Crescia

A peppery egg flatbread cooked dry on a hot stone and folded round a filling.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 150 ml water
• 60 g lard
• 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 10 g salt

Method

1. Work the flour, eggs, water, lard, pepper and salt into a firm dough and knead 10 minutes. Rest it 1 hour.
2. USE A GREAT DEAL MORE PEPPER THAN FEELS RIGHT. It is the flavour of the bread rather than a seasoning in it, and two teaspoons in five hundred grams of flour is the point rather than an error.
3. Divide into six and roll each as thin as you can, 2 to 3 mm, about 25 cm across.
4. Heat a heavy flat pan or a stone until a flick of flour browns on it in seconds. NO OIL IN THE PAN — this is cooked dry, and the lard is already in the dough.
5. Cook each one 1 to 2 minutes a side, pressing the blisters down with a cloth as they rise, until it is marked with brown spots and still flexible.
6. Stack them under a cloth as they come off so they stay soft.
7. Fold round ham, greens or cheese and eat at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes