Piadina
Piadina is a bread that needs no rising, because there is no yeast in it — it is raised by soda and steam. The fat is traditionally lard, and that is not an incidental detail: lard coats the flour particles and limits gluten development, which is what makes the bread soft and foldable. Made with olive oil it comes out firmer and cracks sooner when folded.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dough 12 min
- Resting 30 min
- Cooking 24 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneRub the lard into the flour
Mix the flour with the salt and soda, add the lard and rub it in with your fingers for 3 minutes, until you have fine crumbs. Distributing the fat before any liquid matters here — it has to coat the flour before water can start developing gluten.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 80 g lard · 120 ml milk · 120 ml water · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 10 g salt
Fine crumbs — fat distributed before the liquid.Add the liquids and knead only five minutes
Pour in the warm milk and water and knead for 5 minutes, until smooth. No longer: piadina should be tender, not springy. Ten minutes of kneading gives a dough that shrinks under the pin and cooks up rubbery.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 80 g lard · 120 ml milk · 120 ml water · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 10 g salt
Rest for half an hour
Wrap the dough and leave it 30 minutes at room temperature. The gluten has to relax, or the bread cannot be rolled thin — it springs back to its previous diameter with every pass of the pin.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 80 g lard · 120 ml milk · 120 ml water · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 10 g salt
Roll it very thin
Divide into 6 and roll each into a round 25 cm across and 2–3 mm thick. Piadina is thin: any thicker and the centre cannot cook through before the base scorches.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 80 g lard · 120 ml milk · 120 ml water · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 10 g salt
Two or three millimetres — thinner than it seems.Cook on a dry pan, pricking the bubbles
Heat a heavy pan with no fat and cook the breads one at a time, 2 minutes a side each — all six take about 25 minutes in total. When large bubbles rise, prick them with a fork — otherwise the bread domes unevenly and part of the surface never touches the pan. You want brown spots, not even colour.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 80 g lard · 120 ml milk · 120 ml water · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 10 g salt
Bubbles pricked with a fork, brown spots underneath.Stack under a cloth and serve warm
Stack the finished breads on top of each other under a cloth — steam from one keeps the next soft. Serve warm, folded around ham, soft cheese and rocket. Left uncovered to cool they harden within a quarter of an hour.
Ingredients: 150 g prosciutto · 200 g soft cheese · 60 g rocket
Before you start
Reheating
Piadina reheats in 40 seconds a side on a dry pan and comes back soft. A microwave makes it rubbery and a toaster dries it out — the pan is the best way.
Lard or olive oil
Lard is traditional and gives a markedly more pliable bread. Olive oil works and is vegetarian, but the bread comes out firmer — add 20 ml more liquid to compensate.
Classic fillings
Prosciutto, squacquerone and rocket is the Rimini combination. Beyond that: mortadella with pesto, grilled vegetables with goat's cheese, or chocolate spread for a sweet version. In Romagna a piadina is what a sandwich is elsewhere.
