Typical Lucanian baked goods: what to try and where to find them
Basilicata tells its story through its ovens, too. Bread, taralli, biscuits and festive sweets change from one village to the next, but certain ingredients keep coming back: durum wheat, olive oil, wine, fig syrup, crusco pepper. In this short guide we introduce the best-known typical Lucanian baked goods and the ones we take out of our oven every day in Irsina, in the province of Matera, as we have since 1947.
Bread: durum wheat and a crunchy crust
The most famous Lucanian baked product is pane di Matera, which has PGI status and is known for its crunchy crust and soft crumb. Lucanian bread is generally made with durum wheat flour, salt and natural leaven, and in many villages it has its own shape and name: from the strazzata of Avigliano, a Slow Food Presidium, to the breads of the inland villages.
We bake fresh bread and focaccia for anyone who stops by our shop in Piazza Maritain, in Irsina. Online, instead, you will find the treats that keep for a long time and travel well.
Taralli and cangelle: savoury snacks to nibble
The tarallo is at home all over southern Italy, from Puglia to Calabria, and Basilicata has its own versions. Ours are called cangelle: a dough made with olive oil and white wine, flavoured in the traditional recipe with fennel seeds and rosemary.
Today we make them in twelve flavours. If you are looking for the ones that taste most of Basilicata, start with the crusco pepper cangelle and the crusco pepper and onion ones. You will find them all in the Savoury treats collection.
Sweets made with fig syrup
Among the oldest flavours of Lucanian sweets is cotto di fichi, a fig syrup that many here call vincotto: a dark syrup made by slowly cooking ripe figs for a long time. It is the key ingredient of festive sweets, from cartellate to mostaccioli.
In our bakery it becomes vincotto pezzetti, with durum wheat semolina, unsweetened cocoa and cinnamon, and vincotto mostaccioli, which we also make with four different coatings. We tell you all about them in the article Mostaccioli and vincotto bites.
Everyday biscuits
Alongside the festive sweets there are the simple ones, to keep in the cupboard:
- wine taralli, sweet, with white wine, olive oil, cinnamon and lemon;
- egg mastaccere, made with just flour, sugar, eggs and raising agent;
- taralli quaresimali, with olive oil and eggs;
- almond pastries, fragrant with cinnamon and lemon.
Where to buy Lucanian baked goods
If you are in Basilicata, come and see us in Irsina, at our shop in Piazza Maritain. If you are far away, you can order our treats here on the website and have them delivered anywhere in Italy: our Sweet treats, our Savoury treats and, for the holidays, our panettoni.
Ingredients, allergens, weight and shelf life are always listed on each product page. If you have any questions, you can write to us from the Contact page.