Pane e Pace

Wood fire and Pane di Matera

Pane e Pace has baked in Matera for more than a hundred years, and the Perrone family still builds everything around one loaf: Pane di Matera, the bread protected under European law by its PGI, the Protected Geographical Indication. The name means bread and peace, and the house takes it literally, holding that bread is made in the quiet of the night as the bakers move through mixing, shaping, weighing, forming, fermentation, baking and drawing the loaves out. The flour is 100% Lucan durum wheat semolina, including the heritage Cappelli variety, with no additives, preservatives or industrial shortcuts. Even the fuel is local: fascine, bundles of underbrush and pruned olive wood, fire the oven. Gambero Rosso has awarded the bakery Tre Pani, including a sixth consecutive year as the best bread in Basilicata in 2024, alongside the Guardiano del Gusto 2024 award from Confesercenti Verona.

The visit follows the rhythm of the bread

This is a bakery first, and its day is shaped by night production. The dough is semolina, water, selected salt, lievito madre and a small amount of beer yeast: the sourdough carries the slow fermentation while the yeast assists it. The grain comes from the surrounding area, ancient local wheat milled artisanally in local mills so the flour keeps its nutritional profile. The oven is the other half of the argument. Pane e Pace presents itself as the only wood-fired oven in Basilicata, and the forno a legna is what gives crust and aroma their character once fermentation has done its work. Nothing here is arranged for lingering. The counter exists so the bread can leave it.

Start with the bread

Order Pane di Matera. The formula is narrow by design, and the narrowness is the flavour: durum wheat semolina with a share of local grain varieties, lievito madre, a little beer yeast, water and selected salt. Lucan semolina and Cappelli grain give the loaf its territorial identity, and the additive-free method keeps attention on wheat, fermentation and wood fire rather than on enhancers. After the bread, take the traditional Matera biscuits, baked once the loaves come out of the oven and running both sweet and savoury, tarallucci e vino and companatico among them. Focaccia and rustici cover the savoury end. There are no cakes, no croissants and no developed coffee menu, and that is the point: the programme is bread-led, with biscuits and rustic bakes arranged around it.