You either love it or hate it.
What some consider to be nothing more than enriched bread, a ‘sober’ preparation, like the people of Lucca themselves, is for many a refined and delicate dessert, versatile in its simplicity and available in a thousand different variations. It can be toasted, frozen, accompanied by sweet or savoury foods, prepared for breakfast, as a snack or at the end of a meal, a sweet bread to be shared.
However, buccellato undoubtedly remains the most representative dessert in the history of Lucca's cuisine. It is the classic Sunday morning purchase, taken home for lunch tucked under the arm. Without renouncing its classic ring shape, today it can also be purchased in more practical loaves.
Buccellato di Lucca derives its name from the Latin buccella, meaning bite: for the ancient Romans, buccellatum was a round bread formed from a crown of rolls or buccellae.
The buccellato par excellence, from the De.C.O product catalogue of the Municipality of Lucca, is the one produced by the historic Taddeuccipastry shop, the “Fabbrica del buccellato” since 1881.
With simple ingredients and a distinctive flavour, buccellato prides itself on not using animal fats (eggs, milk, butter) or vegetable fats (oil).
Flour, sugar, aniseed and raisins. Its strength lies in the sourdough starter, which has been preserved for five generations, refreshed and handed down through the family. It is this precious ingredient that makes buccellato so fragrant.
The recipe dates back to the great-great-grandfather, represents the city like the panther, is the typical product par excellence, and has been featured several times in international newspapers and programmes, including the New York Times and the Times.
After tasting it in the shop in Piazza San Michele, she included it in her book
One of the “1000 foods to eat before you die” for food critic Mimi Sheraton, who recognises buccellato as one of those flavours that, at least once in a lifetime, must be encountered, as did Giacomo Puccini, Prince Charles of England, who visited the city in 1986, and Pope John Paul II, who received it as a gift in the Vatican.
