{"id":27032,"date":"2020-09-12T15:21:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T13:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tortelliniandco.com\/?p=27032"},"modified":"2025-01-14T10:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T09:05:01","slug":"tigella-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tortelliniandco.com\/en\/tigella-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigella or Mountain Crescentina from Modena"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some foods remind me of special memories and experiences.
\nSo it is for me with tigella, a typical flatbread of the Emilia-Romagna region.<\/p>\n

I grew up in Romagna and tigelle (at the plural), or crescentine montanare, an Emilia specialty.
\nI 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.<\/p>\n

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 Forl\u00ec and Ravenna called piadina of Bertinoro, different from the thin one of the Rimini-Cattolica area called piadina of Rimini.<\/p>\n

It is right that there is always something to learn or to taste at every step of life.<\/p>\n

\"Tigella<\/p>\n

Saturday’s dinner<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A cookbook is never just a collection of ingredients and methods.
\nWhen 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.<\/p>\n

Some foods, however, more than others, are connected not only, or not so much, to good memories.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

For a few years, we tried restaurants, trattorias, and osterie in the area between Modena, Bologna, and Ferrara every weekend.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the length of the trip or the weather conditions, we lived our adventure every Saturday night.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Via<\/p>\n

Tigella bread<\/strong><\/h5>\n

They have a very ancient origin, and the name comes from the terracotta mold already used in Roman times.
\nMolds that later, in recent times, became made of cast iron or metal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tigelle and piadine are the same large family of ancient, thin breads.<\/span><\/p>\n

This type of bread unites many different cultures and is part of the history of all humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like piadina, tigelle is also a preparation of cucina povera.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Don’t forget the tip. In Modena, ask for crescentine montanare; in Bologna, for tigella because <\/span>crescentina<\/span><\/a><\/strong> is fried bread. Tigella was the name of the old firestone molds used to bake them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buona cucina, Monica<\/p>\n

Cook with me<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Piadina of Bertinoro<\/a><\/strong>
\nPiadina of Rimini<\/a><\/strong>
\nCrescentine of Bologna<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
Keep in Touch<\/b><\/h5>\n