Wow, I can’t believe it. My last recipe to cook for the Pomodori E Vino blog. Definitely not my last recipe to cook from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking though. I’ll write more of my thoughts in my last blog entry for this project, but already, as I’m typing this right now, I have tears forming in my eyes. This has been an adventure for sure.
Enough of the reminiscing for now. Back to the recipe. Today’s recipe is Piadina, a thin flat bread from the Romagna area. Marcella explains that traditionally, this bread is cooked on a terra-cotta slab called a testo. Since most of us have no access to a testo, we can substitute with a heavy cast iron skillet. This bread is very easy and quick to make. Mix together flour, olive oil (or shortening), milk water, salt, and bicarbonate of soda, then knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Roll out pieces of the dough in a circular shape, very thin, then place in the hot skillet. This doesn’t take much time to cook – 3 or 4 minutes for each piece. At this point, the bread is speckled with dark brown spots, but still chewy and tender. Cut into wedges and serve warm.
Marcella suggests serving this with one of the recipes in the vegetable section of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking – Sauteed Mixed Greens with Olive Oil and Garlic. That’s what I served mine with, except I had to adapt. I forgot to buy rapini at the store, so I was lacking the bitter aspect of the greens. It’s a mixture of spinach or Swiss chard, rapini, Savoy cabbage. Besides forgetting the rapini, I still didn’t have the correct mix due to not being able to find all of the ingredients. I used spinach, kale (small, tender leaves), and Napa cabbage. And the outcome was delicious.
Try making this when you want a very quick bread to serve as an accompaniment or even as your main dish. I served the Piadina with the Mixed Greens, along with a nice glass of red wine, and I’m still stuffed, a couple of hours later.