Specialties

The joys of the palate

The basic colors of the cuisine of Romagna include the ruby red of Sangiovese wine, the blue of certain Adriatic fish, and the gold of the milled grain so indispensable to the making of what serves as daily bread in Rimini: piadina. These ingredients are at the heart of a great festival that takes place all overRimini - day and night, 365 days a year - in kiosks that dot the streets and in restaurants along the beaches, in osterie and chic restaurants and in the piadinerie you will find just about everywhere. It's even possible, nowadays, to find a bit of Romagna flavor for sale on the virtual streets of Internet.
The roots of this simple cuisine are to be found deep in the traditions of the coast and of the countryside (a touch of fantasy, however, is never forbidden). The typical antipasto is piadina, a flat bread made from a few humble ingredients (flour, lard, water, and salt) and eaten with cold cuts or, better yet, with squaquerone (a soft cheese that literally melts in your mouth). There are many fish dishes to choose from, as well as a slew of traditional types of pasta, all of which are made from pasta dough that the azdora (dialect for the woman of the house) traditionally rolled out by hand: long thin tagliatelle, stuffed pastas like cappelletti and ravioli, or strozzapreti served with ragù (a meat sauce) or alle vongole (with clams). When it comes to the second course you can choose from grilled meat (castrato (castrated ram) is a local favorite) or coniglioin porchetta (roast rabbit) served with a side dish of verdure gratinate (vegetables cooked with a bread-crumb and cheese topping), or a plate of rustida (grilled fish), kabobs, or fritti (platters of fried fish or meat). Everything, of course, is sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil from the hills around Rimini (among Italy's most prized oils) and accompanied by ruby-red Sangiovese or white Trebbiano wine, both typical to the area.

La piada

Romagna's famous piadina, known in dialect as pié, pjida, or pièda, and italianized as "piada" (the name derives from the Greek platys, through the Latin term plattus or "plate") has ancient origins.
Fans of this round flat bread, one of Romagna's culinary glories, say it was founded by Aeneas, shortly after his arrival on Italian shores, prior to his founding of Rome.
The story goes that when the hungry exiles from Troy came ashore, they found nothing but a few pieces of wild fruit to eat, and so were reduced to eating the flat bread that they usually used as plates. Aeneas' father, Anchises, had in fact prophesized that before Aeneas found the place where he would build his city, he would become so hungry that he would be reduced to eating his plates.
Returning to our own times, what's certain is that the piada has long played an important role in the nutrition of the people of Romagna, a region that was far from wealthy until the early 1960s and the development of the mass tourism industry. The piada, made from water, flour (often corn flour was used), salt, and a bit of lard, was a humble and accessible source of nourishment.
It wasn't a substitute for bread, which was, by tradition, made once a week, nor was it a snack to be consumed between meals, filled like a sandwich with prosciutto, salame, or other treats like jam or chocolate cream, the fare that today's piadinari (piada makers) propose to tourists.
The piada was often an expedient, prepared in a hurry when bread was scarce and the time had not yet come to make the next week's batch. It was cooked on a griddle - much less expensive to use than the oven - and it could be made in a hurry because it wasn't necessary to wait for the dough to rise.
Back then the piada was usually eaten with humble accompaniments such as wild greens or other vegetables, either raw or cooked, and, rarely, soft unripened cheese.
Over time the basic recipe was enriched through the addition of other ingredients, which varied from place to place. At the turn of the twentieth century people began to use bicarbonate as a rising agent and later yeast (and not always in small quantities). Less common additions include milk, bacon, and honey (which results in softer piada, a useful quality if one is not planning to eat them immediately).
Rimini was the site of the world's first Scuola internazionale di piadina romagnola (International School of the Piadina Romagnola), which saw as participants some of the area's foremost professionals of the mattarello (rolling pin).
And a few secrets were unveiled.
For example, if the hot damp southwest wind known locally as the garbino (in the rest of Italy it's called the libeccio) is blowing, it's better not to even try making piade because they won't come out right.