Black bread from the Aosta Valley

The "pan ner", literally black bread, is obtained from the mixture of rye flour and wheat flour in variable percentages: the rye must be predominant, at least 60% of the total dough. For the dough, water, yeast and salt are added to the flours.

Black bread is a Traditional Agri-Food Product (PAT) which has a round shape, with a brown crust.

Historically, rye fields covered the slopes of much of the Aosta Valley, even at high altitudes. At the beginning of the 20th century, many cereal fields were converted into prairies for livestock farming, changing the layout of the landscape and causing the abandonment of various mills and ovens in the villages.
For some years the cultivation of rye for bread-making has resumed. Brown bread today represents a niche product compared to white bread and can be found with different percentages of rye which can reach over 90%.

Events related to bread and baking in the collective ovens of the various villages are organized in many tourist resorts in the Aosta Valley.