Arezzo, Toscana
Pane toscano
Tuscany's saltless sourdough bread
Tuscany's bread made without salt, protected since 2016: soft wheat flour with its germ, water and lievito madre, raised through a biga rested at least eight hours and shaped into a filone with rounded corners, as its PDO specification sets.
- Course
- Pizze e PaniPizza & Bread
- Serves
- 10
- Hands-on
- 36 min
- Cooking
- 55 min
- Plan
- 2 days
In breve
In short
Also called Pane Toscano DOP, Pane Toscano PDO, pane sciocco, filone toscano, Tuscan bread and Tuscan saltless bread.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Soft wheat flour type 0 (or 1 or 2) with its germ, water and lievito madre: no salt, no brewer's yeast, nothing else.
- First a biga: for every 1 kg of flour at least 500 ml of water and 200 g of lievito madre, rested at least 8 hours.
- Then the dough: for every 1 kg of flour at least 550 ml of water and 200 g of biga, rested at least 20 minutes, divided, rested at least 15.
- Shaped into a filone, rectangular with rounded corners, or a rhomboid filoncino, and left to rise at least 2½ hours before the oven.
- Baked right through: a crisp, matte crust the colour of dark hazelnut, a white crumb with irregular holes, a saltless, slightly sour taste.
La provenienza
Where this recipe comes from
Pane Toscano is the everyday bread of Tuscany, and it is made without salt: its taste is sciocco, saltless. An early written record of saltless bread there comes from Pietro Andrea Mattioli, in the 16th century. In 1765 Saverio Manetti described the Tuscan habit of leaving out the salt, and the natural leaven, called formento, a soured dough kept in the madia, the bread chest, in among the flour. In the 19th century saltless bread was the staple of Tuscany's sharecroppers, since salt was dear and went mainly into curing pork; a legend traces the custom back to a 12th-century quarrel between Florence and Pisa. Its wheat comes largely from the varieties bred in the Valdichiana from the early 1900s, which gave Mieti, Mec, Marzotto and Pandas. Saltless, it goes with Tuscany's strongly flavoured cured meats and sheep's cheeses and soaks up the juices of stews; stale, it is the bread of pappa col pomodoro, ribollita and panzanella.
It has been a PDO since 2016, under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/303, registered over objections from the United Kingdom and Belgium, which held the name to be generic. Its specification, amended in 2023 and 2025, is the recipe: soft wheat flour of type 0 (since 2023 also type 1 or 2) that keeps its germ, from wheat grown, stored and milled in Tuscany, with no additive; water; and lievito madre, with no salt. The lievito madre is first multiplied in a biga, for every kilo of flour at least 500 ml of water and 200 g of lievito madre, rested for at least eight hours. The dough then takes, for every kilo of flour, at least 550 ml of water and 200 g of biga; it rests at least 20 minutes, is divided, rests at least 15 minutes more, is shaped, and rises for at least two and a half hours before a full bake, which may be in a wood-fired oven. The loaves are the rhomboid filoncino of 0.20–0.50 kg and the filone, rectangular with rounded corners, of 0.90–1.10 or 1.80–2.20 kg, 5–12 cm thick, with a crisp, friable, matte crust the colour of dark hazelnut, a white to ivory crumb with irregular holes, a scent of toasted hazelnut and a saltless, slightly sour taste. Only bread made in Tuscany under the specification may be called Pane Toscano; the consortium that protects it is based in Arezzo. The specification gives no oven temperature and no baking time: this page scales it to one filone of about 1 kg, bakes it on a stone in a home oven with no steam, and marks its own numbers as Our guide. The protected bread's bakers rebuild their lievito madre from a specific one, fresh or freeze-dried, whose typical microbes are kept for the consortium by the University of Pisa; at home your own sourdough starter takes its place. Made with that starter and with flour you can buy, it is a home version, not the PDO.
