L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES FRANCESCA BEZZONE I t a l y i s k n o w n w o r l d w i d e f o r i t s b r e a d : f r a g r a n t , tasty, a magnificent balance of crunchi- ness and softness, it is the perfect companion to all dishes and the most essen- tial ingredient of countless types of sandwiches. We all know Italian bread comes in a variety of sha- pes: pagnotta, filone, filon- cino. Sfilatino, rosetta and ciabatta. Miccone, treccia and micca tradizionale, all t h e w a y t o g r i s s i n i a n d rubatà. And these are only a handful of names and varie- ties you can find across the c o u n t r y , b e c a u s e — a s i t happens all the time in Italy — e v e r y r e g i o n s e e m s t o have its own special recipes and types. The profound culinary and cultural connection between the Bel Paese and b r e a d s h o u l d n ' t s u r p r i s e that much, if we consider that cereals — wheat and spelt especially — have been a t t h e v e r y h e a r t o f t h e Mediterranean diet for the good part of three millennia, along with the olive and the vine, parents of oil and w i n e a n d o t h e r t w o e l e - m e n t s o f t h e Mediterranean triad. W h e n w e t h i n k a b o u t Italian bread, crunchy crust and soft, flavorsome crumb immediately come to mind, yet there is a bread, a child o f m y s t e r i o u s , a r c h a i c , beautiful Sardinia, which is quite different from this ste- reotype: pane carasau. I n g r e d i e n t - w i s e , p a n e carasau doesn't stray from the norm: water, salt, flour and yeast — even though, we will see, the original recipe was even simpler. A staple o f S a r d i n i a n c u i s i n e a n d p a r t o f t h e d i e t o f t h e island's shepherds for cen- turies, this crunchy and fla- v o r s o m e s p e c i a l t y , a l s o romantically known as carta musica, or music sheet, for how thin and crisp it is, has b e c o m e p r e t t y p o p u l a r throughout the peninsula, so much so you can find it q u i t e e a s i l y i n a l l s u p e r - market. Of course, I am not saying that chain store cara- sau is the best option, mind. According to food histo- rians, pane carasau comes f r o m B a r b a g i a , a w i l d , m o u n t a i n o u s a r e a a t t h e heart of Sardinia, and it was first produced thousand and thousand of years ago, as attested by archaeological findings of cooking instru- ments and bread remnants dating back to the Bronze Age. Our carasau is conside- red one of the oldest types of bread in the world, also in name of the true simplicity of its ingredients, which ori- ginally were only two, water a n d f l o u r . B e c a u s e o f i t s round shape, crispiness and lack of yeast, the "old" cara- sau has been widely compa- r e d t o t h e b r e a d m a d e i n ancient Mesopotamia and in the Middle East. Indeed, it is very close to the bread we associate with the times of Jesus Christ and typical of Israel, unleavened bread. Historically, carasau is the bread of shepherds. Just like so many other quintes- sential staples of our cuisine, l i k e p e s t o , p a s t a c a c i o e pepe and even Puglia's bur- r a t a , i t b e c a m e c o m m o n because of how well it kept in time: regularly forced to spend long periods of the y e a r a w a y f r o m h o m e t o t e n d t o t h e i r s h e e p , Sardinian shepherds needed a bread able to last without s p o i l i n g : w i t h i t s s i m p l e combination of water and wheat (or sometimes barley, which was cheaper) flour, a n d t h i n c r i s p y t e x t u r e , c a r a s a u c o u l d l a s t f o r weeks and weeks without molding nor getting stale. It was usually consumed with r i c o t t a o r o t h e r c h e e s e s , which were layered on top of it, as if it were a plate. In time, pane carasau became common in all families and was often used as currency in rural exchange economy. Its preparation truly was a ritual which even today, if you really want to make it Pane guttiau is a way to have pane carasau: with salt and olive oil (Photo: Oxana Denezhkina/Dreamstime) Move over that pagnotta and try Sardinia's pane carasau Continued to page 28

• Cover