All Tuscan dishes are the result of an ancient history made of poor but tasty recipes. One of the most famous products of the Tuscan tradition is the bread. Not a bread, but the bread ' silly ' or ' bland ' which is completely devoid of salt. To make it famous all over the world is precisely this characteristic. In addition to requiring a long leavening, if well cooked remains even for an entire week.
Blame the Pisani or high fees?
The origin of this tradition exist multiple versions. The first concerns the same Tuscan cuisine rich in flavor robust and very tasty; the bread in this case accompanies products such as salami or enriched with typical Tuscan dishes like ribollita or Tuscan tomato soup.
An old legend would trace the origin of bread fool in the rivalry between Pisa and Florence in the 11th century: pisani began to raise taxes for the salt that arrived in the port and blocked trade with Florence. The Florentines chose then to start producing the bread without using salt.
The most likely hypothesis is a version that would see as the reason for the high cost of salt and the taxes imposed on it in medieval times. So most of the population of Florence began to cook the bread without salt.
Dante also liked the bread fool
Most people don't know that in Tuscany bread was and is still preserved in a particular "cassa del pane", called madia. Could not in fact be missing in homes of yesteryear this special chest that allowed the preservation of bread for a whole week.
For Tuscany and Central Italy in general than the unsalted bread has become gastronomic tradition and custom. As Dante in the eighteenth song of the heaven «Tu proverai sì come sa di sale lo pane altrui», in other words, you will feel how hard life in exile outside Tuscany and Florence, where the bread is salted.
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