Herbed Piadina

Piadina is an Italian flat bread. It’s really the first kind of bread I every learned to make successfully. It’s incredibly easy dough to create, it’s forgiving, and you cook it in a pan, rather than baking it. The only leavener is baking soda, so it has a bit of spring, but remains very flat and therefore versatile. It’s similar to pita, pizza dough, naan, etc. It’s also delicious. There’s no end of applications, but if you spread some sort of very soft sheep or goat milk cheese on it, add prosciutto, and make it into a wrap, you won’t be disappointed. In this version, I use chopped fresh herbs – those can just as easily be omitted. The classic recipe calls for lard, which makes a slightly softer and chewier bread in the end, but I’ve used butter and olive oil in place of the lard and each has its own character and therefore appeal – getting successively more brittle – do what you like best.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 TBSP salt
• 4 TBSP lard or butter, just melted but not hot, or olive oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp each fresh rosemary, oregano, and thyme, minced very fine

Directions:

Combine the dry ingredients and the herbs in a bowl. Drizzle in the fat and toss once or twice to roughly distribute. Add the water slowly, kneading with your fingers as you go, so that it is being roughly distributed. Combine into a mass and knead, adding more flour if it is too sticky, for about 5 minutes, until the dough is completely smooth. Form into a ball, cover in plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.

Pinch off a handful of dough when you’re ready to cook it, then dust your counter and roll out the dough until it is very thin – say a few millimeters thick. Place a non-stick or cast-iron pan on medium high heat and place the rolled out dough in the pan. Some people like to prick the dough with a fork before placing in the pan, so that bubbles don’t form and burn. I kind of like the bubbles though – so again, do what you feel. When brown spots have appeared all over the bottom side, flip the bread – shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. If it’s smoking anywhere, lower the heat to medium or medium low.

To serve: it’s best to eat piadina warm. It will go with virtually any antipasto you can think of – try loading it up with cheese and meat and see what happens. You’ll enjoy it, I guarantee.