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The story of Piadina and where to eat it

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Piadina and ballroom dancing. These are two authentic passions which characterize the whole of the territory. “ Romagna mia” is the most famous song here, and ballroom dancing is the background music which accompanies hearty meals based on traditional piadina from Romagna. The smooth music combines with the pleasant smell of flour, the basic ingredient of thousands of piadinas which are cooked and eaten all day long.

The keys to the success of the traditional piadina from Romagna are its genuine ingredients, that is to say water, flour, salt and lard, and plenty of burnt bubbles which form on its surface when in contact with the hot plate, which give it a special flavour.

However, piadina does not feature a strong taste and goes well with nearly every food. This is the main reason why local inhabitants decided to promote piadina (or “pié” , as they call it) as the symbol of their culture all over the world.

Nowadays, those flocking to the Riviera can take advantage of plenty of stalls which sell piadina romagnola along the streets. They are characterized by white and blue, white and red and white and green stripes, in compliance with municipal rules which state their colours must be the same as the ones of bathing huts and beach umbrellas which embellish local bathing establishments.

At the beginning of the 60s, before the spread of mass tourism, the so-called “baracchini” (stalls) were not so popular and “piè” was only served in some trattorias or prepared at home. Today, over 500 stalls situated across the provinces of Forlì, Cesena, Rimini and Ravenna employ thousands of people.

However, piadina is eaten across the whole of the Adriatic Coast, from Ravenna to Gabicce, and in the hilltowns situated on the slopes of the Apennines as well. Although it is now possible to find piadina in any Italian supermarket, the one eaten in Romagna has something more!

Many people are involved in the preparation of piadina and constantly work flour with water, a pinch of salt and some lard, thus obtaining an annual turnover of almost twenty billions supported by all those who do not give up the pleasure of enjoying traditional specialities from Romagna.

Throughout the years, piadina's ingredients have always remained the same, and so has done its shape, a 25-centimetre-large flat disc. Local restaurants serve piadina hot, sprinkled with herbs or accompanied by Parma ham.

However, piadina is eaten mostly as a snack in the afternoon, when large numbers of people gather around the numerous stalls which sell it. They are especially attracted by the delicious taste of the white squaquaròn cheese (a sort of mild cheese) which usually accompanies piadina.
 
Piadina goes well with almost every food: sausages, baked-vegetables, onions, peppers, cold pork meat and salami. The latest generations of gourmands state utmost “luviria” (dialect word meaning greed) is piadina with nutella, while the older generation is divided between those who accept this trend and those who consider it a sacrilege. The cost of piadina is almost the same as a take-away pizza: €1 for the plain one and €4/5 for the filled ones.

Besides piadina, traditional local stalls also sell so-called “cassoni” or “crescioni” from Emilia. They are almost the same as piadina but are thinner and stuffed with herbs and other ingredients selected by the so-called “arzdore”, the housewives from Romagna who cook them.

They no longer use rolling-pins as they once did, but take advantage of special machineries to roll out the dough, electric slicers to work fillings and cast-iron hotplates to cook piadinas. Timers are not needed, since local “arzdore” know when piadinas are ready to be served.

They developed considerable expertise by producing unleavened bread, which was the base of our ancestors' diet and whose preparation was very quick and easy.
A stone disc on coal cooked the differently shaped bread that men and women put on its surface: gallette, focacce, chapatty,  ciorak,  carta musica, spianata, tortilla and piadina.
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