Autoctona, Vatti's project goes beyond Radicondoli

In April 2020 Tommaso Vatti, pizzaiolo and soul – with his brother Federico – of La Pergola in Radicondoli, opened Autoctona, a multi-functional space that includes an artisanal bakery and a delicatessen with products from trustworthy producers from all around Italy. So last summer when you dined at Autoctona you could also buy groceries after dinner – until 11 pm – and bring home the tomato, oil, anchovies or jams you had just tasted on the pizza. But you could also sip a cocktail or a glass of wine from Tuscany or indulge in some focaccia or pizza cooked in the baking tin before eating on the scenic terrace.

Tommaso Vatti

Autoctona is also, and mostly, “pane bono” fine bread, which Vatti bakes in the wood oven with flour from Molino Quaglia, produced with integrated farming, and pizza baked in the baking  tin cut in slices plus the recent introduction of the precooked round one. «For this new creation I used a dough made with high hydration, with Petra 1 HP and Petra 9 HP flour plus my sourdough. This dough is then used for the 4 or 5 most popular pizza toppings, which pay attention to local products, our trademark. After the precooking in the wood oven, the pizza is placed in a vacuum pack and can be kept in the fridge for 4 or 5 days.

Vatti's bread 

Pizza in the baking tin 

Il progetto è anche di espandersi geograficamente: «Stiamo cercando di portare il progetto Autoctona al di fuori di Radicondoli, trovando come punto d’appoggio per la vendita alcune botteghe di qualità in tutta la Val di Cecina. Vorremmo essere la “bottega di territorio” delle Colline Metallifere, un territorio vasto e ricco di tanti piccoli borghi in cui risiedono in media dalle mille alle cinquemila persone ciascuno. Un’area con un tessuto sociale molto coeso e ben disposto verso i prodotti di qualità».

The shop 

When you want to eat it, you just warm it up at 200°C for 4-5 minutes. This format is part of the strategies we're fine tuning, to make delivery easier while preserving quality: humidity, it is a known fact, can cause issues making the dough lose its crispiness. This way, instead, you can preserve its features as if it were just pulled out of the oven. And most of all this means you can eat it whenever you want, and we can deliver it to a wider area».

We also plan to expand: «We're trying to bring our Autoctona project outside Radicondoli, by working in partnership with some fine food shops around the Val di Cecina. We would like to be a “bottega di territorio” in the Colline Metallifere region, a large region, full of small villages each with something between one thousand and five thousand inhabitants. An area where people are keen on high quality products». The latest novelty at Autoctona, still in progress but Vatti has a clear idea of what he wants to do, is a line of jams, sauces and traditional dishes all preserved in a jar.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso