By popular demand, here is my recipe for my piada without lard, or piada/piadina made with oil.
Many of you asked me why I didn’t yet have on the blog a recipe for piada without lard, me who loves vegetarian cooking so much. The reason is – it may sound strange but it’s true – that I rarely make the oil-based piada, practically never.
As you already know, for me the piada recipe is not just a Romagna traditional recipe, it’s a genuine food of memory. One of those fundamental cornerstones to which the simple definition of original Romagnola recipe feels too small.
For years I have had a personal feeling that the ‘true’ piada existed only in those times when it was made only with lard, and cooked only on the teggia (or testo), on a tripod in the fireplace, or on an old stove after removing the correct number of rings and placing the teggia in their place… Of course, maybe it’s not entirely so, but it comes close, and inside me that’s how I experience it. The piada as a symbol of an era. Nothing to do with the Romagna piadina that everyone knows today.
(Not to mention that now many of us must deal with induction cooktops, the final confirmation of my ‘personal feeling’ mentioned above.) (I’ll add some additional details in the FAQ after the recipe about cooking piada on induction cooktops.)
In my culinary evolution there is a before, made of traditional, regional, family recipes of memory, recipes I am very attached to, and there is an after, where my way of cooking and eating changed. Both are important. The piada belongs to the before.
At my home the word piada implies “with lard.” There’s no specification, it is understood. So I don’t often make the oil-based piada because it’s not automatic for me. It’s an imprint. When I don’t have, or can’t get from my mother, lard (because ‘you don’t buy it at the supermarket’, it must be homemade, it’s a dogma) I make something else. Focacce, pite, balloon breads, pseudo-piadine with licoli discard, not piade.
Not that piada without lard didn’t exist, even in those times. Yes, it existed, but it was an exception, actually a fallback. In my childhood memories it existed occasionally, only when the lard had run out (and that was a serious deprivation).
I have a vivid memory, a precise scene: me, a 5-6 year old child, in the kitchen – the old kitchen, the one with the table with the side hole for the rolling pin – with my mother, who is about to make the piada for dinner while I watch, as almost always. I see her pour the oil into the flour well, and I ask “why are you putting oil today?” A question that may seem trivial, but it’s not: the piada without lard was such an heresy that five-year-old me wanted to know why. My mother’s answer: tonight we don’t have bread and the lard is finished.
Why specify that the bread (back then it was bought every morning) is finished? And why specify that the lard is finished?
Simple: because at the time the piada was not a so-called typical dish, not a recipe for summer tourists, and not street food (for me the ‘true’ piada will never be street food). It was bread. The piada was the main substitute for bread.
It was made whenever ‘we ran out of bread’, or whenever the fridge was half-empty, but there were always two lettuce leaves and two slices of ham (there was always a small stock of cold cuts from January onward). Making the piade turned a dinner without bread into a real dinner.
In short, the current idea of “I’ll grab a piada because I’m in a hurry” didn’t exist. Meals were always something serious to be eaten sitting at the table, never quick. And the piada was among the serious things because it had to be made—kneaded, rolled and cooked—not taken out of a bag and served. Meanwhile the ham or salami was taken out and sliced with a knife slowly, also not taken from a bag and gone.
Once cooked, all the piade — since a certain quantity was made while kneading, as the next day they could be eaten dry for a snack — were placed (folded in half or cut into quarters) in a basket covered with a napkin to keep them warm, a basket that was brought to the table in place of the bread basket.
In all this the option of oil-based piada was nonexistent; there was no doubt about the priority ingredient. Only in one case could the piada ingredients become a topic of conversation, when during dinner someone (the dad) would say: tonight the piada is different. And mother: hey, the lard is finished!
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👇 My other traditional recipes: 👇
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Low-cost
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 5-6 flatbreads
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Region: Emilia-Romagna
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups type 0 flour
- 3 1/2 tbsp mild extra-virgin olive oil (or vegetable oil)
- 6 tbsp water
- 6 tbsp milk
- 1 pinch (salt)
Tools
- Bowl
- Fork
- Pastry board
- Rolling pin
- Cast-iron griddle
Steps
Pour the flour into a bowl (or directly onto the pastry board) and make a well in the center.
