Marinato

Panpolenta and the corn thread

The loaf that explains Marinato fastest is panpolenta, a bread built on maize that ties the bakery to the corn country around it. Grissini al mais run the same thread in a thinner, crisper form. Around them sit the naturally leavened everyday breads and a line of heritage-grain loaves, milled from organic stone-ground flours, and the whole counter is worked with the fermentation control the shop is known for: mother yeast, cold techniques, long rests, and flour chosen for character rather than convenience. It is a bakery that treats grain as the variable worth arguing about, which is rarer than it sounds.

A hundred years, three generations, one counter

The bakery opened in 1924 under Ezio Marinato’s grandparents, passed through his parents, and has been run by him and his family since 1985. It is a panificio pasticceria in the plain sense: production at the front of the operation, a counter at the front of the shop, and no restaurant ambitions attached to either. The town is small and the shop functions as its bread supply, which is the useful thing to know before making the trip. What is unusual is the technical weight behind it. Ezio Marinato won the European bakery championship at Bulle in 2002 and the first Mondial du Pain in Lyon in 2007, was made a Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere in 2016, joined Richemont Club Italia in the 1990s, has taught on ALMA’s bakery programme and wrote Farina d’Autore. That record is why he is talked about as one of Italy’s leading bread specialists rather than simply a good local baker.

What to buy

Panpolenta first, then a heritage-grain loaf, and you have the two breads the bakery is actually known for. Grissini al mais are the thing to take away for the table and the easiest to carry home. If the visit falls near Christmas or Easter, the panettone and colomba are the reason people drive here, since a large leavened dough is where a baker’s handling of natural leaven shows most plainly and this is a shop that has spent decades on exactly that. Gambero Rosso rates it Tre Pani, the guide’s highest mark for an Italian bakery. The pastry side of the counter is worth a look while you wait, but the bread is what the reputation is built on.