Pane Frattau

Sheets of carasau softened in broth and layered with tomato, under a poached egg.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains meat the source does not name, pecorino whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 8 sheets pane carasau
• 700 ml light meat broth, hot
• 500 g passata
• 2 garlic cloves
• 120 g aged pecorino, grated
• 4 eggs
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• basil

Method

1. Make a simple tomato sauce with the oil, garlic and passata, 25 minutes, and keep it hot.
2. Keep the broth at a bare simmer in a wide pan.
3. DIP EACH SHEET OF CARASAU IN THE HOT BROTH FOR THREE OR FOUR SECONDS ONLY, then lift it out. It goes from brittle to pliable almost instantly, and ten seconds turns it to paste.
4. Lay a softened sheet on a warmed plate, spoon tomato over, scatter pecorino, and repeat — three layers per plate.
5. Poach the eggs in the tomato-tinged broth for 3 minutes and set one on each stack.
6. Finish with more pecorino and basil and serve at once. This is a dish that exists because the bread keeps for months and the broth is what brings it back.

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