The Sican Network: partners
From the field to the counter. In Aragona, the bakery “blessed” by Bonci
Soon a second “Terra Dunci” will also open in Agrigento
It is sweet land for Rosario Pendolino, or rather, to be precise, as we say in these parts, it is dunci. Sweet as a homecoming that soothes the soul and foreshadows a promising future.
We are in Aragona, and Rosario, born in 1985, after a degree in communication sciences from the University of Catania, had flown to London, where he worked for a couple of years in the restaurant business, making a career in the kitchen and becoming a sous chef, or second-in-command cook. Then, from Sicily came a phone call from his sister Maria Luisa, and things took a different turn.
“In the village,” says Rosario Pendolino, “they had put a bakery up for sale, and my sister suggested I buy it. Thus was born, in 2017, our “Terra Dunci”, more than a bakery, a life project that incorporates the family farm and closes the supply chain.”
Today, Rosario Pendolino’s farm and his bakery are part of the Sicani Rural Quality District, and from Aragona their horizons reach as far as Agrigento, where another “Terra Dunci” will open in mid-December at 70 Via Crispi.
First-quality flours, sourdough, a lot of passion and attention to local products, the main ingredients of a project that closes the chain of wheat produced in the family lands, along with olives, Nero d’Avola, almonds and chickpeas. In all, one hundred and thirty hectares that Papa Stefano, a 73-year-old boy who never stops, knows like the back of his hand and controls with love and tireless passion.
A project, that of “Terra Dunci” as good as the bread it produces.
“The Perciasacchi, Senatore Cappelli and Tumminia flours with which we make it, using the sourdough – says Rosalio Pendolino -, are produced from the grain of our farm, certified organic since 2017. Chickpea flour, on the other hand, we use for rotisserie and delicatessen products that also include among the tastiest local mbriulata with onions, sausage and black olives and the tagano, a typical Easter dish, a kind of timbale of pasta, eggs and cheese that last year received Pat certification from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for traditional territorial food products. Finally, almond paste is the star of our pastry and is made with almonds of the Nivera variety, small, sweet and rich in essential oils, which we always produce ourselves.”
“Blessing” the “Terra Dunci” project and marking its turning point was the Roman bakery and pizza guru Gabriele Bonci, who followed the Pendolinos on a training course, dedicated to sourdough and natural baking.
“London is a beautiful city,” says Rosario Pendolino, “of course, big and scattered and certainly expensive … but I would have stayed there if I had not decided to bet on myself. I confess, though, that if I had not had the opportunity to invest in something of my own, I probably would never have returned.”
Text by Editors
