Il Forno del Borgo

With his sales manager Claudio, Mauro Maritano produces bread and baked goods in Bertassi di Avigliana, a tiny village near the town of the same name. He uses cereals such as wheat, rye, buckwheat, oats and Senatore Cappelli durum wheat, all grown with certified organic methods. His breads are distinguished by the fact that they are made with stone-ground flours, leavened with sourdough and baked in a wood oven. For some he adopts “’l leva” a traditional Piedmontese technique, already known to the ancient Egyptians, whereby a small piece of the day’s dough is kept and used the day after to make new bread, thus ensuring flavour, digestibility and better keepability.

Family bread recipes comprise five-cereal, pan di sole, made with a blend of durum and soft wheat flour with pumpkin seeds, panpatata (with potatoes), and rye, including dried fig, apricot and raisin versions, as well as wheat. They produce confectionery too, especially cakes and biscuits typical of the Susa Valley, from canestrelli to paste di meliga, cornmeal biscuits, to lingue di gatto, or “cat’s tongues”, sponge fingers.

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