Panigaccio

An unleavened batter cooked between stacked terracotta discs.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g plain flour
• 600 ml water
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• olive oil, for the discs

Method

1. Whisk the flour, water and salt to a thin batter, about the consistency of single cream, and rest it 30 minutes.
2. NO YEAST, NO KNEADING AND NO PROVING. This is a batter poured from a jug, not a dough — closer to a pancake than to any of the loaves it sits beside.
3. Heat terracotta discs — testi — in a fire or a 250C oven until they are properly hot, 30 minutes at least. A cold disc gives a pale, leathery result.
4. Oil a hot disc, pour a ladle of batter on, and STACK THE NEXT HOT DISC ON TOP. Build a stack of six or eight.
5. The stack is the oven: each disc cooks the batter above it and below it at once, and the weight keeps them thin.
6. Leave 4 minutes, then take the stack apart and peel each one off.
7. Eat them hot, torn, with pesto or stracchino. They go leathery within ten minutes of cooling, so they are made to order rather than in advance.

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