga: the evening before (doesn't change with servings)
For the dough (one loaf) (doesn't change with servings)
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- A lidded container for the lievito naturale, and another for the biga
- A large bowl, or a stand mixer with a dough hook
- A bowl or round basket about 25 cm across, lined with a linen or hemp cloth (a heavy tea towel will do)
- A baking stone or steel, or a heavy baking tray, at least 30 cm across
- A peel or a flat board, and baking paper
- Probe thermometer, for the water, the dough and the loaf
- A wooden board or a rack for the loaf to cool on
Preparazione
Method
Two days, mostly waiting, and you need an active sourdough starter. The afternoon before, refresh it and let it double (3–4 hours); in the evening, make the biga and leave it overnight (10–14 hours). On the day: 25 minutes to knead, 1–3 hours of first rise (heat the oven towards its end), shaping and a second rise of 40–90 minutes, about 65 minutes in the oven, and at least 2 hours of cooling before you cut it. You need about 1.1 kg of flour in all (1 kg for the biga and the dough, 50 g for the refreshment and a little for the board) and a few tablespoons of wheat bran. The quantities make one round loaf of about 1.4 kg.
- 47 minhands-on
- 1 hcooking
- 2 daysfrom start to table
The day before: the lievito naturale and the biga
The specification refreshes the lievito naturale every day and makes a biga (a pre-dough of flour, water and leaven) at least two hours before kneading, without saying how big it is. At home, refresh an active sourdough starter of your own in the afternoon, and make the biga in the evening with 15 g of it: the specification's 1.5% of lievito naturale, which this page puts into the biga.
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Hands-on 5 minOfficial text
Refresh the lievito naturale with water and flour, in proportion to the dough you will make.
Check A smooth, soft dough in a lidded container, with its level marked on the side.
Tip Our guide: knead 50 g of your active starter with 50 g of type 0 or 00 flour and 35 ml of water, the dough's own proportion of water.
Tip Our guide: bakers refresh it every day; at home, with an active starter, one refreshment before the bake will do. Any active sourdough starter can begin it.
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Rest 3–4 hTemp 26 °C
Leave it, covered, at about 26 °C until it has doubled, 3–4 hours.
Check It stands at twice its mark, domed, full of small holes inside, and smells pleasantly sour.
Tip Our guide: if it takes much longer, the starter is weak: refresh it again the same way before you make the biga.
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Hands-on 5 minOfficial text
Prepare the biga at least two hours before kneading, so that it reaches the right acidity.
Check A firm, smooth ball in a lidded container, with its level marked on the side.
Tip Our guide: knead 15 g of the refreshed lievito naturale with 300 g of type 0 or 00 flour and 150 ml of water at room temperature into a firm ball, 2–3 minutes. The flour and water are part of the dough's 1 kg and 700 ml.
Tip Our guide: keep what is left of the refreshment as your starter.
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Rest 10–14 hTemp 20 °C–22 °C
Leave the biga, covered, at about 20 °C–22 °C overnight, 10–14 hours, until it is ripe.
Check It has about doubled, is domed and a little cracked on top, and, torn open, it is full of small holes and smells pleasantly sour.
Tip Our guide: 15 g of leaven takes most of a night to ripen this much flour at room temperature. In a warmer kitchen it is quicker, so go by the check.
Tip Our guide: the specification's minimum is two hours; this home biga needs far longer because its dose of leaven is small.
The dough
The specification's dose, for every 100 kg of type 0 or 00 flour: 2 kg of salt, 1.5 kg of lievito naturale and about 70 l of water. Here it is scaled to one loaf from 1 kg of flour; 300 g of it, 150 ml of the water and the 15 g of lievito naturale are already in the biga.
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Hands-on 5 minTemp 22 °C
Weigh 700 g of flour, 20 g of salt and 550 ml of water, and bring the water to about 22 °C.
Check The water reads about 22 °C on the thermometer.
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Hands-on 20 minOfficial text
Make the dough and knead it for about 20 minutes; the time can vary with the quantity of dough.
Check A smooth, soft, elastic dough that comes away from the sides of the bowl; a piece stretched between your fingers makes a thin film that lets light through. A thermometer in the dough reads about 24 °C–27 °C.
Tip Our guide: tear the biga into small pieces in the bowl with about 500 ml of the water and let them soften for a few minutes. Add the 700 g of flour and mix, then the salt; then work in the last 50 ml of water a little at a time, only as the dough takes it: the specification's water is about 70%, not exactly.
Tip Our guide: use a stand mixer with the dough hook at low to medium speed. By hand the dough is soft and sticky: stretch it up from the board and fold it back over itself, again and again, rather than adding flour.
Tip Our guide: a cooler dough rises more slowly. If it reads below 24 °C, give it a warmer place for the first rise.
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Rest 1–3 hTemp 26 °COfficial text
Let the dough rise for about an hour, and shape it only once it has reached the right point of rise.
Check It has grown by about half, is domed, airy and wobbly when you shake the bowl, with bubbles at the sides; a floured finger leaves a dent that fills back slowly.
Tip Our guide: cover the bowl and leave it at about 26 °C.
Tip Our guide: the specification leaves the moment to the baker's own check of the dough. A home starter is often slower than a bakery's: give it up to 3 hours, and go by the check.
Shaping and the second rise
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Hands-on 2 minTemp 250 °C
Towards the end of the first rise, put a baking stone, steel or heavy baking tray on a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat it to 250 °C. It needs at least 45 minutes.
