Pasticceria Agricola Cilentana Pietro Macellaro

Pastry grown on a Cilento farm

Pietro Macellaro calls what he does pasticceria agricola, and the phrase is literal: a four-hectare farm at the foot of Monte Cervati supplies much of what reaches the counter at Piaggine. Certified organic fruit and vegetables, aromatic herbs, indigenous grains, extra virgin olive oil, buffalo milk, forgotten fruits and wildflowers come off it, and specific inputs recur, among them Grano Carosella, water from Monte Cervati and Cilento honey.

The shop itself is modern in design, with cakes, single portions, macarons and pralines set out in refined counters and retail as the main stage rather than a café. Behind it runs a three-generation family line of pastry chefs that began with a grandfather of the same name, and training that included a 2006 diploma from the Boscolo Étoile Academy.

Leavened doughs, and a chocolate room behind them

The range is pastry-led rather than bread-led: lievitati, panettoni, colombe, Panbrigante, Pan Fico, bauletti, pandoro, babà, torte, torte da viaggio, monoporzioni, biscotti, creams, confetture and preserves under glass. Panbrigante is the anchor, a pioneering leavened dough enriched with honey, local figs and buffalo butter, its name drawn from the brigand history of the South.

The panettoni are where the ingredient thinking is most visible. Panettone Figue is a natural-yeast panettone filled with salted caramel cream and fig leaf, with no raisins or candied citrus peel; a version agrodolce also drops both; and another is filled with candied Pellecchiella apricot from Vesuvius. Seasonal work pairs chocolate with Cilento white figs or Aglianico. Chocolate is a programme in its own right, running to tablets, cremini, pralines, barrette, dragées and boxed assortments, with Boero, Piura Buffalo Cream and Orchidea del Parco among the named pieces, plus marzipan and bean-to-bar work.

Start with the Panbrigante

Order the Panbrigante first. It is the piece that explains the rest, a leavened dough carrying honey, figs and buffalo butter straight from the surrounding farmland, and it makes the agricultural argument more directly than any single portion could.

Then take a panettone if the season allows, choosing the Figue for its salted caramel and fig leaf, and finish in the chocolate. Macellaro holds Tre Torte in the Gambero Rosso Pasticcerie d'Italia guide, with the same rating in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and took two silvers at the International Chocolate Awards in 2016 along with a gold for an unflavoured dark chocolate ganache. That last award is the useful pointer: buy a plain dark piece before a flavoured one.