Panetteria Fagnola dal 1923

Natural leavening, stone-milled and organic

The bread is built on lievitazione naturale and a grain list far wider than one white loaf: organic stone-milled Kamut, farro, segale and grano duro alongside Type 1, Type 2 and wholemeal flours. Ancient grains, rye and durum wheat give the shelf its character, and everything is made on site, a point the bakery states plainly with its produzione propria label.

That approach has been recognised regionally, with the bakery listed as an eccellenza artigiana for Piemonte, and it sits naturally in Bra, the town most closely tied to Slow Food. Organic flours, slow fermentation and seasonal baking are local orthodoxy here rather than a selling point, which is part of why the counter feels unhurried about explaining itself.

A century of the same family

Panetteria Fagnola has been baking in Bra since 1923 and is now in its third generation, with one half of the family at the ovens and the other running the pastry side and the business. The line is direct rather than revived: the current generation grew up in the same bakery their parents worked in, on the same road, which is a rarer thing than a founding date on a sign.

The building adds to the impression, a red Bolognese villa just beyond Bra's dense centre, closer to a local institution than a shopfront. Gambero Rosso awarded the bakery Tre Pani for 2026, its top mark for bread, and it is the recognition that fits the work best.

Panettone, biscotteria and the savoury case

Seasonal leavened cakes are the showpiece. Panettone and colomba are made with the same organic stone-milled flours, butter, extra-virgin olive oil, good vanilla and canditi di produzione propria, candied fruit the bakery makes itself, which is where the craft extends past fermentation into the ingredients.

The biscuit range runs to about thirty types, including latte e camomilla and the savoiardi that end up in tiramisu, while the fresh pastry side adds semifreddi, bavarese and fruit cakes, up to the torte monumentali built for celebrations. On the savoury shelf, small puff pastries come filled with sausage and mustard, ricotta and spinach, mozzarella and tomato, or potato. Food Box selections change with the calendar, so what is on the counter shifts with whichever ricorrenza is closest.