Dark bread of Castelvetrano

This time I wanted to introduce you a tasty and delicious typical food of Sicily, namely the dark bread ofCastelvetrano.  I really would like you to eat this bread because it is prepared with  the most ancient and healthy flour of Sicily. That is the food traditionally prepared and eaten in the small town of Castelvetrano, placed in the province of Trapani, in the beautiful valley of Belice, near Selinunte. Why this is a healthy Sicilian food? The answer is very simple: because it is made with whole grain flour, namely with the flour you get from the entire corn of an ancient Sicilian hard wheat called tumminia or timilia.

There are nearly 50 varieties of ancient hard wheat in the world. The most famous and healthy of these are in Sicily. They are: Timilia, Rossello, Rusulidda,  Stracciavisazzi, Perciasacchi and tender wheat Maiorca. In Sicily, the most appreciated is timilia variety, just the kind of corn used to prepare the famous and delicious dark bread of Castelvetrano. That is a soft, delicious and scented bread, also called black bread of Castelvetrano or pane nero di Castelvetrano. In Sicily, we also call this food: brown bread ofCastelvetrano. The external crumb is usually covered with sesame seeds.

This bread is soft and scented, with dark crumb. This color depends on the flour obtained from the hard wheat timilia. This typical bread can also be prepared with the local flour called rusulidda. This corn is not refined as the other flours and contains all of the substances we must eat daily through a healthy diet. The dark bread of Castelvetrano also contains and has the same healthy properties of the corn Timilia and Rusulidda, hence mineral salts and vitamins, above all, the Vitamin E, which is in the corn.

We can also say that the Vitamin E is just in the core of the corn, sorry for my word game, I am not a native English speaker, but only a Sicilian writer who loves promoting the best Sicilian food in the world. If you eat some pieces of Dark bread of Castelvetrano, you will feel immediately the difference with the one you eat usually. Apart that the dark bread of Castelvetrano is very tasteful and fairly delicious, but unlike other kind of bread, you’ll feel immediately a great energy after eating it! With this bread you’ll take the best substances in your body to keep you healthy and strong. Vitamin E of this bread is rich in antioxidants that prevent aging , cancer and heart diseases.

The unique problem you can have by eating this bread is a slight stomach pain which occurs only if you suffer from IBS. The external peel of the corn, in fact, is a strong fiber that a flamed bowel is unable to adsorb. However, the same dark bread of Castelvetrano can prevent IBS because it is prepared with natural yeast obtained from the leavening of the timilia flour. After my information about the dark bread of Castelvetrano, it is the time to prepare it at your home.

How can you prepare this fantastic and delicious Sicilian bread? To prepare it, you need Sicilian timilia flour, extra virgin olive oil, salt and natural yeast. The latter must be prepared by using the mixture of timilia flour. To prepare the mixture: use a kg of flour, pour a couple of water glasses onto it and knead until you have obtained a smooth and dense dough. Take a small piece of the mixture and keep it in the fridger for 24 hours, at least.

I suggest that you cover the piece with a napkin, in order to foster its fermentation. After a day, pull away from the fridge the piece of dough to check if it smells. If the smell is fairly perceivable, nearly acid and disgusting, it means that you have obtained the natural yeast to be used for preparing the craved and famous dark bread of Castelvetrano. Use the mixture you prepared to create the natural yeast . In Sicily, this yeast is also called “crescente”. Add this yeast to the mixture where you added a spoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and two water glasses. Merge this carefully. Check that you obtained a dense mixture and leave to ferment for 24 hours.

Don’t shorten this duration because this endangers the quality of the bread and make it hard to digest After the leavening, cut some pieces from the dough and shape the typical bread of Castelvetrano, namely round loaves. Bake at 180 degrees until the loaves become crisp and brown. After this procedure, you can eat the dark bread of Castelvetrano. The unique limitation of this recipe are the kind of baking and the flour. The dark bread of Castelvetrano is prepared with stone oven and the flour must always be milled through stone.

This bread is absolutely delicious if flavored with salted sardines, tomatoes, original oil of the Valley of Belice and origan. This recipe is also called “Pani Cunzatu”, namely: “flavored bread” (see the image). If you want to prepare the dark bread of Castelvetrano, you can buy whole flour, namely the original and organic Timilia flour from Castelvetrano, here.

After preparing this delicious Sicilian bread, also send me a comment to share your experience. Thanks in advance.

Sources of the images: Castelvetranoselinunte.it Forum del Belice