Maltese bread (, tal-malti) is a crusty

sourdough Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its dis ...

bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

from

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

, usually baked in wood ovens. It is typically eaten with spread olive oil (Ħobż biż-żejt), where the bread is rubbed with tomatoes (as with the Catalan pa amb tomàquet) or tomato paste, drizzled with olive oil and filled with a choice or mix of tuna, olives, capers, onion, bigilla and

ġbejna Ġbejna (; plural ') is a small round cheese made in Malta from sheep milk, salt and rennet. Most sheep's milk produced in Malta is used for the production of these small cheeses. is the diminutive of the Maltese language, Maltese word , which m ...

. The practice of making the bread is considered a 'dying art'.

In Qormi

Qormi Qormi (, , ), also known by its title Città Pinto, is a city in the Southern Region, Malta, Southern Region of Malta, southwest of Valletta in the centre of the island. It has a population of 16,324 (as of March 2018), making it Malta's fifth-la ...

is the main city for bread making in Malta, with a large number of bakeries. During the rule of the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

, it was known as Casal Fornaro meaning the bakers' town. Nowadays an annually held festival, ''Lejl f'Casal Fornaro'' (a Night at Casal Fornaro), takes place in Qormi on the third Saturday of October.

The role of bread in Maltese politics

Some of the earliest descriptive accounts of Malta note the dependence of the island's inhabitants on bread for survival. The impact of the British colonial government's liberalisation of the import of grain in 1837 and its failure to provide basic food provisions in the aftermath of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

are both factors believed to be linked to the Sette Giugno riots.

Bread in the Maltese language

There are a number of idioms in the Maltese language relating to bread as the basis of survival. *(), ''his bread is baked'', meaning the person is well-off. *(), ''he has lost his bread'', meaning the person has lost their job. *(), ''what bread does he consume?'', an expression used when enquiring after a person's character. *(), ''he needs it like his daily bread'', used when a person is in great need of something. *(), ''something which provides a lot of bread'', used to describe a profitable endeavour. *(), ''it procures no bread'', used to describe a profitless venture.

In Qormi

The role of bread in Maltese politics

Bread in the Maltese language

See also

References

Further reading