“The most vivid memory of my childhood was watching my grandmother prepare bread. She would knead the dough twice a week using ancient flours and would personally oversee the leavening process,” Maria Grazia Di Lauro, owner of Masseria Potenti, tells me. 

“Once kneaded, the dough was placed under wool blankets to rise, and throughout the night, my grandmother would check on its progress between her prayers. In the early morning, the village baker would collect the dough, which was marked with each family’s initials to prevent confusion. He would then take it to the ancient wood-fired oven in Manduria, where every family in the village brought their bread to be baked daily, along with biscuits, friselle, taralli, and figs.”