P
Italian · Naples
Pane Cafone Napoletano con Pasta Madre
Naples' rough country bread — 'cafone' means peasant or rough — a sourdough bread with a thick, chewy crust and a moist, irregular open crumb, made from a blend of type '0' flour and semola rimacinata with natural leaven (pasta madre). The bread is shaped into large rounds (1.5–2kg), scored deeply across the top with a single slash, and baked in a wood-fired deck oven at high temperature. The crust is the defining element — thick, almost leathery, with a deep caramel colour and a slight bitterness from the high-temperature bake. Pane cafone holds for 3–4 days and is the daily bread of Neapolitan tables.
I
The Market List
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For the dough
700 g
Type '0' flour
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
300 g
Semola rimacinata (twice-milled durum semolina)
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 g
Pasta madre (stiff natural leaven)
maintained at 50% hydration
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
680 ml
Water
approximately 68% hydration; adjust to flour absorption
Your own market
20 g
Fine sea salt
Your own market
For finishing
1 tbsp
Semola rimacinata
for dusting the scoring slash
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
II
The Method
1
Combine the type '0' flour and semola rimacinata in a large bowl. Disperse the pasta madre in the water, then add to the flours. Mix until no dry flour remains, then work the dough by hand for 10–12 minutes until it is smooth, cohesive, and pulls cleanly from the bowl. Add the salt in the final 2 minutes of mixing. The dough should feel supple and slightly tacky, not sticky — it holds its shape when cupped in the hand.
2
Cover the dough and allow it to ferment at room temperature for 3–4 hours, folding the dough over itself every 45 minutes for the first two hours. The dough is ready to shape when it has increased visibly in volume, feels aerated rather than dense under the hand, and a small piece dropped in water floats within 30 seconds.
3
Turn the dough onto an unfloured surface and shape it into a tight round by pulling the sides underneath, building surface tension with each fold. The shaped loaf should feel taut across the top with no slack skin — press lightly with a fingertip; the indentation should spring back slowly but fully. Place seam-side down in a well-floured proving basket or bowl lined with a floured cloth.
4
Cover the basket loosely and refrigerate at 4°C for 12–16 hours. This is where the bread lives or dies: insufficient cold fermentation produces a bland, structurally weak loaf with neither the flavour complexity nor the keeping quality that define pane cafone. The fully fermented loaf, when removed from the refrigerator, will have expanded measurably and carry a distinct sour-yeasty aroma at the surface.
5
Place a cast iron Dutch oven (or baking stone and a pan of boiling water) in the oven and heat to 270–280°C for at least 45 minutes. Remove the cold loaf from the refrigerator, invert it onto a sheet of baking paper, and make a single deep slash across the top with a lame or razor blade at a shallow angle. Dust the slash with semola rimacinata. The score must be decisive and deep — a tentative cut will close in the oven and deny the crust its characteristic split.
6
Lower the loaf on its paper into the preheated Dutch oven, cover with the lid, and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on — the trapped steam delays crust formation and allows maximum oven spring. Remove the lid and continue baking for a further 25–30 minutes. The bread is done when the crust is a deep, uniform caramel-to-dark brown — not pale, not uniform beige — and the loaf, when tapped on its underside, returns a resonant hollow knock.
7
Transfer the loaf immediately to a wire rack. Allow it to cool for a minimum of 2 hours before cutting. The interior crumb continues to set during this period; bread cut before cooling produces a gummy, collapsed crumb that misrepresents the loaf entirely. The cooled bread will yield a thick, leathery crust and a moist, open, irregular crumb with a mild but distinct tang.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Pasta madre of demonstrated age and stability, maintained at 50% hydration stiff leaven; stone-milled type '0' flour from a single Italian mill; coarsely re-milled durum semola from Puglia or Campania; baked in a wood-fired deck oven at 270–280°C.
02
Estate — A well-maintained stiff pasta madre of at least several months; commercial stone-ground type '0' flour blended with quality semola rimacinata; baked in a domestic oven at maximum temperature in a preheated cast iron Dutch oven.
03
Market — An active pasta madre of any age; standard supermarket type '0' flour and semola rimacinata; full cold fermentation observed; Dutch oven method with preheated vessel.
04
House — Any active natural leaven at any hydration; plain strong white bread flour in place of type '0'; the fermentation, scoring, and cooling disciplines observed regardless of flour quality — these are the non-negotiable procedures.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. The shaped loaf feels taut across the surface with no slack skin; a fingertip indent springs back slowly but completely.
◇Smell. The cold-proved loaf carries a distinct sour-yeasty aroma at the surface when removed from the refrigerator after 12–16 hours.
◇Sight. The baked crust is deep caramel to dark brown across its entire surface, with the scoring slash open and dramatically split.
◇Sound. The underside of the loaf, when tapped with a knuckle, returns a resonant, hollow knock — a dense thud indicates an under-baked interior.
◇Where it lives or dies. The cold fermentation of 12–16 hours at 4°C is the interval the bread cannot shortcut: it is the sole source of the loaf's flavour complexity, its keeping quality of 3–4 days, and the structural strength that allows the crust to form correctly at high heat.
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VI
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