Piadina is an Italian flatbread, made with simple ingredients such as flour, lard, water, salt. There are numerous variations and they can be customized with ingredients, spices and flavors of your choice. In Italy it’s also known as Piadina Romagnola, because it comes from Emilia Romagna.
Many people prepare piadina without lard, replacing it with oil, thus eliminating ingredients of animal origin in the dough. Other more modern versions involve the use of wholemeal, spelled, buckwheat and gluten-free flours.
The classic filling, par excellence, is the one with raw ham, squacquerone cheese and rocket.
But, based on tastes and needs, we can stuff them with speck, cooked ham, bresaola, spreadable cheeses that melt during cooking or harder cheeses that will soften. If you prefer more penetrating flavors, taleggio and gorgonzola are right for you.
Even vegetables, cooked or raw, are additional ingredients: courgettes, tomatoes, songino, peppers or grilled aubergines.
Piadina is very easy to make: in just over 30 minutes you get loaves to roll out and cook in a pan over low heat.
It is always advisable to use a non-stick pan and cook the piadina for two minutes on each side and start filling it with the cheese, which will melt. The other ingredients are then added with the heat off.
The piadina is also excellent eaten without filling, as a substitute for bread or to be presented during a home buffet, perhaps cut into small triangles to be dipped in some sauce.
And the sweet version? Just spread some Nutella, jam or custard to have a delicious, but homemade snack!
Let's see how to prepare a good homemade piadina from Romagna.
Category: Main courses
Arrange the flour with the baking soda on the work surface, add the lard at room temperature in the centre. Dissolve the salt in warm water and stir to dissolve. [1]
Gradually add the water to the flour, mixing with your fingertips [2]
and keep kneading the dough. [3]
Gradually the dough absorb liquids. [4]
Then take the loaf again, divide it into 4 pieces weighing about 180-200 g each. [7]
Form uniform balls with your hands. [8]
Heat a frying pan or plate of at least 26 cm, in the meantime start rolling out the first ball with a rolling pin giving it a thickness of 3-4 mm. [9]
Place the piadina on the hot plate and cook it for 2-3 minutes. [10]
Turn it over and cook it on the other side for the same time. [11]
Serve the piadina hot, cutting it into wedges [12] or stuffing it with your favorite cold cuts, cheeses and vegetables: you can either roll it up or fold it into a booklet.
The piadina can be kept in the refrigerator, closed in a food bag, for up to 10 days.
It can be frozen in food bags for 1-2 months. Let's remove them from the freezer a few hours before use.
It is advisable to let the dough rest for a long time, even overnight if you have the possibility, so that the gluten mesh relaxes and once on the plate the dough grows in the right way.
To have a perfectly circular shape you can "cup" the already rolled out dough with the ring of a springform pan.
Piadina Romagna can be prepared in many versions, more or less distant from the original recipe. Many use olive oil instead of lard, replace water with milk, choose less refined flours and use yeast instead of bicarbonate. The result will still be tasty and fragrant.
Once stuffed, the piadina can be closed in a booklet or rolled up.
You can eat it as bread, or during a party
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17.6oz/500 g wheat flour
2.8 oz/80 g lard
0.4 oz/13 g salt
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