- 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
- PDO ‘Pane Toscano’, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/303; specification amended by Regulation (EU) 2023/382 and by the standard amendment of 2025 (OJ C/2025/4523), consolidated text of 8 January 2025
- Sources
- Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 18 of 23 January 2025, pages 5–9: the decree of 8 January 2025 approving the standard amendment, with the consolidated PDO specification (Italian)
- EU Official Journal C/2025/4523 of 12 August 2025: the approved standard amendment, with the amended single document (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- EU Official Journal C 372 of 29 September 2022: the application to amend the PDO, with the single document as amended (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/382, approving the amendment (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/303, registering the PDO (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- EU Official Journal C 235 of 14 August 2013: the application to register the PDO, with its single document (EUR-Lex, Italian)
- Consorzio di Promozione e Tutela del Pane Toscano a Lievitazione Naturale: the history of Pane Toscano DOP, a leaflet on the Regione Toscana agriculture site (Italian)
- Qualigeo: Pane Toscano DOP, the product sheet of the Fondazione Qualivita (Italian)
Ingredienti
Ingredients
The day before, afternoon: refreshing the lievito madre (doesn't change with servings)
The day before, evening: the biga (doesn't change with servings)
The dough: one filone (doesn't change with servings)
Equipment
- Kitchen scale accurate to 1 g
- A lidded jar or container for the lievito madre, and a bowl for the biga
- A large bowl, or a stand mixer with a dough hook: the specification allows kneading by hand or by machine
- A dough scraper
- A heavy cotton or linen cloth, well floured, for the final rise
- A baking stone or steel, or a heavy baking tray, at least 35 cm long
- A peel or an upturned baking tray, and a razor blade or a very sharp knife
- Probe thermometer, for the water, the dough and the loaf
- Wire rack
Preparazione
Method
Two days, mostly waiting, and you need an active, firm sourdough starter. On the first day refresh the starter in the afternoon and let it double, 3–4 hours, then make the biga in the evening and leave it overnight, 8–12 hours. The second day takes 6–8 hours: about 15 minutes of kneading, rests of 20 and 15 minutes, the shaping, a final rise of 2½–4 hours (switch the oven on for its last hour), about an hour in the oven and at least 2 hours of cooling. You need about 780 g of flour in all (650 g for the dough, 100 g for the biga, 30 g for the refreshment), plus a little for dusting. The quantities make one filone of about 1 kg.
- 36 minhands-on
- 55 mincooking
- 2 daysfrom start to table
The day before, afternoon: the lievito madre
The specification raises the bread only with lievito madre: a portion of dough from an earlier bake, kept so that it slowly ferments and sours, and refreshed before it goes into a new dough. The protected bread's bakers rebuild theirs from a specific lievito madre, fresh or freeze-dried, whose typical microbes are kept for the consortium by the University of Pisa; at home, an active, firm sourdough starter of your own takes its place.
-
Hands-on 5 min
Knead 30 g of your active starter with 30 g of the flour and 15 ml of water into a smooth, firm ball. Put it in a lidded jar and mark its level on the side.
Check A smooth, firm ball, with its level marked.
Tip Our guide: the specification asks only that the lievito madre be suitably refreshed; these quantities make a firm starter, with half as much water as flour.
Tip For the lievito madre alone the specification allows a stronger flour than the dough's; the dough's own flour does just as well.
-
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, and smells pleasantly sour.
Tip Our guide: straight from the fridge a starter can be slow. If it has not doubled in 4 hours, refresh 30 g of it again the same way and wait once more.
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Hands-on 2 minOfficial text
At the end of the refreshments, set aside a portion of the dough, to keep the lievito madre for the next day.
Check 20 g weighed out for the biga; the rest in a closed jar in the fridge.
Tip Our guide: weigh out 20 g for the biga. The rest, about 55 g, goes into the fridge in a closed jar: it is your starter for the next bake.
The day before, evening: the biga
The biga, the first dough, multiplies the refreshed lievito madre overnight. Here it is scaled to one filone: 100 g of flour.
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Hands-on 5 minOfficial text
Knead the flour with water and lievito madre, in these proportions: to every kilo of flour, add at least 500 ml of water and at least 200 g of lievito madre.
Check A firm, smooth dough, with no dry flour left.
