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Piadina Romagnola or piada is a thin Italian flatbread, typically prepared in the Romagna historical region. It is usually made with white flour, lard or olive oil, salt and water. The dough was traditionally cooked on a terracotta dish, although nowadays flat pans or electric griddles are commonly used.
Italian piadina should be a World Heritage Site. For his goodness he was acclaimed by poets and musicians. Among his most famous admirers Giovanni Pascoli, who sang about him in verses โand here he is smooth as a sheet, and as big as the moonโ, up to Raoul Casadei, a pillar of Romagna culture, and Samuele Bersani who sang โHave you ever thought about that project to export the piadina from Romagna?โ.
If the piadina has such a vast following, if not more than one, there must be a reason! Letโs get to know the history of piadina more closely, the differences between the various types of piadina, the best combinations and fillings.
The History
Piada was already widespread among the ancient Romans. At the time it was described as unleavened bread cooked on red-hot slabs. The history of piadina is really ancient. Even before the Romans it was prepared by the Etruscans, who subsequently handed down the recipe to ancient Rome, where it was consumed in the most refined environments. It was eaten stuffed or as a substitute for bread.
But what is piadina? The name derives from a term from Northern Italy which links it to the concept of โvaseโ or โlong plateโ.
It spread among the peasants because it was a simple and cheap food. During the Middle Ages, taxes on bread and the quotas of wheat paid to the lords gave a big boost to the diffusion of piadina, as it was an excellent alternative to bread and could be made with alternative non-taxed cereals, such as spelled flour.
Differences between the classic Piadina and the Piadina Romagnola
So what is the Romagna piadina and how does it differ from the Italian piadina? The piadina from Romagna is, in the words of Giovanni Pascoli, โthe bread, indeed the national food of the people of Romagnaโ.
First of all, a clarification: north of Rimini โ Cesena and Ravenna โ you eat piadina, from Rimini to Cattolica you eat piada. Whatโs the difference? Apart from the name, in the coastal area of Romagna, for example in the Rimini area, it is pulled thinner while in the inland areas of Cesena, Forlรฌ and Ravenna, it is thicker and softer due to the addition of a pinch of bicarbonate. (baking soda)
Made with a sheet of wheat flour, lard or olive oil, bicarbonate or yeast, salt and water. The original version involved cooking on a terracotta surface, but today it is easier to see it cooked on metal plates.
The history of the Romagna piadina is therefore lost in the folds of time and brings with it all the traditional link between the local territory and food.
Different types of Piadina
The most classic filling is based on prosciutto, squacquerone or stracchino cheese and arugula, but there are a thousand ways to enjoy the piadina from Romagna! It is often stuffed with pieces of sausage and onion, with cured meats and various pork cold cuts, for example with porchetta.
When the filling includes herbs or vegetables au gratin, the piadina takes the name of crescione, cassone, cascione or calzone, in which the same sheet is bagged, folded and closed before cooking.
Other fillings are made with a base of mozzarella and tomato, with pumpkin and potatoes, grilled eggplants or zucchini or whatever you prefer. The sauce to accompany the piadina obviously depends on the ingredients of the filling. For example, you can choose the fresh tzatziki sauce in combination with vegetables or grilled meats. The choice is really endless!
Even the kebab sauce is ideal for piadine stuffed with grilled meat, porchetta or salami. Those who like it can enrich the taste of the piada with a touch of spicy sauce while with the classic raw and squacquerone, a little mayonnaise cannot be missing.
Cocktail sauce or pink sauce also go very well with roast beef piadina, which make the recipe more refined. And how about trying in combination with the unique taste of mustard?
Piadina really drives everyone crazy for versatility, taste and practicality. There are those who would really eat it at any time and in fact it is also eaten as a dessert with gianduia cream, jams or Nutella. Truly irresistible!
In California is pretty much the equivalent of tortillas or wraps!
Classic Recipe Ingredients
So for today I give you the classic Piadina Romagnola with lard down below, please let me know if you are going to try this recipe!
Recommended items for this recipe:
The Chef's flour is a general purpose, high gluten flour that works well for many recipes. You can use it for pizza crust, pasta making, bread, and pastries.
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Piadina Romagnola
Description
Some people use to add a pinch of yeast or bicarbonate to rise the dough a little. The recipe for Piadina from Romagna does not include yeast or bicarbonate. But you know, recipes change as society changes... moreover, in more modern times, lard it has given way to the lighter olive oil and, more rarely, to the use of milk instead of water.
I filled it with prosciutto, fresh burrata and arugula but you can add whatever you prefer!
