The piadina romagnola is the flat unleavened bread produced in Romagna . The motto of Romagna is “Piadina and ballroom dancing”, two indispensable ‘elements’ renewed and practised every day. “ Romagna mia” is the song sung around here and on its keynotes the whole region always moves. Here people live with “ballroom dancing” in the soul and piadina in the heart.  compelling music and a good odour of flour work their way everywhere: thousands of Piadine are made and eaten every second and this happens only in Romagna . There is not a lot to explain: the piadina’s success is founded on its simplicity – water, flour, salt and lard, four basic “keynotes” unchanged throughout the years that give it its delicious taste, strange at times, thanks to that characteristic slightly “burnt” part: its surface is indeed full of little bubbles blackened by the contact with the roasting hot-plate. We could also assert that piadina has got that “peculiar taste” that makes it suitable for any gastronomic adventure. Or better, a “pié” (the way people form Romagna call it familiarly) that has not remained confined into the grandmother’s kitchen but has become a public temptation.? Today, whoever happens to be around cannot avoid noticing the funny kiosks that sells piadina romagnola along the streets. The banners that announce the sale of piadina are painted with white and blue, white and red or white and green stripes.  The colours are not random but reflect, according to the municipality rules, the colours of the cabins and parasols that furnished the “bagni” (bathing establishments) of the Adriatic Riviera beaches. Before the beginning of package tours holidays at the beginning of the 60s’, the “baracchini” (kiosks) were a rarity and the “piè” were only prepared in some of the trattorias on the hills or eaten in dinner parties, as they were prepared mainly at home. Today we can count on about 500 kiosks only in the provinces of Forlì, Cesena, Rimini and Ravenna and which employ over a thousand of people. However, the consumption area of the piadina’s goes right along the all Adriatic Coast , from Ravenna to Gabicce, and up into the hinterland, behind the Apennines .  Nowadays however, piadina can easily be found in any Italian supermarket but the one eaten in Romagna has always something more! Is it necessary to have so many people involved in a dough made from a bit of water and flour with a pinch of salt and some lard? Yes, it is thanks to a sizeable yearly business (about £15 million), supported by all the people who do not give up the pleasure of enjoying delicious tastes of piadina’s homeland!

Piadina’s ingredients, as we saw previously, are always the same, as  is its shape, a flat disc that measures about 25 cm of diameter. In the restaurants the piadina is served baking hot, sprinkled with herbs or accompanied by parma ham slices. However, the real eating of  piadina takes place in the afternoon, at tea time, when a non-stop procession of people pour into the kiosks, pursuing the smell of the parma ham and the fresh taste of squaquaròn (a kind of mild cheese) that is typical of piadina. The piadina is better, much better than a dessert, and you can choose any ingredient to put in it: sausages, baked-vegetables, traditional onions, ‘innovative’ peppers, sliced ham, salami, bologna. The latest generation of gourmands ascertain that the maximum for the “luviria” (dialect word that means greed) is piadina and nutella, while the older generation is divided between those who accepted this extravaganza and those who considered it a profanity. The cost of piadina is similar to that of a take-away pizza: €1 for the plain one and €4/5 for the filled ones. All the coloured kiosks other than the piadina also sell a variation, called “cassone” or “crescione” that is characteristic of Emilia. It is made of the same dough  but it is thinner, folded like a calzone pizza and stuffed with herbs or meat and vegetables, depending on the fancy and the taste of the “arzdore” – local dialectal word used to call the women who makes this speciality. Today they no longer use a rolling-pin as they did once but  use  special machines to roll out the puff pastry, an electric cutter for the stuffing  and other essential equipment such as cast-iron hotplates that allow the cooking of more piadinas at the same time. However the “arzdore” are still important as they have a special eye for the cooking of the piadina, that needs to be cooked neither too little nor too much. They do not need a timer in order to establish when the piadina is ready to serve, but only their experience, an experience that comes with the years. It is connected with the thousand-year production of buns and “azzimi” bread (unleavened bread) that constituted the sober and almost forced diet of our fore-fathers that could be prepared quickly for an unexpected guests, as with the ingredients, the preparation and cooking were easy and quick. A stone disc on coal cooked the differently shaped bread that men and women put on its surface: the “gallette”, the buns, the “chapatty”, the “ciorak”, the “carta musica”, the “spianata”, the tortilla and the piadina. We would like to advise you of some noteworthy kiosks: in front of Riccione station there is “da Frank” (as Frank is the owner) and the “frank” is the piadina with the most stuffing  (it is also difficult to hold it) but they also make amazing cassoni with sausage, tomato, mozzarella and chilli. Another place is the little kiosk on Viale Gramsci where you can eat the very special classical piadina with ham. Outside Riccione we suggest the kiosk of Gabicce Monte which is located along the spectacular Belvedere with a beautiful day and night view that deserves a stop; another must is in Rimini, by the four horses fountain close to the Grand Hotel (Fellini’s temple) and  is called “la casina nel bosco” (the little house in the wood): the staff are efficient, the squaquerone delicious and the piadine very romantic in their irregular shapes.