Parmesan Piadine (Italian Flatbreads)

Classic piadine Italian flatbreads, with a dusting of Parmesan cheese, and drizzle of olive oil. Instructions include baking at high altitude and at sea level. For more information on baking with olive oil, check out this post.

Flatbreads are among the easiest breads to make at home, and every culture has created their own over thousands of years. In Mexico, it's the tortilla. Here's a recipe for making easy flour tortillas in your own kitchen. And if you like cornbread, try your hand at making arepas, a cornmeal flatbread often served with arepa fillings.

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We’re here now. Living in Tahoe full-time … one of the most beautiful places to live – and, I’ve decided, one of the most insane for weather. While you planted flowers last week, we watched two feet of fresh snow blow through, and we’re expecting more in a couple days. Cah-razy!

There’s more nature than people here, with yipping coyotes out back causing us to snuggle just a little deeper into our beds at night, and bears ripping off the boards enclosing trash containers. Some friends don’t understand why we’ve left the civilization of San Francisco for a small town with a long snowy winter. They ask, “Won’t you miss _________ (fill in the blank)??” Yes, I will, and do. But for now, living in the mountains is where I want to be.

I need to slow down. I need to get off the eternal wheel of stuffing my days with more things than time realistically allows. When I first moved to California nearly 30 years ago (OMG, am I really that old??), I likened it to a merry-go-round that everyone was on. After a year, I was on the merry-go-round, gaily holding on with one hand as if it were a bucking bronco. Another year or more gone by, and that merry-go-round and I were one. Merged, Borg-like. Sleeping problems ensued, and life became a sport.

Busy-ness is an addiction.

A couple of weeks ago, we were in the Bay Area, packing up our lives in preparation to move. Each day, I (frantically) made the rounds to all my restaurant haunts, as if we were leaving for the depths of Mongolia, and not expected to return. It was easy to justify – after all, we’d boxed up the kitchen. But my mission was a bit manic at times, and I gained all the weight back that I’d lost in January and February.

One of my favorite lunch places serves soft, warm piadine slices with any salad for an extra $4.00. A bargain, trust me. Huge slices are stacked on a separate plate, thin, stretchy, and covered with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. And now that I’m living in Siberia (ok, maybe an exaggeration), my new life’s goal is to re-create that bread.

Piadina is an Italian flatbread from north-central Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It’s a simple bread of flour, lard or olive oil, water, and salt. Variations abound, of course, with baking powder or yeast additions being the most common, and originally lard was more used than olive oil.

Confession: This version isn’t what I had in the Bay Area, but it’s wonderful none-the-less. Instead of the stretchy version, this one is more like a very thin biscuit. Slather it with jam, butter, or rain some Parmesan cheese across it. It's all good.

As a note: I baked it, but it’s traditionally cooked in a skillet on a stovetop. Cook (or bake) them a shorter time for a flexible bread perfect for folding over cheese and vegetables to create a tortilla-like sandwich. Cook them until crisp, and you get a crisp bottom for a thin pizza flatbread.

I’m still experimenting, so brace yourself for more versions over the coming months, but this one has earned a place at our table regularly.

Baking Adjustments for Sea Level:

If you live at sea level, or reasonable close to it, make the following changes to the recipe:

• Use the full 16 ounces of bread flour
• Increase the baking powder to 1 ½ tablespoons
• Decrease the olive oil to ¼ cup (4 tablespoons)
• Decrease the water to 1 cup
• Bake for 12 minutes

By the way, check out this great bread dipping oil to use for this bread. It's a delicious, restaurant style bread dipping oil that uses fresh herbs, garlic, grated Parmesan cheese, and a few spices.

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5 from 12 votes

Parmesan Piadine (Italian Flatbreads)

This recipe for making piadina at high altitudes, specifically around 6500 feet. For making this bread at sea level, please refer to the notes in the blog post. The bake time below assume each bread round will be baking individually. Each piadina takes 14 minutes baking time.

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Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

bread rising time1 hour hr

Total Time2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: flatbread, italian bread, piadina, piadine

Servings: 4 rounds

Calories: 590.4kcal

Author: Susan Pridmore

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Equipment

• Kitchen scale
• Stand mixer
• rolling pin
• Parchment paper
• Pizza stone

Ingredients

• 16 ounces bread flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon warm water
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
• Ground black pepper

Instructions

• Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook.
• Pour in the olive oil, water, and lemon juice all at once, and knead at a medium-low speed for 10 minutes. The dough should be very smooth. Cover for one hour, to allow the dough to rest. This will make it easier to roll the dough thinner.
• Preheat the oven to 400˚F with a pizza stone.
• Divide the dough into four balls. Lightly flour the counter or work surface, and press one of the balls of dough with your hand. Cover the other balls with plastic. Roll the flattened ball of dough into a very thin circle of dough, as thin as you can get it. Mine were about 1/10" thick.
• Place on a sheet of parchment paper, slide onto the back of a baking sheet or cookie sheet, and sprinkle with a one tablespoon cheese. Slide the bread rounds (including the parchment paper) onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for 14 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove, and repeat with the remaining four balls of dough.

Nutrition

Calories: 590.4kcal | Carbohydrates: 83.4g | Protein: 15.8g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 3.7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13.4g | Cholesterol: 4.3mg | Sodium: 2164.9mg | Potassium: 121.6mg | Fiber: 2.7g | Sugar: 0.4g | Vitamin A: 51.2IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 268.6mg | Iron: 1.5mg