WTI Magazine #66    2015 August, 21
Author : Elda Buonanno Foley      Translation by:

When you ask for the bill at an Italian restaurant, you might raise your eyebrows by seeing an item called "pane e coperto". With this, we indicate the fee related to having eaten at the restaurant and for having had the pre-dinner bread. Yes, the delicious slices of bread that the waiter serves you as you initially sit, are included in your bill: the point I am making is not that you have to pay for the bread but rather how important bread is in our tradition and our diet. Here is why I have decided to stop at "the bakery" and look into the relevance of bread for us Italians and the role of this stereotype in the Italian diet.

First of all let me present some interesting perspectives. According to the latest data, in Italy we produce almost 72.000 tons of bread daily. Despite this very high number, Italy is only 19th in the list of countries that consume bread while Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Switzerland, Poland and many other countries precede Italy in the amount of bread per capita.

Even if the bread holds a relevant role in our diet, we have passed from 1 kg per person daily in the 19th Century to 90 grams per person in 2015: the huge drop is obviously due to substantial changes in the Italian diet and the presence of several substitutes such as rice cakes, crackers and so forth. Despite all that, we do love our bread that comes in so many varieties and shapes. The reality is that wherever you go to in Italy, you can appreciate many different forms and typical examples such as the Pan Rustegh (Lombardy), the Lingua di Suocera (Piedmont), Pane di Terni (Umbria), Pane cafone and Pane with Olives ( Campania), Pane Toscano ( very peculiar as it has no salt – Tuscany), Pane di Altamura (Puglia), Pane di Matera (Basilicata), Pane Polifermo (Abruzzo), Pan de Frizze (Friuli Venezia Giulia), Coppa Ferrarese and Focaccia (Emilia Romagna), and so many others.

I guess the short list can exemplify how varied the choice is and how relevant the presence of so many varieties is. They testify to the essential role of this symbolic, extremely old food omnipresent on the Italian table and in Italian recipes. It is always eaten fresh or reused into our dishes, as, to waste it, would "offend" the basic rule of the entire culture: bread to Italians is a symbol of being, of ethnicity. A meal would not feel or be complete unless there is bread on the table: and, to tell the truth, how delicious it is to finish up our juicy dish by "cleaning up" the plate with the slice of bread ("la scarpetta").

However, the old generation would scream in horror to know that nowadays, at the end of the day, the bread that is not sold in the supermarket (more than 13.000 tons per day) is returned to the producers who often cannot reuse it and thus need to throw it away. As a matter of law, in fact, at the closure of the shops, the unsold bread is considered "a waste". Anyway, these pages are not used to do propaganda or as a political manifesto: the interest is only to focus on the importance of this simple item that brings with it centuries of traditions, uses and customs, habits of an old people who still feel that bread is "essential", a symbol of security, a balance and friendship: "c"e' sempre un pezzo di pane". And there is always a "piece of bread" in our homes!