APULICA / FRESH PASTA, BREAD AND PASTRY
Saragolla wheat bread from the Benevento area
Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Fresh pasta, bread and pastry · Campania
In brief
- Bread made from saragolla, an old durum wheat grown in the Sannio around Benevento, with fragrant, deep-yellow flour. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano)
- It is made with sourdough in two stages, shaped into round, scored loaves and baked in a wood oven. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano)
- It has a thin crust and a moist, elastic, yellowish crumb with notes of dried fruit, toast and honey. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano)
- Saragolla bread is a traditional product of Campania. (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
History and origin
Saragolla is an old durum wheat variety still grown in the inland areas of the Sannio, in the province of Benevento. According to the Slow Food Foundation it reached Italy from the Middle East around AD 400, brought by peoples from present-day Bulgaria, and its name is said to come from that language, joining the words for seed and yellow.
Several historical documents, some of them medieval, mention saragolla for its quality and hardiness: it resists lodging, when the stalks bend over, and diseases such as rust. Over time it took on different traits from place to place, so today it is described as a population of distinct types, including zingaresca, bulgara, saragolla turchesco, bulgara di Capo Palinuro and saragolletta del Sannio.
The Benevento Sannio is one of the few areas where saragolla held out against other durum wheats introduced in the 19th century and, in the 20th, against the Senatore Cappelli variety. Its flour has always been used for bread, now a Slow Food Presidium and a traditional product of Campania.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano · Regione Campania — Pane di Saragolla (prodotto tradizionale) · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)
Area and method of production
The wheat is grown in the Benevento Sannio and the bread is made in the province of Benevento. The method, which the Campania Region describes as unchanged over time, uses two doughs.
The semolina is mixed with sourdough starter, called criscito, taken from the previous batch and handed down through the generations. The dough is kept warm to rise overnight; the next day it is kneaded again with more semolina, water, yeast and salt, followed by a second rise of about three to four hours.
Finally round loaves are shaped, marked with crosswise cuts and baked in a wood-fired oven. Depopulation and shrinking farmland have put both the grain and the bread at risk: to save them the Presidium is rebuilding the whole chain, from farmers to millers to bakers.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano · Regione Campania — Pane di Saragolla (prodotto tradizionale)
How to recognise it
Saragolla bread is recognised first of all by its colour. The flour is fragrant and deep yellow, and the crumb it gives is thick, beige with yellowish tints, with small, regular holes and an elastic, moist texture; the Region describes it as especially soft.
The crust is thin, brown with darker shades and lightly floured; the regional record calls it very crunchy. The shape is the round loaf, with crosswise cuts made before baking.
On the nose it is intense, with notes of dried fruit, toast and honey. The taste leans towards sweet but has good savouriness, and the Region stresses its full flavour.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano · Regione Campania — Pane di Saragolla (prodotto tradizionale)
In the kitchen
Saragolla bread is first and foremost the everyday bread of the Sannio. Thanks to its full flavour, though, the Campania Region recommends it as the ideal base for tasting new olive oil and the many cheeses and cured meats made in the area.
The Slow Food Foundation recalls its most traditional uses: bread soups and toasted bread, bruschetta, which during the olive harvest is used to try freshly pressed extra virgin oil from the Sannio hills. The Region also notes that the way it is made has not changed: what reaches the table today is the same slow-risen round loaf once baked in the wood-fired ovens of earlier generations.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano · Regione Campania — Pane di Saragolla (prodotto tradizionale)
Where to taste it
Saragolla bread is found in the province of Benevento, the Sannio, where the wheat is grown and where Presidium bakers bake it in wood-fired ovens. The provincial capital is the natural starting point: Benevento has been inhabited for thousands of years in inland Campania, about sixty kilometres from Naples, and is well served by high-speed trains.
A walk along Corso Garibaldi leads to the church of Santa Sofia, the Rocca dei Rettori and, with a short detour, the Arch of Trajan; the Museo del Sannio tells the story of the historic Sannio region. Alleys, courtyards, arches, Roman milestones and Baroque mansions make the centre a layering of eras.
From the city you can reach the inland areas where saragolla has survived. Autumn, with new oil to try on toasted bread, is the season when the bond between Sannio grain, bread and oil is best enjoyed.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano · Italia.it (Ministero del Turismo) — Benevento
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — pane-di-saragolla-del-beneventano (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano)
- Traditional agri-food product (PAT) — Campania, n. 460, 26th revision (Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026))
When
- Production: all year round (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pane di grano saragolla del beneventano)