Great-grandma’s piadina receipe (and Italian listening practice!)

When I see my Romagnoli in-laws they’ll often proudly present me with plastic bag of frozen piadine and crescioni, a traditional local food made for them by the widow who lives downstairs.

Don’t know what my father-in-law does for her, but she’s certainly very grateful. As am I.

Piadine and Crescioni are not the sort of thing you’ll see on the menu in an Italian restaurant, so you may not be familiar with them.

We’re talking peasant food, nothing fancy.

They’re made with cheap ingredients and are easy and quick to prepare, if you know how.

To amaze your kids/spouse/dinner party guests with authentic Romagnolo cooking, give these two recipes a try.

Both are suitable for even the most inexperienced cooks.

They’re also great for practising your listening in Italian!

Ready? So first, let’s over to Youtube to see how piadine are made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hu0BerJ2rk

Got that?

Now, with the same basic dough, you can do something much more impressive. Crescioni!

The signorina will now show you how:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30WL2fDx_eI

Tomato and mozzarella are all very well… but the great thing about crescioni is that you can fill them with whatever you please.

The widow uses traditional Romagnole “erbe” (translates as “grasses” or “herbs”… God knows where she gets them from as I’ve never seen them in a shop. Maybe the back yard.)

Our local lunch place in Bologna offers a whole menu of crescioni fillings, speck and gorgonzola (together) being a personal favorite.

Insomma, the only limit to what you put in your crescioni is your imagination.

(By the way, if you don’t have a flat “testa” for cooking your piadine/crescioni on, a large frying pan will do just fine.)

(Another by the way: if you have kids, or grandkids, making crescioni is a great way to keep them busy on a rainy Sunday afternoon!)

 

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