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1
Warm 40 ml of the olive oil in a wide, heavy pot over a medium flame. Add the crushed garlic and peperoncino and cook, stirring, until the garlic is pale gold and the oil is fragrant — do not allow the garlic to brown.
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2
Add the tomatoes and all the wild herbs — borragine, cicoria, cime di rapa — along with enough water or broth to cover. Season with salt. Bring to a steady simmer and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes. The broth should taste deep and rounded, the herbs fully wilted and the tomato broken down before the bread enters the pot.
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3
Add the torn stale bread in pieces. Stir vigorously and continuously as the bread absorbs the liquid; the stirring motion breaks the bread down to a uniform texture. Add a little more water if the mass seizes too quickly. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: the bread must be truly stale — three days old or more — so that it absorbs cleanly and dissolves into the broth rather than collapsing into a gluey paste. Cook, stirring, for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
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4
The pancotto is ready when it mounds on a spoon without running and holds its shape briefly before settling — the consistency of a thick, coarse porridge. It must be firm enough to eat with a fork.
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5
Remove the pot from the heat. Pour over the remaining 40 ml of raw olive oil, stir once to incorporate, and taste for salt and chilli heat. The raw oil is not a garnish — it is structural to the dish and must go in off the heat.