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Ingredients
Ingredients for dough:
Ingredients for filling:
Instructions
Instructions:
Take a bowl and add the water and salt and mix with a whisk to dissolve the salt.
Add the flour a little at a time and add the lard.
Work the dough with your hands and wristsย until obtaining a firm, smooth and soft dough.
Form a ball and divide into 3 pieces.
Let the dough rest for at least half an hour covered with plastic wrap at room temperture. This phase is necessary not because the dough rises (there is no yeast) but because the dough will relax and it will be much easier to roll it out.
When the dough is relaxed (and you can see it by eye), on a floured surface and with the help of a rolling pin, roll out each ball forming discs of puff pastry of about 20-25 cm in diameter and 3-4 mm thick.
I used semolina flour to dust the dough.Roll out all the piadinas and place them on a cloth sprinkled with flour, taking care to flour each piadina a little before placing the next one on top.
Don't roll out the piadina too much because you are going to expand it with your hands before cooking.Reheat a non-stick pan over high heat and cook each piadina on each side. Until air bubbles form.
In Romagna, piadinas are traditionally cooked on a heavy terracotta or aluminum โplateโ; Unfortunately I used just a plain pan but it works fine.Prick them with a spatula to deflate them and cook until the typical burns appear on both sides.
About 2/3 min each side.Here is our piadina to be filled!
Stracchino, arugula, prosciutto are essential for the filling so that the piadina is truly Romagna. I stuffed mine with Prosciutto Ferrarini, burrata and arugula.
Note
Tips:
Among the tips for the perfect success of the piadina without yeast is that of working the ingredients with great care to obtain a smooth and homogeneous dough; if you want to make the dough softer by adding milk but at the same time you want a lactose-free product, use soy milk.
After letting the piadina dough rest, roll it out on a lightly floured work surface: the dust will ensure that the mixture does not stick to either the rolling pin or the pastry board.
Take a large frying pan, place it on the hob and light the fire: the plate must be hot when you place the piadina on it; evaluate whether to grease it a little, but without exaggerating, with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or a knob of butter.
When small dark colored spots begin to form on both sides on the surface of the pastry, the piadina is ready to be removed from the heat and then filled.
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Variations:
Why buy wraps at the supermarket if you can prepare them directly at home? Piadina is a very simple dish and unleavened piadina can be prepared even when this ingredient, which for many seems to be essential, is missing in the pantry: in fact, it will be enough to replace it with a little baking soda.
This preparation is an excellent alternative to the typical sandwiches with sesame seeds: you can prepare it as a delicious afternoon snack to be enjoyed instead of biscuits, but also for an informal dinner with friends.
The real piadina from Romagna is prepared with wheat flour but at home we can try to mix flavors of different flours to obtain doughs that are very similar to the classic recipe but with different flavours.
Try playing with the different flours: spelt, wholemeal, buckwheat, corn, oats, a mix of flours derived from cereals or legumes. These alternative types of flour can also be consumed by those who prefer to avoid or cannot eat gluten, without however having to give up a delicious and good recipe like that of piadina.
Each flour has its own particularities and will need a different fat to be able to make it in the best way. So you will use extra virgin olive or seed oil instead of lard and in some cases you can add a little milk to make everything softer. If you don't want to use even a single fat and will only use flour and water, you will prepare unleavened bread, an ancient and even simpler recipe.
The dough must be worked with the hands and then flattened with the aid of a rolling pin. Cooking is very fast and must be done on a non-stick plate. To your taste, instead of cooking the piadina in the non-stick pan, you can also decide to cook it in the preheated oven, provided you manage to turn it without burning yourself. Like all baked goods, it will be soft and fragrant, and will have a lighter taste.
If you plan to stuff the piadina, don't cook it too much on the plate, otherwise it would become too crunchy. You prefer to stay slightly behind with the cooking, then stuff it and finally finish it in a hot oven, so that all the ingredients will melt too, giving you a great pleasure for the palate.
The fillings for your unleavened piadina can be very varied: if you love garden produce, try filling it with a mix of grilled vegetables and cheese or with mashed potatoes and sausage. Serving it at room temperature and as soon as it is cooked, you could also opt for a filling of smoked salmon and spreadable cheese.
If you wish, you can stuff the soft piadine with a greasy sweet filling: in this case, salt should not be added to the mixture of ingredients (which you can also make with wholemeal flour), which you can replace with small amounts of sugar. After having cooked it, you can spread sweet toppings such as hazelnut cream, jam or honey on each sheet as you like: an excellent idea for breakfast.
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