The Best Bakery in Italy – Forno F. Casali

Lucca

Lucca is a lovely little-walled city about an hour and a half drive from Florence.

We were lucky to have visited frequently last year when we were based only ten minutes away in Massarosa. This trip we were based in Barga for the week, with Lucca just over a half hour away, and even though we had covered most of the city by foot before, we had to make one trip in to visit a couple of our favourite spots.
The first place to start our day off right would be the gorgeous and old Di Simo Caffe for a delicious coffee. Rounding the corner our excitement was quickly dashed seeing the gates pulled shut over its ornate wooden facade, closed for holidays.
No problem, there is lots of coffee to be found but none with an interior quite as beautiful as Di Simo.
With a quick coffee from across the way, we moved on to see if anything had changed since our last visit.
Not too far down the road we noticed the Basilica of San Frediano, that was previously being renovated, had now been reopened and we thought we better take a look.

Clean and polished

Although they were still not 100% done, the church was clean and polished but the real treat was the freshly restored original artwork that was as crisp and vibrant as the day it was painted.

Another screaming hot day, it was also wonderful to escape the sun into the refuge of the cool and quiet church.
Back on the street, it was business as usual for Lucca with long lines for all the attractions and bustling cafes feeding the masses.
We were getting hungry so we decided to make our way to Forno F. Casali, our favourite bakery in Italy and the main reason we made the drive into Lucca.

Forno F. Casali

Forno F. Casali is a very non-descript little bakery hidden on a side street, which most tourists miss because they are staring up at Torre Guinigi that can be seen above the buildings. Parting the bead curtain to get inside you could be underwhelmed by the simple interior but the patient line of locals tells you that something special is being done here. Behind the counter, stacks of different types of bread, fresh from the oven are there for you to choose from but it is their focaccia that is ordered by the majority. In fact, it’s so popular that it is constantly being baked and sent straight out to a cutting board where it is cut to the size of your liking and wrapped up still piping hot. There are two types of focaccia to choose from; the traditional flat and slightly chewy one, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, or the unique and sublime corn focaccia. As if that was not good enough, they also use these two breads as a base for their pizza, served the same way, cut to size fresh from the oven.
As luck would have it, just as it was our turn to order, a piping hot corn focaccia pizza was slid into place right in front of us, lunch was served.

Corn focaccia

Sitting on the steps of the house next door, with a bag of fresh corn focaccia and two slices of piping hot corn pizza in hand, we drew the attention of many passing tourists as we waited for it to cool down enough to eat.
Finishing my slice of heaven, I decided that I was going to try and get the recipe for this special bread and headed back into the bakery. At first, the staff thought I was going to complain but with a few broken words of Italian, I explained to them how much we loved the corn focaccia and would love to know the recipe. Laughing, the girl told me to wait and she went to get the owner. Minutes later the owner arrived with her curious husband, the baker, who poked his nose out of the kitchen door to see who was trying to steal his recipe.

After assuring her that I was not the competition from down the street but just a huge fan and curious blogger she let her guard down and was flattered that we would have driven from Barga for some of her bread.
“So, what about telling me the recipe?” I asked.

She laughed and turned to her husband repeating in Italian what I had just said. The baker stepped forward and, making a slashing motion across his arm, said in Italian “I would have to cut my wrist because there is no recipe, it runs in my veins!”

For 43 years

He told us that the bread has been baked by him for 43 years, and by his family for generations before him. There are no recipes, he just bakes from memory and by feel.
Actually, his wife explained, even if there was a recipe you still could not make it because it is the ingredients that make it special. Disappearing into the kitchen for a second she returned with a scoop of the dry mix that they make to prepare the corn focaccia.

A mixture of corn flour

She told me that it is a mixture of corn flour from the local formenton variety of corn (also used to make the incredible local polenta) regular flour, sunflower seeds and a very unique type of puffed corn kernel.
“This is what makes it good!” she said
“…but you will never find these ingredients anywhere but right here.”
“I’m disappointed,” I said “I really wanted to make this focaccia for my friends back in Canada”
“You’re from Canada?! Canada is a beautiful country! There are lots of Italians there you know.” she exclaimed. “I would love to go to Canada some day but…” and she raised her hands to indicate she had a bakery to run.

By now many of the local customers had stopped to listen to our conversation and she proudly explained to them that these “cooks not mad” from Canada loved her bread and wanted her recipe. There were laughs and smiles all around and a couple of them responded to us with “Si, molto bene!”
Disappearing to the back again she called out to her husband in Italian and we heard them have a conversation. Sticking her head out of the kitchen she smiled like she was up to something and motioned for us to wait. A minute later she arrived from the back with her husband and staff and hoisted two straining bags onto the counter.
“A present for our lovely Canadian friends,” she said with a huge smile.  “Take back to Canada and enjoy with our compliments. Five kilos should be enough?”
“Five kilos?!” I said, peeking into the bag to see the special corn focaccia dry mix.

I politely responded

“No that’s too much” I politely responded in Italian but she insisted, and loaded the two five pound bags into our hands. She then handed me a ball of raw dough so that I could see how it was sticky and soft not dry and firm.
“One kilo of the mix with 15 grams of brewers yeast and enough water to make a dough like this. There’s your recipe!” she said smiling.
With a “Mille grazie” to everyone, we bid farewell to the best bakery in Italy. Where else but in this wonderful country, filled with kindest and most generous people, would you ask for a recipe and get 5 kilos of the real deal, that’s amore!