Tigella or Mountain Crescentina from Modena

Some foods remind me of special memories and experiences.
So it is for me with tigella, a typical flatbread of the Emilia-Romagna region.

I grew up in Romagna and tigelle (at the plural), or crescentine montanare, an Emilia specialty.
I only discovered and appreciated them after moving to Bologna. It is true that decades ago, they were not as widespread as today, and you can find them even in the supermarket.

I add that I have never eaten a tigella during the first twenty years of my life. It may seem incredible, but that’s the truth. At home and outside, only piadina, and only the one typical of my area, that you find in the provinces of Forlì and Ravenna called piadina of Bertinoro, different from the thin one of the Rimini-Cattolica area called piadina of Rimini.

It is right that there is always something to learn or to taste at every step of life.

Saturday’s dinner

A cookbook is never just a collection of ingredients and methods.
When I leaf through one of the family recipe books, I often leave for a trip among memories. Each recipe is a dive into the waves of a peaceful and welcoming sea.

Some foods, however, more than others, are connected not only, or not so much, to good memories.

They are stones placed on the sides of the road to indicate the kilometers missing from the finish line or to symbolize transformation or a goal. The tigelle symbolically represents the passage from my life as a girl to my adult life.

Of course, I wasn’t aware of what I see so clearly today. But when I think back to Saturday night dinners a long time ago, I realize it is so.

About that period, I remember a lovely group of my boyfriend-not-yet-husband’s friends who shared a passion for good food.

For a few years, we tried restaurants, trattorias, and osterie in the area between Modena, Bologna, and Ferrara every weekend.

The Saturday night package included choosing the place, organizing the caravan of cars, getting lost in the fog, braving the rain, climbing to the top of certain hills unknown to any map, looking silently in front of a night sky full of stars, eating until you burst, and then starting again to finish the last tigelle with Nutella and jams.

Regardless of the length of the trip or the weather conditions, we lived our adventure every Saturday night.

When we finished university and started working, those carefree evenings also ended. One day, we were young girls and boys, and the next, we were adults.

Tigella bread

They have a very ancient origin, and the name comes from the terracotta mold already used in Roman times.
Molds that later, in recent times, became made of cast iron or metal.

Tigelle and piadine are the same large family of ancient, thin breads.

This type of bread unites many different cultures and is part of the history of all humanity.

Like piadina, tigelle is also a preparation of cucina povera.

To bake tigelle, it is not necessary to own a tigelliera. The characteristic of the modern mold is to reproduce the typical squiggles that used to be made by hand. But you can make a good tigella bread even without decoration.

Don’t forget the tip. In Modena, ask for crescentine montanare; in Bologna, for tigella because crescentina is fried bread. Tigella was the name of the old firestone molds used to bake them.

I sincerely thank Mina, who one day, smiling, told me, “Here, I’ll lend it to you.” It was the recipe she wrote on a piece of paper. This was an important loan since Mina was one of the great Bolognese cooks of the last century.

Please take note of this advice given to me by the legendary former owners of the Rocca di Badolo restaurant in the 1980s, Mina and Luciano: NEVER let tigelle defrost at room temperature. As soon as you take them out of the freezer, put them immediately on a hot griddle for a minute or two and turn on both sides. That way, they stay soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Otherwise, you risk serving them a little mushy.

Buona cucina, Monica

Cook with me

Piadina of Bertinoro
Piadina of Rimini
Crescentine of Bologna

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Tigella bread

Tigelle are small round flatbreads usually eaten stuffed with pesto modenese, cheese, and charcuteries

Course Aperitif, Appetizer, Bread, Snack

Cuisine Emilia-Romagna

Keyword Tigella, Tigelle

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 27 minutes minutes

2 hours of rest 2 hours hours

Servings 6 servings

Equipment

• mold for tigelle or oven

Ingredients

• 500 g of 0 flour
• 50 g lard or 30 g olive oil or 30 g olive oil
• 7 g of brewer's yeast powder
• 15 g of sugar
• 120 g of cold sparkling water
• 200 g of milk
• 7 g of fine salt

Instructions

• In a bowl, also the one in the planetary mixer, mix the flour with yeast and sugar.
• Add the cold sparkling water and knead for a couple of minutes, then add the milk, lard or olive oil, and salt.
• Knead the dough for about 5-6 minutes until smooth and homogeneous. Then move it to a floured work surface.
• Form the dough into a classic ball and let it rest for about an hour, covering it with a clean kitchen towel.
• Now, tear off pieces of the dough with your hands, never using a knife. Each piece must be the same weight. With 1/2 kg of flour you get 30 mini tigelle of 30 g each, or 15 tigelle of 50g perfect for an appetizer/appetizer for 6 people. Let them rest for 30 minutes under a tea towel.
• Then, lightly flatten the dough balls, forming rounds that should rest for 30 minutes covered by a kitchen towel.
• Lightly grease the tigelle pan with olive oil, heat the mold on the stove on both sides, place pieces of dough in the mold, close the mold on itself, and cook on medium-low flame for about 3 minutes per side. If you don't have a mold, shape the tigelle into round shapes using a round cookie cutter or pastry cup (about 10 cm in diameter) and bake in a preheated oven at 180C (356F) degrees, for about 15-20 minutes, turning them halfway through baking.
• Serve tigelle with cold cuts, cheeses, Modenese pesto, pickles, and vegetables. It also goes well with Nutella and jam.

Tips

• With 1/2 kg of flour you get 30 mini tigelle of 30 g each, or 15 tigelle of 50g perfect for an appetizer/appetizer for 6 people.
• Store tigelle out of the refrigerator for a few days.
• You can freeze tigelle after baking. Place them on the hot plate straight from the freezer to reheat them. Do not let them thaw out of the freezer to room temperature, or they will get a little mushy.