Tip Our guide: for this loaf, 100 g of flour, 50 ml of water and 20 g of lievito madre. Break the lievito madre into the water and squeeze it until it is softened, then add the flour and knead for 3–4 minutes.
Tip Our guide: put it in a bowl a little more than three times its size and cover it.
-
Rest 8–12 hTemp 18 °C–20 °COfficial text
Leave the biga to rest for no less than eight hours.
Check At least doubled, domed and full of bubbles, with a clean, mildly sour smell.
Tip Our guide: leave it overnight in a cool room, about 18 °C–20 °C, for 8–12 hours. At 18 °C it may need the full 12 hours; in a warmer kitchen it rises faster, so make it later in the evening.
The dough: kneading, dividing, shaping
The specification's dough, for every kilo of flour: at least 550 ml of water and at least 200 g of biga, and no salt. Here it is scaled to one filone of about 1 kg: 650 g of flour.
-
Hands-on 12–15 minOfficial text
Add the water and the biga to the flour, in these proportions: for every kilo of flour, at least 550 ml of water and at least 200 g of biga. Knead by hand or by machine.
Check Smooth and supple, no longer sticky, and it springs back slowly when pressed. A probe in the dough reads about 24 °C–26 °C.
Tip Our guide: for one filone, 650 g of flour, 360 ml of water at about 25 °C and all the biga, about 170 g. Tear the biga into the water and squeeze it until it dissolves, then add the flour.
Tip Our guide: knead by hand for 12–15 minutes, pushing the dough away with the heel of your hand and folding it back, or for 8–10 minutes at low speed with a dough hook.
Tip Our guide: with no salt the dough feels softer and slacker than you may be used to, and rises faster. If your flour drinks more water and the dough stays stiff, add up to 30 ml more: the specification's water is a minimum.
-
Rest 20–30 minOfficial text
Leave the dough to rest for at least twenty minutes.
Check Relaxed and a little puffy.
Tip Our guide: cover the bowl with a cloth, or turn it upside down over the dough on the board.
-
Hands-on 3 minOfficial text
Divide the dough into portions whose size depends on the weight and shape of the finished bread.
Check On the scale: about 1.2 kg of dough in one piece.
Tip Our guide: one filone of about 1 kg takes the whole batch, so weigh it and keep it in one piece. Round it loosely by folding the edges into the middle and turning it over.
-
Rest 15–20 minOfficial text
Leave the dough to rest for at least fifteen minutes, so that it takes in air.
Check Relaxed again: it spreads a little and a finger pressed in leaves a dent that fills back slowly.
Tip Our guide: under a cloth, on the board.
-
Hands-on 5 minOfficial text
Shape the portion into its loaf, by the weight and shape of the finished bread: for the filone, a rectangle with rounded corners.
Check An even, flat-topped block about 25 cm long, 11 cm wide and 4 cm high, with rounded corners and a smooth, taut top.
Tip Our guide: on a lightly floured board, press the dough evenly into a rectangle about 25 cm wide and 33 cm from front to back, a little over 1 cm thick. Fold the far third towards you over the middle, then the near third over it, like a letter: a block 25 cm long and about 11 cm wide. Seal the join with the heel of your hand.
Tip Our guide: turn it seam down, tuck the four corners under a little to round them, and smooth the top with flat hands. Do not push the sides in: the block should stay about 4 cm high.
The final rise
-
Rest 2 h 30 min to 4 hTemp 24 °C–26 °COfficial text
Leave the loaf to rest until it has reached its best rise, for no less than two hours and thirty minutes.
Check Grown by about three quarters to double, soft and airy; a floured finger leaves a dent that fills back slowly. If the dent stays, it has risen too far: bake it at once.
Tip Our guide: lay it seam up on a well-floured heavy cloth, pull the cloth up into pleats along both sides to hold its shape, cover it and keep it at about 24 °C–26 °C.
Tip Our guide: 2½ hours is the specification's minimum. Without salt the dough rises quickly, so start checking then; it rarely needs more than 4 hours.
