Friendly reminder: distrust those who claim that there are cuisines without History or historical basis. Denialism is always an insidious form of cultural, social, political, and historical ignorance. While not all recipes are historical, I have never known cuisines without History and stories to tell.
Good reading, Monica
The piadina romagnola, still in the mid-twentieth century, was not the fragrant bread we know today.
Only after World War II did the piada becomes the actual piadina (a diminutive of the former term). Piadone (a superlative name) persists, indicating a piada made with humble ingredients. It gradually fades away, a positive sign that means the end of the endemic poverty in Romagna.
Piadine from Romagna, at the plural
When talking about piadina romagnola, one should use the plural.
There are three types of piadina and an infinite number of familiar variations, which belong to as many areas of Romagna.
In Imola, Ravenna, Forlì, and Cesena, the piadina is leavened and small (photo above).
The piadina known as Rimini (recipe photo) indicates the wide, unleavened version, which you find precisely in Rimini, Cattolica, and even Pesaro (Marche).
Finally, some continue the tradition of piadina sfogliata, which nowadays is mainly typical of the Marche region and is similar to the Umbrian crescia or torta al testo.
Recipes historically associated with the piadina family include fried crescentina, crescioni (or cassoni), and tortelli alla lastra (which are crescioni, only from the mountains).
The piê fritta (fried piadina) or crescentina has the same dough as the piadina, and sometimes even the same round shape, except it is cooked not on the testo but in boiling oil.
Curiosity
In Bologna, the name crescentina refers to fried bread. This is why the mountain crescentina of Modena in Bologna is called tigelle, so as not to confuse two different kinds of bread.
Also, in the same family as piadina, there is crescione or cassone (my Aunt Iolanda's version is a fireworks display of goodness; the recipe is on the blog).
It is, in fact, a stuffed piadina that was initially stuffed with herbs and a bit of ricotta cheese. And yes, of course, it is reminiscent of the erbazzone of Reggio Emilia (again, on the blog, you can find my recipe), a peasant specialty from Emilia.
What are the ingredients of piadina?
Since about the mid-20th century, piadina has been made with a dough of wheat flour, water or milk, salt, and sometimes lard. The use of olive oil is recent because, although Romagna is a land of olive trees and good oil, traditionally, animal fat (lard or butter) was used.
Piadina is a PGI product of Emilia-Romagna. To call it piadina from Romagna, it must be produced there. No one outside the territory of origin can market a product that contains references to Romagna in its name.
The history
All unleavened bread has an ancient genesis.
The origin of bread is associated with the birth of agriculture, which occurs during the Neolithic period. This agricultural revolution affects Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. From a subsistence economy based on hunting and gathering what the land offered spontaneously, human cultures move to one centered on animal husbandry and cultivation.
From that revolutionary event, people, by mixing water and flour, create the most incredible food: bread.
The world's unleavened bread comes from that first agricultural revolution and represents a link that unites peoples, cultures, and countries. Just to name a few:
naan and chapati (India), pita (Europe), tortilla and arepa (Mesoamerica), carasau, piadina, tigelle, farinata (Europe), tiguelle (Africa), lavash (Asia).
Without firm historical sources, we cannot affirm a direct relationship between piadina romagnola and similar but older bread, such as those used by the Byzantines or the Roman mensa (a cereal flatbread used as a dish).
Century after century, the piadina takes shape from the unleavened bread. We also know that for a long time, the term piada denotes unleavened bread and focaccia.
The piada of Angelico
The first written reference dates back to the Middle Ages and is found in the Descriptio Romandiole (1371), a research commissioned for fiscal purposes by Pope Urban V.
Cardinal Angelico (Anglico de Grimoard, brother of Urban V), papal legate residing in Bologna and author of the text, indicates in 2 piada the tributes that the town of Modigliana must pay to the Church. These are very large flatbreads, leavened and probably seasoned with lard, similar to what we know today as piadina sfogliata.
