THE POOR MEN’S BREAD

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
Lard 125 g
Water at room temperature 170 g
Table salt 15 g
Baking soda 1,5 tbsp

 

  • To make piadina romagnola you have to prepare the dough by mixing flour, salt, lard and baking soda in a bowl.
  • Keep kneading the dough and add water in 3 times and then move the mixture on the table and keep working until a uniform dough is obtained. Make a dough ball, wrap it up in a ziploc baggie and let it sit for 30 minutes.
  • Once the resting time is over, cover the table with a bit of flour and stretch the little dough balls with a rolling pin until they reach a thickness of 2-3 mm. Then you have to heat a hotplate and, in the meantime, stretch the piadine for one last time and then shape them with a dough cutter with a diameter of 22 cm.
  • Now cook the piadine on one side for 2 minutes, constantly twisting them with your hand to ensure a uniform cooking, and then cook them for 2 minutes also on the other side, until they acquire a light golden colour. Once they are cooked, pile your piadine on top of one another and stuff them while they’re still warm!

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!

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