Romagna’s cuisine is very rich and varied, but the real star of the Riviera’s tables is a peasant dish: locals call it “piè”, but for everyone else is just “piadina romagnola“. Besides being the most identifying dish of the regional culinary tradition, the piadina is also one of the most frugal. Besides being a really good dish, the piadina is also the quickest way to win the heart of a man in Romagna, suffice to say that in the past a typical expression used by a guy to admit that he was struck by a girl was “she made me piadina” (la m’ha fat la piè).
Its simple recipe was the secret that allowed it to survive through time without changes and transformed it in a must for anyone visiting Emilia Romagna. A bread with similar features to the current piadina was already made in Roman times: this dry food assured to the legionaries a quick and long-keeping meal, and a good nutritional intake. The current recipe is almost identical to the ancient one and requires the use of flour, water, salt, lard and baking soda. You only need 5 simple ingredients to make piadina, undisputed queen of Romagna’s tables, which has conquered through the years some of the region’s most famous palates such as that of Giovanni Pascoli, who describes its tastiness in his poem “La piada”: www.piadinaonline.com/piadinaonline/poesia_pascoli.htm
Like every local product the piadina is made and seasoned in different ways according to the place where it is made: in the inland of Ravenna, Forlì and Cesena the piadina is thicker and softer while in the area of Rimini is thinner and wider.
It’s not just the shape that changes according to the place, but also the name: a stuffed piadina closed on itself like a “calzone” is called “crescione” in the inland and “cassone” in the areas of Rimini’s Riviera.
To deeply understand this Romagna’s obsession for piadina you just have to eat a lot of that… really a lot.
Here—>https://www.dissapore.com/grande-notizia/piadine-migliori-italia/ you can find a list of the best piadinerie according to the food blog “Dissapore”.
The piadina romagnola is also a very current dish for dinners with friends. Its preparation is simple. quick and cheap.
Recipe for 4 people (giallo zafferano): “00” flour 500 g
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It’s very simple to make piadina, but making a piadina as tasty as the one that you will find in Romagna is a challenge for few experts, it’s so much easier to taste it right here in Romagna!