Pour in the oil, then add the milk and the water (+ the pinch of salt, for those who use it).
👉 My mother used half milk and half water, but you can use all water (as in the lard version), especially if you use extra-virgin olive oil. Seed oil usually makes the piada drier, which is why milk is added: to compensate for the tendency to dry out typical of the oil-based piada compared to the lard one.
Briefly work the dough by hand then transfer the mixture to the pastry board.
☝ It must be said that the quantities of water and milk are indicative (they might vary by 10 or 20 grams) because, as always, the flour’s absorption can vary. I made this recipe 3 times before deciding to write it and I never used the same weight of water and milk. As with the piada made with lard and with all doughs in general, working by feel remains the best approach.
Knead by hand until you obtain a cohesive but slightly rough dough, you don’t need to refine it too much.
Let the dough rest covered with the bowl for at least half an hour (if desired, up to a few hours).
Divide the dough into small rolls and roll them with the rolling pin to get a thin disk of dough.
The number of piade you get depends on how large (and how thin) you want them (the piada alla riminese is wide and thin). With the ingredients in this recipe you obtain 5-6 piade.
Put the teggia (or testo, or non-stick griddle) on the heat to warm up.
👉 As already described in the traditional piada recipe, the so-called Romagna testo – which in many areas is clay, in others cast iron, and which here is called teggia and is iron – has now been replaced by non-stick testos (multiuse, also usable to cook vegetables or other items) similar to crepe griddles.
☝ Once the griddle is heated, cook the piade over medium heat, or adjust the flame as needed, to avoid burning the piada on the surface.
Place a piada on the griddle. As it heats (in a minute or a little more), bubbles form; it’s good to pierce them with a fork to prevent them from inflating too much. Don’t leave the piada still; move it continuously to avoid burning the back of the bubbles.
Check the cooking by lifting an edge with the fork, then flip the piada and cook the other side, always rotating it.
In 3-4 minutes the piada is cooked. Be careful not to overcook it otherwise it will dry out.
Here it is, the piada without lard perfectly cooked. 😊
All that’s left is to fold it in half and serve immediately. It’s delicious. Even without lard it’s delicious, I must say. 😊
Salt-free tips
For my usual salt-free tips I can only repeat what I explained in the traditional piada with lard recipe: since my mother obviously adds a pinch of salt, I have indicated it in the ingredients here as well to respect my mother’s original recipe, even if for her this oil version is occasional, as I’ve told. If you are used to a low-sodium diet like me, I’m sure you won’t feel the need to add salt here either. 😊
If you are interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
▫ Reduce salt gradually; the palate must get used to it slowly and not notice the progressive reduction.
▫ Use spices. Chili, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
▫ Use aromatic herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
▫ Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
▫ Use pungent vegetables or fruits. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
▫ Use my salt-free vegetable granulate and gomasio.
▫ Prefer fresh foods.
▫ Avoid boiling in water; prefer cooking methods that don’t disperse flavors (griddle, foil, steam, microwave).
▫ Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
▫ Allow yourself an occasional indulgence. It lifts the mood and helps you persevere.
If you don’t want, or cannot, give up salt:
▫ You can still try my recipes seasoning to your usual taste.
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FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Can piada be cooked on induction cooktops?
The answer is yes, using a griddle suitable for induction. But what I would give to show my grandmothers an induction stove, and to hear their opinion on the piade that, just a few evenings ago, I cooked at my mother’s house!
In the new home, my mother has an induction cooktop and even a special ‘Romagna testo for induction’ (from a well-known brand), but I must say that, yes, we cooked them, but with results I would describe as difficult. The griddle never manages to heat adequately despite the maximum temperature setting, so the cooking time for each piada doubled (and fortunately we make our piade thin).
Also, induction concentrates the heat only in the center of the griddle, so our typical wide Riminese piade suffered quite a bit at the edges. Next time we’ll try making smaller piade.
Certainly not all induction cooktops are the same, but I can report that my daughter and sister-in-law, who have induction cooktops different from my mother’s, encountered the same problem, even using different griddles or ordinary non-stick pans.
We will try other types of griddles or pans until, I’m sure, we find one that allows us to stay as faithful as possible to tradition. 🤗
