Pane frattau
A Sardinian shepherds' dish in which dry carasau bread becomes something between lasagne and soup. The thin sheets are dipped in hot broth for a second or two — that is enough to soften them, and any longer shreds them. They are then layered with tomato sauce and pecorino, with a poached egg on top whose yolk serves as a second sauce.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Tomato sauce 20 min
- Broth 8 min
- Layers 10 min
- Eggs 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCook a simple tomato sauce
Fry the crushed garlic in 4 tablespoons of the oil for 2 minutes, add the tomatoes crushed by hand, the chilli and salt and cook 18 minutes until thickened. Finally stir in the torn basil leaves. The sauce should be simple and thick — no extra seasoning needed.
Ingredients: 800 g tinned tomatoes · 3 cloves garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 10 pcs basil · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 1 tsp salt
Heat the broth and keep it hot
Bring the stock to a boil (about 8 minutes) in a wide saucepan or deep frying pan and lower the heat to a bare simmer. The broth must stay hot throughout the dipping — lukewarm it will not soften the bread in a second, and then it has to be held longer and the sheet disintegrates.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pane carasau · 800 ml stock · 120 g pecorino
Dip the bread for just a second or two
Break the carasau sheets in half — they are easier to dip and to lay on a plate. Submerge one piece at a time for a second or two, holding it with tongs, and transfer it straight to the plate. That genuinely is enough — the bread is paper-thin and absorbs instantly.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pane carasau · 800 ml stock · 120 g pecorino
A second or two — longer and the sheet falls apart.Build the first layer
Lay a softened half-sheet on a plate, spread with tomato sauce and scatter with pecorino. Sauce in a thin layer — the bread absorbs it anyway, and excess turns the lower layers to mush.
Ingredients: 800 g tinned tomatoes · 3 cloves garlic · 4 tbsp olive oil · 10 pcs basil · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 1 tsp salt
Repeat three times per portion
Build three more layers — four per portion, i.e. 2 sheets — with sauce and cheese between them, finishing with sauce. The layers should differ in thickness and overlap unevenly — this is not meant to look like lasagne from a baking dish.
Ingredients: 8 pcs pane carasau · 800 ml stock · 120 g pecorino
Four layers, unevenly stacked — not a lasagne from a dish.Poach the eggs
While you build the layers, bring water with the vinegar to a boil in a second pan, lower to a bare simmer and slide the eggs in one at a time from a cup. Cook 3 minutes — the yolk must stay entirely liquid, since it works here as a second sauce.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp wine vinegar · ½ tsp black pepper · 2 tbsp olive oil
Three minutes — the yolk must stay completely liquid.Serve with egg and pecorino
Set an egg on each portion, scatter with the remaining pecorino and pepper and drizzle with oil. Serve at once and break the yolk at the table — it runs between the layers and binds the whole construction.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp wine vinegar · ½ tsp black pepper · 2 tbsp olive oil
Before you start
Without carasau
Pane carasau is Sardinian paper bread, sold in Italian delis. Substitutes: very thin dry flatbreads such as lavash, or wheat tortillas dried in a pan. One condition — the bread must be dry and thin enough to absorb in a second.
Lamb broth is traditional
Traditionally the broth is made from mutton, which gives the dish a distinctly meaty richness. Vegetable stock works well and is lighter; salted water will do, though then the pecorino has to be more assertive.
Eat it straight away
Pane frattau makes sense for the first five minutes, while the layers are still separate and the egg warm. After that the bread absorbs everything and the dish becomes a uniform mass. The sauce can be made a day ahead.
