Il Toscano

Lievito madre and ancient grains in Corato

Bread here starts with lievito madre and slow natural leavening, and the grain list is where the bakery makes its argument: Pane di grano antico, Pane di segale and Pane di semola di grano duro, with grissini made from pure Cappelli wheat and stone-milled rye behind them. The savoury signature is Pane Guanciale di Norcia IGP, which works Norcia guanciale, Pecorino Romano DOP and black pepper into the loaf and ties protected-origin ingredients to the fermentation. Il Toscano opened in 2015, founded by a Tuscan baker who settled in Puglia and co-owned with his wife; the name is a direct nod to those roots, and the project was framed locally as a small revolution for Corato, trading industrial shortcuts for traditional method and local raw materials. Gambero Rosso awarded it Tre Pani in 2026.

A daily bread counter with a pastry corner

Read the counter through the bread first, then work outwards. Beside the loaves sit focaccia, both the traditional version and one made with farro and tomatoes, and grissini for the table. The sweet corner is small but distinct: brioche vuote filled with pistachio or chocolate granita, and bombe fritte with caramel chocolate cream and locally candied orange. Panettone arrives with the season. The bakery sits inside the food culture of Bari province rather than apart from it, and the Tuscan method is what makes it read as an outsider’s discipline applied locally. Vegetarian choices run through the range, and the bakery also sells online for home delivery, so the specialities travel beyond Bari province while the shop itself stays a neighbourhood counter.

How to order

Approach Il Toscano as a working bakery rather than a restaurant: choose from the day’s breads, focaccia, grissini, brioche and fried pastries instead of expecting a sequence of courses. For a savoury order, the Pane Guanciale di Norcia IGP or a slab of focaccia are the clearest choices, and the farro and tomato version is the one that shows the grain thinking in a format you can eat standing up. For bread to take home, choose by grain: grano antico for ancient wheat character, segale for something darker and denser, semola di grano duro for the southern Italian standard. For something sweet, the brioche with pistachio or chocolate granita and the bombe fritte with caramel chocolate cream carry the same artisan approach into pastry.