
Quindi! My selection for this month's theme are tigelle, small round breads typical of the Emilia-Romagna region, particularly the province of Modena but also common in Bologna, where I lived for a year. Tigelle are split and then stuffed with meat, cheeses, or vegetables, and are traditionally eaten as an antipasto. That being said, they can also easily be a full meal in their own right, which is exactly what I did when I lived in Bologna, with frequents visits to Tigelleria Tigellino, right near the city's main piazza. Fun fact: the name tigella comes from the tool that was traditionally used to shape and cook them, clay, fire-resistant discs called a tigelle, which were alternated and stacked with the uncooked dough to ultimately create a sort of tigelle tower that was placed by the fire and left to cook (you can see how it was done here). Now that we've mostly left cooking things by fire behind, there are more modern tigelle available, ones that are made from aluminum and placed over the stove (they look like this).
My recipe research showed that there is no one way to make tigelle; some recipes called for doppio zero flour (a super fine, pure white flour) while others recommended all-purpose; some used milk as a liquid ingredient, while others advised cream, and still others a combination of both; a few recipes recommended cooking the tigelle in the oven, others on the stove in a pan, and some in the aforementioned modern day tigella. The common ingredient in all recipes appeared to be strutto (straightforward translation: pig fat, easily found in supermarkets here) but some recipes I stumbled across used a mix of oil and strutto or simply oil or butter, for those who might have qualms about using strutto. Hmm.
In the end, I came up with this recipe -- 00 flour because it's what I had on hand, whole milk because strutto seemed heavy enough without adding cream, cooked on the stovetop -- all of which resulted in perfectly puffy, delicately golden brown tigelle, fluffy and soft on the inside and slightly crisper on the outside, the perfect vehicle for my chosen ingredients, or rather, salame piccante, prosciutto, stracchino cheese, and arugula. I ate the three you see photographed above for lunch, then maybe another two or so, before tucking the remaining ones into a bag to keep for, ehm,
As always, here are the November Cucina Conversations recipes from my fellow bloggers (a few have opted out this month but will be back in December!) --
Daniela of La Dani Gourmet is sharing her recipe for focaccia ligure.
Lisa aka Italian Kiwi has made focaccia di recco.
Last but not least, Carmen at The Heirloom Chronicles has made rosette di pane, a classic Roman bread.
TIGELLE
Ingredients:
2 cups (500 grams) 00 flour, or all-purpose flour in a pinch
1/3 cup (80 ml) water, plus more if needed
1/3 (80 ml) whole milk, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon (10 grams) yeast
2 tablespoons (15 grams) strutto (or olive oil or butter, see notes above) room temperature
3/4 teaspoon (7 grams) salt
Meat, cheese, and vegetables of your choosing for the filling
1/3 cup (80 ml) water, plus more if needed
1/3 (80 ml) whole milk, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon (10 grams) yeast
2 tablespoons (15 grams) strutto (or olive oil or butter, see notes above) room temperature
3/4 teaspoon (7 grams) salt
Meat, cheese, and vegetables of your choosing for the filling
Directions:
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water and milk, whisking everything together. If you're doing this by hand: put the flour in another larger bowl, make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour in the yeast-water-milk mixture.

If you're doing this with a standing mixer, do the same exact thing as above, just in the bowl of the standing mixer. Next, mix everything together with a wooden spoon (or with the paddle attachment of your standing mixer). If the dough seems dry (it probably will) add more milk and water (a tablespoon of each) until the dough starts to come together. I think I ended up having to add about 1/3 cup more liquid.

Add the strutto or olive oil/butter and salt, and mix together again. If you're doing this by hand, at this point, you should turn the dough that is starting to form out on to a lightly floured work surface and start to knead until the dough comes together.
Knead for another 8-10 minutes or until a smooth elastic dough forms. If you're doing this with a standing mixer, you can knead the dough using the dough hook attachment (lucky you!) When you're done kneading, form the dough in to a ball, place it in a bowl covered with a kitchen cloth, and let it rise in a warm, dry place for 2 hours, or until it doubles in volume.




Once the two hours are up, place your ball of dough on a lightly floured work surface and with a rolling pin roll it out until very thin, about 1/2 a centimeter.
Using a 3-4 inch (8-10 cm) lightly floured cookie cutter, cut out as many tigelle as you can. Combine the scraps in to a ball, re roll the dough, and repeat until you have used all the dough. You should have 20-25 or so tigelle.



Set the tigelle on baking sheet and let them rise for another 30 minutes. When the 30 minutes are up, you can start to cook your tigelle. If you want to cook them on the stove: heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook the tigelle, turning, until puffed and brown on both sides (this will take about 6 or so minutes).
Let the tigelle cool, then slice them open, fill with ingredients of your choosing, and enjoy. Makes 20-25 tigelle.


