You can think of Piadinas as the Italian answer to Tortillas. They’re thin, and when you fish them straight out of the pan, they have this fresh taste that goes great with anything out of your garden. They’re also basic as basic can get. No lard, no shortening, no baking soda. They can be made large or small and be kept for a day or two in your fridge.
Mighty Quick Piadinas
Total cooking time from prep to finish is about 1 hour. Makes about 8 medium or 6 large piadinas, depending on thickness.
You’ll need:
- 2 cups all-purpose flower (You can substitue 1 cup of whole wheat)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Water (keep some around, you’ll be adding this slowly)
Start by combining the flower, salt, and oil in a large mixing bowl. If you have a mixer and feel like using it, that’s great, if not, just get ready to start using your hands. Using a fork, start combining the contents of the mixing bowl. After the flower, salt and oil are combined, slowly start adding the water. You’re looking for the dough to be just moist enough to turn into a large soft ball. If it isn’t sticking together, or feels a little dry, add more water. If it starts to turn into soup, add more flower slowly.
After you have your doughball, take it out of the bowl and place it on a large lightly flowered cutting board, or counter, or whatever you have that’s flat and will take a good pounding. Start kneeding the dough, mainly with the heel of your palm. Smash it out flat on the board from four directions, then fold it back up and flip it over. Keep doing this for about 3 – 5 minutes.
Now that you’ve given the dough a good beating, form it back into a ball and let it sit on your cutting board. Now let it rest for 20 minutes. While you’re waiting, grab a large flat pan and place it on the stove. Be sure to keep it dry, no oil or butter.
When the dough has rested the 20 minutes, roll it into a large long log. Try to keep it as consistent in thickness as possible, and do keep it rather thick. Next, take a knife and divide it into sections. The larger the section, the larger the piadina will be when rolled out.
Before you go any further, turn on the heat under that pan we put on the stove a step ago. High heat is fine.
After the dough is divided, roll them into small balls and place aside. Now, you’ll need a rolling pin. If you don’t have a rolling pin, grab another large flat pan, and cover the bottom with flower. Take a doughball and roll it out as if it had four corners. In the beginning, roll four corners, then flip and do it again. After a few flips, you can roll allot more without flipping.
If you need to use that pan, place the dough in the center of your cutting board and place the pan on top. Now press evenly and firmly down on the pan, centered on where the doughball is. Then remove the pan, flip the dough, and do it again.
Through either rolling method, keep pressing until you have your desired thickness. You can keep piadinas thick and they’ll become slightly chewy, or if you make them thin, you can make them really crispy and great for dipping.
When you have one rolled out to a desired size, place it in the heated pan. When the piadina’s cook, they’ll bubble up in places where air was caught in the dough. This can actually be kind of cool in the final product, but if you don’t want this effect, take a fork and puncture all over the exposed side of the dough once in the pan.
Now watch your flatbread cook. If you want them slightly chewy, it should only take about a minute and a half each side. It’s cooked when you start seeing a few char marks on one side, just pry it up with your fork to check. When one side is cooked, flip and wait another minute. When both sides have that nice char, fish it out and place on a plate. Stack the piadinas on top of each other while cooking. If you’ve decided to keep these crispy, place a sheet of paper towel at the bottom of the stack to absorb moisture as you keep cooking.
Repeat the rolling and cooking steps until you’re out of dough. I usually roll out one piadina while one is cooking in the pan, so I get an assembly line process going.
These go great as sandwich wraps, or cut into sections and served with salsa. You can use them almost anywhere you might use a tortilla, or for a more italian experience, try serving with a small bowl of olive oil and some diced tomato mixed with parmesan cheese.
More info about the Piadina here:
