What does “alveolato” mean for Italian bread?

When Italians judge a bread or pizza, the word they reach for is alveolato — full of alveoli, the air pockets inside the crumb. A loaf that is ben alveolato has an open, holey, almost honeycomb interior, the sign of long fermentation and a strong gluten network. It is praise: the bubbles mean the bread is light and chewy rather than dense. In the clip the tasters keep marvelling at how alveolato the baguette’s interior is.

The word borrows from anatomy — alveoli are also the tiny air sacs in the lungs and the sockets that hold your teeth — so alveolato literally means “pocketed with little cavities.” Bakers track the alveolatura (the pattern of holes) as a quality measure. Companion crumb vocabulary: la mollica (the soft inside, opposite of la crosta, the crust) and croccante (crunchy/crisp). A handy term to actually sound like you know good bread.