Type 0 soft wheat flour, water, pure pork lard, extra virgin olive oil, natural sourdough starter, malt and salt: nothing else goes into the dough of coppia ferrarese, a low bread with a soft knot at the centre from which four thin, crunchy horns branch out.
The earliest traces go back to a statute of 1287, which ordered bakers to make well-baked bread of precise weight that would not collapse while cooking. In 1536 a «twisted and re-twisted» bread appeared at an Este banquet; in 1694 the historian Antonio Frizzi praised its refinement and the bakers capable of creating it.
The Protected Geographical Indication mark, which restricts production to Ferrara and its province, arrived in 2001; in 2004 the Consortium for the protection of typical Ferrara bread was founded, setting out ingredients, proportions and baking in its regulations.
