Ingredients

According to the original recipe (taken from the project Storie di terra e di rezdore – Project for the recovery of Modena’s gastronomic culture), when crescentine were cooked in the fireplace with tigelle, the ingredients were only:

• 1.5 kg of 00 flour
• 300 ml of lukewarm water
• fine salt

Today, however, since electric hotplates or aluminium moulds are often used for baking, it is necessary to add a little yeast and a dash of milk to the dough.

Often, in more recent and “richer” recipes, a little lard or olive oil is also found among the ingredients.

We therefore recommend the ingredients in the VisitModena recipe:

• 500 g flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 150 ml milk
• 1 sachet of dry yeast or a cube of fresh brewer’s yeast
• sugar and fine salt to taste.

Method

Knead the ingredients and work them thoroughly with your hands until you obtain a smooth, even dough, which should be covered and left to rest.

After a couple of hours, the dough is ready – it should be elastic but not too wet – and the crescentine can be prepared.

Break off pieces of dough about the size of a small fist and work them with the palm of your hand until you obtain round balls, which should then be flattened to a height of about 1 cm using a rolling pin.

Note: some people, for ease, roll out all the dough with a rolling pin and then cut out discs with a pastry cutter or a glass, but this has nothing to do with the traditional method of preparing crescentine.

Originally, crescentine were cooked using tigelle: clay disks about 10 cm in diameter, often decorated with a classic flower pattern.

The tigelle were piled up near the fire grate in an alternating sandwich of dough disks, which were often wrapped in chestnut leaves: tigella, crescentina, tigella, crescentina, tigella and so on.

As stoves became affordable, crescentine were often cooked on the hob. A flat iron filled with hot coals was placed on top to cook both sides evenly; once done, they were held near the heat to cook the edges too.

Now both these methods have been replaced by tigelliere – electrical devices with twin baking stones or 7-hole aluminium moulds, often featuring the traditional floral decoration.

These days, crescentine are eaten with all kinds of accompaniment: from classic ham to indulgent bacon via soft stracchino cheese or the kids’ favourite hazelnut spread.

But if you want to stay true to tradition and savour something unforgettable, you really must try Modena pesto: a dollop of lard with garlic and rosemary.

How to prepare Modena pesto:

250 g of finely chopped lard
2 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs of rosemary
Peel the garlic and chop into small pieces.
Wash the rosemary and pick the leaves off the twig.
Chop the garlic and rosemary very fine with a crescent-shaped mincing knife. Squash the mix now and then with the flat of the blade to get the garlic nice and fine.
Carefully mix in the lard, cover with cling film and place in the fridge until needed.

Place a teaspoon of lard in a boiling crescentina and cover with a sprinkling of grated Parmigiano Reggiano, close quickly so as not to disperse the heat and bite: your taste buds will thank you!