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Nonna's Piadina

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by mrslarkin

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This recipe was entered in the contest for The Best Recipe or Technique Your Mother Taught You

This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Brown Bag Lunch
A&M's Testing Notes: After making these “piadine” using a gorgeous, lightly-scented leaf lard, I was delighted to find that they combine a flavor similar to that of a Southern-style biscuit with a delicate Mediterranean...
After making these “piadine” using a gorgeous, lightly-scented leaf lard, I was delighted to find that they combine a flavor similar to that of a Southern-style biscuit with a delicate Mediterranean flatbread. And they are so easy to make! On a sweltering evening, we built a light dinner around them, with Manchego and some natural bacon for our first batch, served with a bright salad, which we followed with a piadina slathered with crunchy almond butter and paper thin slices of a ripe red pear. Perfect!! -  Antonia James

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Chef
mrslarkin's Notes: Piadina, an Italian flat bread, is one of the first recipes my mom taught me how to make when I was little. And I’m sure it’s one of the first recipes she learned as a young girl. As a...
Piadina, an Italian flat bread, is one of the first recipes my mom taught me how to make when I was little. And I’m sure it’s one of the first recipes she learned as a young girl.

As a kid, I loved playing with the dough and rolling out my very own piece, misshapen and crooked. To this day, I still can’t roll them perfectly round like mom can. In our family, piadina is a fixture at almost every get-together, be it lunch or dinner.

We love to eat it sandwiched with Prosciutto di Parma, or porchetta, or sliced mozzarella, or some frittata, with Nutella, or my favorite way, with a salad of sliced red onion and wild home-grown greens that we call radicchio, but are more like bitter dandelion greens.

I’m always trying to perfect my piadina, but my kids usually say “Nonna’s is better.” And I totally agree with them. I hope you enjoy the slideshow from today’s piadina lesson with Nonna - my mom, Anna. We had a lot of fun! - mrslarkin

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Serves 6

3 cups all-purpose flour Ask a question about this ingredient

1 teaspoon salt Ask a question about this ingredient

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder Ask a question about this ingredient

3 heaping tablespoons shortening or leaf lard Ask a question about this ingredient

3/4 cups warm water Ask a question about this ingredient

1/4 cup warm milk Ask a question about this ingredient

Fillings of your choice like Prosciutto, ham, mozzarella, fritatta, salad, Nutella, pretty much anything you want Ask a question about this ingredient

Place flour in a mound on pastry board or counter. Sprinkle on salt and baking powder, and mix together with your fingers.
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Make a well in the center. Drop in the shortening and rub it together with the flour using your fingertips. Lumps are okay! And it will still be pretty floury.
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Make a well again and pour in water and milk. Mix with fingers until dough comes together. Add a little more warm water or flour, if needed. You want a soft dough – not at all sticky. Knead for a couple minutes, and roll into a log shape.
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Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces, using a scale if you have one. With one hand, gently roll each piece on the board/counter into a ball. Mom says to use your thumb and nudge the dough ball under with each turn. Set each ball to the side on a sprinkling of flour and let rest for 5 minutes.
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Heat griddle to medium. Slightly flatten a ball and roll out dough to about 9 inches in diameter. Gently lift and place on hot griddle, scoring the piadina all over with the tines of a fork. If bubbles appear, quickly pierce those suckers with the fork. Cook each side for a few minutes or until each side develops some lightly browned spots. Remove to a clean dish cloth. Repeat with each ball, and stack each cooked piadina over one another. Loosely cover with a dish towel. When done, cut piadine into quarters and enjoy with your favorite sandwich fixings.
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Piadina freezes well. Reheat on a griddle over low heat, or wrapped in damp paper towels in the microwave.
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27 Comments on Nonna's Piadina

pauljoseph added about 1 year ago

Almost like chapathy I will try thank you for your lovely recipe mrslarkin

mrslarkin added about 1 year ago

Thank you pauljoseph!

Midge added about 1 year ago

Love the story and pictures. I have similar memories of rolling out dough with my grandma; still have the kid-sized rolling pin she gave me. Must try this.

mrslarkin added about 1 year ago

Thanks Midge! Fun food memories!

gingerroot added about 1 year ago

What wonderful photos and recipe. Thank you so much for sharing both!! The museum I used to work at had a great piadina sandwich filled with prosciutto, arugula, mozzarella and pesto - I am so happy to have a piadina recipe now, will definitely try soon.

mrslarkin added about 1 year ago

Oh, thanks gingerroot! The museum piadina sounds very yummy!

mrslarkin added about 1 year ago

That is so great, thirschfeld! Glad you liked the piadina. And glad you used the lard, too! More authentic that way. Looking forward to your Hoppin' John recipe, which I hope you'll post!

thirschfeld added about 1 year ago

Made these tonight to go with all things a Hoppin' John dish I have been working on. They are so so so good. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.

thirschfeld added about 1 year ago

Oh and of course I went the lard route.

Annelle added over 2 years ago

Love the recipe and the pictures!

mrslarkin added over 2 years ago

Oh, thanks so much, Annelle!

MrsWheelbarrow added over 2 years ago

Thanks, MrsLarkin. The photos were so helpful and so heartwarming! I can't wait to make these.

mrslarkin added over 2 years ago

You're welcome, MrsW! Let me know how it turns out.

thirschfeld added over 2 years ago

Those look great. Really like all the photos too because I was wondering if these were anything like Sardinian Sheet Music bread which I make all the time. They are similar but not the same and these look really good and I will have to try them.

mrslarkin added over 2 years ago

Thanks so much, thirschfeld. I took way too many photos so narrowed it down to these. So funny - we were talking about "carta da musica" yesterday. We've never made it. You should post your recipe! Bittman's got a recipe for it that looks super easy: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/dining/24mini.html?ref=dining