Check By the time the loaf goes in, the oven shows 250 °C and has been heating for at least 45 minutes.
Tip Our guide: the specification's oven is at 300 °C–320 °C, hotter than most home ovens go; 250 °C with a hot stone is the home version.
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Hands-on 5 minOfficial text
Shape the dough into a pagnotta, the round loaf, or a filone.
Check A round loaf with a smooth, taut surface that holds its shape.
Tip Our guide: tip the dough onto a lightly floured board, fold its edges into the middle, turn it over and draw it towards you with cupped hands a few times until the surface is taut.
Tip Our guide: this page makes one round loaf. The specification gives no separate shaping or baking time for the filone (see the variant).
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Hands-on 3 minOfficial text
Lay the shaped loaf in a wooden box lined with hemp cloths and dust it with cruschello or tritello.
Check The loaf sits in the cloth, coated with bran top and bottom.
Tip Our guide: line a bowl or round basket about 25 cm across with a linen or hemp cloth and scatter it well with bran. Lay the loaf in smooth side down, then dust the top with more bran and fold the cloth loosely over it.
Tip Our guide: the bran gives the crust its dark colour, so do not spare it.
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Rest 40 min to 1 h 30 minTemp 26 °C–28 °COfficial text
Let the loaf rise a second time, somewhere warm at the right temperature, for about 40 minutes, so that it settles.
Check It has grown by about a third, and a floured finger leaves a dent that springs back slowly and not completely.
Tip Our guide: at about 26 °C–28 °C. At home it may need up to 90 minutes: go by the check.
Tip Our guide: started towards the end of the first rise, the oven has had its 45 minutes by now. If not, let the loaf rest a few minutes more; left far past the check, it spreads in the oven.
Baking
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Hands-on 2 minTemp 250 °C
Turn the loaf out onto a sheet of baking paper on a peel or flat board, so that the smooth, bran-coated side is on top, and slide it, paper and all, onto the hot stone.
Check The loaf sits in the middle of the stone, smooth bran-coated side up, and the door is shut at once.
Tip Our guide: the specification mentions no steam, and none is added here.
Tip The specification's pagnotte have ‘baciature’, soft sides where loaves touched in the oven; one loaf at home bakes alone, with a crust all round.
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Cooking 15 minTemp 250 °C
Bake for 15 minutes at 250 °C. The specification's oven, at 300 °C–320 °C, is there to make the loaf rise compact and form its crust; a home oven starts at its hottest instead.
Check The loaf has risen, and its crust has set and is starting to colour.
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Cooking 45–55 minTemp 220 °COfficial text
Bake until the crust is about 3 mm thick: the time depends on the size of the loaf, from 35 minutes to about an hour and 20 minutes in all.
Check Dark brown all over, the base sounds hollow when tapped, and a probe in the centre reads about 96 °C–98 °C.
Tip Our guide: turn the oven down to 220 °C for these 45–55 minutes, 60–70 minutes in all for a loaf this size. Held at full heat for an hour, a home oven can burn the crust.
Tip Our guide: many baking papers are sold for no more than about 220 °C–230 °C: as you turn the oven down, slide the paper out from under the loaf, which by now has set.
Tip Our guide: if the crust is pale and thin, give it a few minutes more.
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Rest 2 h
Lay the loaf on a wooden board or a rack and leave it until completely cool, at least 2 hours, before you cut it.
Check The crust crackles as it cools, and the base is cool to the touch. Cut, the crumb is ivory and spongy, with holes not too large and irregular, under a crust about 3 mm thick; it smells of cereal, like a granary, and tastes savoury (sapido).
Tip Our guide: a large loaf goes on setting as it cools; cut warm, the crumb is gummy.
The essentials, for cooks who know the dish. Switch to Detailed for quantities, temperatures, times and checks at every step.
Press “I’m here” on the step you are on, and again when it is done.Tap the pin on the step you are on, and the tick when it is done. Timers keep running while you scroll.
Da sapere
Good to know
Errori comuni
Common mistakes
- Raising it with brewer's yeast: the specification leavens it only with lievito naturale, with no chemical or biological additions.
- Kneading with an unripe biga: the specification makes it at least two hours ahead so that it reaches the right acidity, and with so little leaven a home biga needs the night.
- Shaping by the clock: the specification's rise of about an hour ends only when the dough has reached the right point, and at home it usually takes longer.
- Leaving out the bran: the loaf is dusted with cruschello or tritello, which gives the crust its dark colour.
- Baking in an oven that is not fully hot: heat the stone for at least 45 minutes; the specification's oven is hotter still, at 300 °C–320 °C.
- Cutting it hot: leave the loaf to cool on its board first.
Fuori dall'Italia
Cooking it outside Italy
- Only bread made in the town of Genzano under the specification is Pane casareccio di Genzano; the protected loaves carry an identifying label, pressed onto the dough before baking. Anywhere else, the same method makes a home version, not the PGI.
- Type 0 and type 00 are Italian grades of soft wheat flour, 00 the more refined; both are sold abroad in Italian shops and online. Another white wheat flour makes a home version only.
- Cruschello is fine wheat bran and tritello wheat middlings, both by-products of milling. Any fine wheat bran sold for baking does the same work on the crust.
- The specification raises the bread only with lievito naturale. If you have no sourdough starter, a piece from a bakery that keeps one can be refreshed and used.
- The specification's oven may be wood-fired or of any other kind, but at 300 °C–320 °C. A home oven with a baking stone is the home version.