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Hands-on 2 minTemp 240 °C
After the loaf has risen for about 1½ hours, put a baking stone, steel or heavy tray on the middle shelf and heat the oven to 240 °C. It needs at least 45 minutes.
Check When the loaf is ready, the oven shows 240 °C and has been heating for at least 45 minutes.
Tip Our guide: if the loaf is ready before the oven has had its 45 minutes, move it somewhere cooler while you wait.
Baking
-
Hands-on 2 minTemp 240 °COfficial text
Put the risen loaf in the oven to bake. A wood-fired oven may be used.
Check The loaf is on the stone, cut along its length, and the door is shut within a minute.
Tip Our guide: turn it out of the cloth onto the peel or upturned tray, well dusted with flour, seam down. With a razor blade or sharp knife make one cut about 1 cm deep along its length, then slide it straight onto the hot stone with a quick jerk.
Tip Our guide: if you would rather use baking paper, choose one rated to at least 250 °C and trim it to the size of the loaf.
Tip Our guide: add no steam. The specification's crust is matte, and steam makes a crust glossy.
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Cooking 15 minTemp 240 °C
Bake for 15 minutes at 240 °C. The specification asks for a complete bake but gives no temperature or time: these are Our guide.
Check The loaf has risen, the cut has opened, and the crust has set and is starting to colour.
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Cooking 40–45 minTemp 210 °C
Turn the oven down to 210 °C and bake for 40–45 minutes more, until it is baked right through.
Check The crust is the colour of dark hazelnut, matte, dry and crisp all over; the base sounds hollow when tapped, and a probe in the centre reads 96 °C–98 °C.
Tip Our guide: if the crust is still pale at 40 minutes, give it 5 minutes more; the bread should smell of toasted hazelnut.
-
Rest 2 h
Lift the loaf onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely, at least 2 hours, before you cut it.
Check Cool to the touch, the crust crisp and friable. Cut, the crumb is white to ivory, with irregular holes, and the loaf stands between 5 cm and 12 cm thick.
Tip Our guide: a large loaf goes on setting as it cools; cut warm, the crumb is gummy.
Tip A loaf of a kilo or more is best eaten the day after baking.
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
- KeepingConservazione
- Leavened with sourdough, it keeps free of mould for 6–7 days, which is why the Tuscan dishes made with stale bread, such as pappa col pomodoro, ribollita, zuppa toscana and panzanella, are made with it. Source
- VariantsVarianti
- Filoncino: The specification's small loaf: rhomboid in shape, of 200 g–500 g, with a margin of 15–20% either way. Source
- The large filone: The same rectangular loaf with rounded corners, of 1.8 kg–2.2 kg. Source
- With type 1 or type 2 flour: Since 2023 the specification also allows less refined soft wheat flours of type 1 or type 2, milled with rollers or with stones; the crumb is then an even amber. Source
Errori comuni
Common mistakes
- Adding salt. Pane Toscano is sciocco: the specification leaves salt out of the dough altogether.
- Raising it with brewer's yeast: the specification uses only lievito madre, multiplied in a biga.
- Cutting the biga short: it rests for at least 8 hours before it goes into the dough.
- Cutting the last rise short: the shaped loaf rises for at least 2½ hours, and then until the finger test says it is ready.
- Using a strong bread flour: the specification's flour is a weak soft wheat flour (W 140–230 in the Chopin test) with its germ.
- Baking it with steam, or taking it out pale: the crust should be crisp, matte and the colour of dark hazelnut.
Fuori dall'Italia
Cooking it outside Italy
- Only bread made in Tuscany, from soft wheat grown, stored and milled there, under the specification, is Pane Toscano. Anywhere else the same method makes a home version, not the PDO.
- Look for an Italian soft wheat flour, tipo 0, ideally one sold ‘con germe di grano’, with its germ. Outside Italy, an unbleached plain (all-purpose) flour with nothing added is closer to the specification's weak flour than strong bread flour: the specification allows no additive in the flour.
- The specification raises the bread only with lievito madre. If you have no sourdough starter, a piece from a bakery that keeps one can begin your refreshment.
- A wood-fired oven is allowed; a home oven with a baking stone is the home version.