But lard is expensive and for few people. Finding food is especially difficult during wars, droughts, and diseases. Unfortunately, the frequent plague usually brings famine. And that of the 1300s is long and terrible. In Romagna, many could only afford piadina prepared with low-value grains, dried legumes, chestnuts, or, at worst, acorns, bran, and even sawdust. This is and will long remain the (disgusting) taste of piada.
In 1572, the Rimini physician Costanzo Felici, in a catalog on edible plants and various types of bread, refers to a kind of piadina similar to the current one.
However, in 1622, Giacomo Antonio Pedroni, priest at the Rimini cathedral, speaking about famine and rising prices, notes that poor people eat piadina made with vine shoots and broad beans.
During the nineteenth century, the spread of corn revived the cornmeal piadina. Piadina and pellagra, not surprisingly, would go hand in hand for a long time.
An 1899 health survey of under- and mono-feeding diseases reports that mashed potatoes, flatbreads, and piadina made of corn, cooked on iron, often raw inside, were the daily diet of peasants and the poor.
In the Inchiesta Agraria conducted between 1876 and 1881 throughout Italy on the living conditions of peasants, there is mention of two piadina, one for the rich and one for the poor. As part of the survey, Federico Masi, who compiled the monograph on the Cesena area (1879) after a hasty mention of the peasant version, talks about the one for the holiday table of wealthy people. Milk, eggs, and lard are recurring ingredients in the dough, often sweetened. The piadina is also a dessert for those with money.
In the early 20th century, the poet Giovanni Pascoli, who was born in Romagna, writes a poem titled La Piada, which he defines as bread for poor people.
The curious thing is that a few years later, he describes piadina as the national bread of the Romagnoli, celebrating the rich and fragrant version his sister Maria used to make him; many of his countrymen do not know piadina. You read that right: the round bread only exists in some areas of Romagna. In 1932, Romagna intellectual Eugenio Cavazzuti writes that it is almost unknown in municipalities north of Ravenna.
Until the 1940s, the term piada still encompassed a wide range of flatbreads of different types: leavened and unleavened, with or without lard, baked on the testo but also in boiling oil, over a fire, or under ashes.
New surveys conducted between 1940 and 1952 on the eating habits of rural populations show that there are still numerous pockets of poverty in Romagna and that piada is still made of corn or, at most, mixed with something else.
What happens to pasta throughout its thousand-year history is also what happens to piadina: the recipe evolves and changes, becoming, only recently, the national bread of Romagna people.
With the end of World War II, the centuries-old poverty that has always characterized Romagna also ends. The piadina remains a humble food: flour and water, but the ingredients are better, and the fillings are an appreciated novelty, just like the first kiosks selling piadina on the streets.
As I often tell my husband, Mr. Bolognese, you know you are in Romagna when you see a piadina kiosk.
Love, Monica
The Recipe.
Piadina from Rimini with olive oil
Ingredients
500 g of 00 flour
10 g of salt
2 g of baking soda powder
70 ml of olive oil
100 ml of room temperature milk (or water)
150/200 ml of lukewarm water
Method
Place the flour on a cutting board. With your fist, make a well in the center of the flour. On the edge, sparkle salt and baking soda powder.
In the center, pour the milk, olive oil, and half the hot water. Then, start bringing the flour toward the center and kneading, pouring in all the water as you go.
Knead the dough for a long time, even 10-12 minutes, until it is soft and elastic.
Cut out 6 balls of dough. Roll out the piadina with a rolling pin one at a time. Place the small rolling pin in the center of the ball and start spreading it out. Then, roll the piadina by pushing the rolling pin from the center outward.
Cook one piadina at a time on the hot pan for 3-4 minutes per side.
When the pan is hot, you may need less time.Keep the cooked piadina sealed in a clean dish towel to keep them warm while you cook the others; serve immediately.
As I told you during the 4 instalments devoted to Italian pasta, dry pasta originated as unleavened bread. These are the newsletters where I collected its history:
History of Italian Pasta (part 4)
Let’s keep the conversation going.
Write to me at tortellinico@gmail or follow me on Instagram.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please click on the little ❤️ below ⬇️ and