Pane carasau
The bread of Sardinian shepherds — traditionally baked so that it would keep for months. The technique is remarkable: the round is baked in a very hot oven until it inflates into a ball, then cut open with scissors into two sheets and baked again until bone dry. The name comes from the Sardinian carasare — to toast until crisp — and describes precisely that second bake.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Dough 20 min
- Proving 90 min
- Rolling 25 min
- First bake 25 min
- Drying 20 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a firm dough
Combine the semolina, flour, yeast and salt, pour in the water and knead 12 minutes. The dough should be firm and smooth, not soft — a slack dough cannot be rolled this thin, because it tears at every stroke.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
Prove an hour and a half
Cover and leave 90 minutes. The proving here is moderate — you need enough gas for the round to inflate, but not so much that the dough slackens and can no longer be rolled thin.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
Roll to paper thinness
Divide into 8 pieces (about 100 g each) and roll each out on semolina into a 25 cm round about 2 mm thick, as evenly as you can. Stack the rolled rounds between lightly dusted cloths. Even thickness is everything here: a round thinner on one side inflates only partly and will not split into two whole sheets.
Ingredients: 80 g semolina
Thin and even — then it inflates fully.Heat the oven to its maximum
Heat the oven with a stone or an upturned heavy tray inside to 250°C for a full 30 minutes — ideally switch it on before you start rolling. That temperature is a necessary condition: the steam must form instantly to separate the round into two layers.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
Bake one at a time until it balloons
Slide the rounds in one at a time, straight onto the hot stone, and bake each 2–3 minutes (the timer counts one round; all eight take about 25 minutes in total). It balloons within a minute. Take it out before it colours — it should still be pale and soft.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
A ball within a minute — out before it browns.Cut it open with scissors
Lay the hot inflated round on the worktop and cut around its edge with scissors, separating it into two thin sheets. Mind the hot steam inside. Do this while hot — a cooled round collapses and the layers stick together.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
While hot, scissors around the edge.Stack the sheets under a weight
Stack the separated sheets one on another, pressed under a board. Sheets left to dry freely curl into tubes; weighted, they stay flat and can later be stacked like plates.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
Bake again until fully crisp
Lower the oven to 200°C and bake the sheets in batches, about 4 minutes each, directly on the racks, until lightly golden and completely dry (the timer counts one batch; all of them take about 20 minutes). This second bake — carasare — takes out the last of the moisture and lets the bread keep for months in a sealed box.
Ingredients: 400 g semolina · 100 g plain flour · 280 ml water · 5 g dried yeast · 1½ tsp salt
Before you start
Pane frattau
The most famous dish made from carasau: the sheets are dipped in hot broth, layered with tomato sauce and pecorino and topped with a poached egg. Dry bread becomes something between lasagne and soup.
Guttiau
The other version: sheets sprinkled with olive oil, salt and rosemary and given 2 minutes in a hot oven. The result is a superb crisp snack to go with wine.
When it does not inflate
The cause is almost always the same: rolled too thick or unevenly, or the oven too cool. If a round fails to balloon, dry it out anyway — it will not split into two sheets, but it will still be crisp and good.
