There are breads that sit quietly beside a meal. And then there are breads that become the meal. Puccia belongs to the second kind.
A traditional bread associated particularly with Puglia in southern Italy, puccia is a round bread made to be opened and filled. It is closely associated with the food culture of Salento and the Taranto area, where it has long been used for filled preparations.
At Panifico, puccia takes on a different expression. It becomes a naturally fermented sourdough base for sandwiches, breakfast dishes and small plates — bringing together the structure of the bread with ingredients and flavours from across the menu.
Traditionally, puccia is a round bread from Puglia, particularly associated with Salento and parts of the wider Apulian region.
Its form is relatively simple: a round, substantial bread designed to be opened and filled. Traditional versions can be made with wheat and durum wheat flours and are commonly baked at high heat, producing a bread with a relatively open interior that works particularly well with fillings. What makes puccia interesting is not that it is complicated. It is that it is made for food.
Vegetables, cheeses, cured meats, meat and other ingredients can all find their way inside it. That versatility has made puccia an important part of the street-food culture of Puglia.
A good filled bread has to do more than hold its contents. It needs enough structure to support them. Enough texture to remain interesting.
And enough character to work with what goes inside. That is part of what makes puccia such an effective format. Its round shape and bread structure create a natural space for combinations of vegetables, meat, cheese, sauces and pickled ingredients.
The bread becomes the starting point rather than an afterthought.
Panifico’s puccia is part of this idea, but expressed through the café’s own approach. The launch menu uses naturally fermented sourdough puccia across several dishes.
This includes the Balsamic BBQ Chicken, with grilled chicken, charred bell peppers and onions, house-made cheese sauce and sweet pickled jalapeños. The Honey Chipotle Chicken brings the same sourdough puccia together with grilled chicken, charred vegetables, cheese sauce, pickled jalapeños and honey chipotle sauce.
And the Korean Chicken takes the combination in another direction, pairing grilled chicken glazed with gochujang with charred bell peppers and onions and house-made cheese sauce. The bread remains familiar. The flavours keep moving.
At Panifico, puccia is not limited to lunch. It appears right from the beginning of the day. The Benny Bacon Jam brings bacon jam, poached eggs, hollandaise and spring onion together on toasted pan puccia.
The Mushroom Royale combines mushroom hummus, marinated roasted mushrooms and signature chilli oil on toasted pan puccia, finished with shoestring potato fries.
And the Smoked Scottish Salmon pairs smoked salmon with whipped cream cheese, capers, dill, poached eggs and hollandaise on toasted pan puccia. This is where puccia starts to feel less like a specific Italian dish and more like a versatile format for the café. It can carry breakfast just as naturally as it can carry a later meal.
The important distinction is fermentation. Panifico’s menu specifically describes its puccia as naturally fermented sourdough puccia.
That places the bread within the larger philosophy of the café, where fermentation is treated as a craft and a process rather than a decorative label. But the puccia does not need to dominate the dish.
It needs to work with it.
The richness of lamb.
The heat of chilli oil.
The sweetness of hot honey.
The acidity of pickled jalapeños.
The savouriness of cheese.
The freshness of herbs and vegetables.
The bread gives all of these elements somewhere to meet.
This may be one of the most interesting things about puccia at Panifico. The bread has an Italian origin. The food around it does not have to stay Italian.
The Korean Chicken uses gochujang. The Honey Chipotle Chicken brings a different kind of heat and sweetness. The Lamb Burger combines herbs, Kewpie ranch, chilli oil, pickled sweet jalapeños, hot honey and cheddar.
And the small-plate menu uses naturally fermented sourdough puccia alongside dishes such as Halloumi Mezze, Mushroom Paté and Lamb Kofta Mezze. The result is not an attempt to recreate one fixed version of a traditional puccia. It is Panifico using the format as part of its own food language.
Because the bread gives the other ingredients something to work against. Consider the Halloumi Mezze. Seared halloumi is paired with walnut-red pepper muhammara, olive tapenade, pickled onions and crisp cucumber, with naturally fermented sourdough puccia served alongside.
There is saltiness.
There is acidity.
There is creaminess.
There is texture.
The puccia gives the combination a warm, substantial base.
The same principle appears in the Lamb Kofta Mezze, where spiced lamb, hummus, labneh, sumac pickled onions and pomegranate molasses meet the sourdough puccia. It is less about making the bread the loudest element. It is about making the whole combination work.
That is perhaps the simplest way to understand it. A sandwich can be built around almost any bread. Puccia has a particular identity because of the way it is shaped, baked and traditionally used as a filled bread.
Its Italian roots give it a clear culinary context. Its structure gives it versatility. And its simplicity allows the ingredients inside to change from one preparation to another. At Panifico, naturally fermented sourdough brings another layer to that format.
If you already know sourdough, puccia gives you another way to experience it. If you know Italian food, it offers a format that may be familiar in origin but different in expression.
And if you simply want something substantial for breakfast or lunch, it gives the café a distinctive way to build a dish. You can start with eggs. Move toward mushrooms. Go for chicken. Choose lamb. Add heat. Add something pickled. Or keep it simple. The format allows the food to change around it.
Puccia began as part of the food culture of Puglia. At Panifico, it has become one of the ways the café expresses its own approach to food: naturally fermented sourdough, layered flavours, different culinary influences and ingredients that are given room to work together. That is what makes the puccia interesting here.
Not simply where it came from. But where it can go. A bread from Puglia. A sourdough craft at Panifico. A different dish every time you fill it.