Romagna cassoni, pan-cooked flatbreads with greens and cheese
Cassoni from Romagna made with a dough of flour, olive oil and sparkling water, filled with sautéed spinach and melting cheese and cooked in a dry pan until they puff.
Are you looking for a quick dinner made entirely in a pan, with no oven and no proving time?
Then Romagna cassoni are for you. I will walk you through a dough of nothing but flour, olive oil and sparkling water, a filling of sautéed spinach and cheese, and a pan cook that leaves them puffed and blistered.
A cassone is a piadina folded over itself, the kind eaten on the move in Romagna. The traditional version uses lard; here the dough is made with oil and sparkling water instead. It still stays soft, rolls out easily and lightens the finished result considerably.
There are at least three good reasons to make them: they cost very little, they take forty minutes, and they clear out the fridge, because the filling accepts almost any sautéed vegetable.
The two details that matter are resting the dough, twenty minutes that make rolling effortless, and squeezing the spinach. A wet filling is the number one cause of cassoni that burst open in the pan and let the cheese escape.
Serve them straight away, cut in half. They are made to be eaten with your hands, so you barely need a plate.
Ready? Let’s get started with Romagna cassoni.
Steps
- Work the flour with the salt, the oil and the cold sparkling water added a little at a time, until you have a smooth, soft dough. Sparkling water in place of lard keeps the dough light and easy to roll.
- Cover the dough and rest it for 20 minutes at room temperature: without that rest it shrinks back every time you try to roll it.
- Meanwhile wash the spinach and wilt it in a pan with a tablespoon of oil and the crushed garlic over high heat for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Remove the garlic, let the spinach cool slightly and squeeze it with your hands until all the water is gone, then chop it roughly and season with pepper.
- Divide the dough into four balls and roll each into a thin disc about 24 cm across, on a lightly floured surface.
- Spread the spinach and the cheese over half of each disc, leaving a clear border, then fold into a half-moon and seal by pressing with the tines of a fork.
- Cook the cassoni in a very hot dry non-stick pan, with no fat, for 3 to 4 minutes per side: they should puff slightly and develop dark blistered spots. Serve immediately, while the cheese still stretches.
Helpful tips
The pan must be hot and dry: adding oil makes the dough fry instead of toast, and it stays soft.
Squeeze the spinach thoroughly: a wet filling makes the cassoni split open in the pan.
You can roll the discs ahead and keep them in the fridge for a few hours, separated by baking paper.
Excellent with chard, sautéed chicory or grilled courgettes instead of spinach.
Average nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 420 kcal
- Carbohydrates
- 58.0 g
- Sugars
- 2.0 g
- Protein
- 12.0 g
- Fat
- 15.0 g
- Saturated fat
- 3.0 g
- Fiber
- 5.0 g
- Sodium
- 620 mg
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