Frattau Bread
Description
Frattau bread is an extremely tasty dish: it’s also easy to make, and is a real classic of Sardinian cuisine.
Its main ingredients, carasau bread, eggs and Sardinian pecorino, make it ideal as a main course or starter.
The recipe was originally invented to make use of leftover carasau bread, but it has now become a delicious and tasty dish that’s impossible to resist in its own right!
If you can’t wait to try it, follow these steps to prepare unbeatable frattau bread.
Ingredients
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For the Frattau Bread
- Carasau bread sheets 8
- Tomato puree 350 ml
- Lamb or sheep stock 1200 ml
- Onion 0.5
- Sardinian Pecorino q.b.
- Extra virgin olive oil q.b.
- Basil 1 ciuffi
- Salt q.b.
For the poached eggs
- Eggs 4
- Water 2000 ml
- Vinegar 200 ml
- Salt q.b.
Instructions
- 1 Making frattau bread is quite simple. Peel the onion, chop it and brown it in a saucepan with some tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. When the onion is done, add the tomato sauce and salt, and then cook for around 14 minutes over a medium heat. Season with basil leaves.
- 2 While the sauce is cooking, prepare the poached eggs. Heat a pot with 2 litres of water and 200ml of vinegar. When the water starts to boil, crack an egg into a bowl and, using a whisk, stir the water quickly to create a whirlpool. Drop the egg into the centre of this, and allow the white to wrap around the yolk. This will take approximately 2 minutes. If the whirlpool slows excessively, stir the water gently with a spoon.
- 3 When the egg is ready, drain it with a skimmer and dry it with absorbent paper.
- 4 Break the carasau bread sheets into four pieces each. When the tomato sauce is almost ready, pour the stock into a large pot and, when hot, dip the carasau bread sheets in it (making sure not to soak them too much) and place them on 4 plates. Alternate a layer of carasau bread with a layer of tomato sauce and grated pecorino.
- 5 Every plate should have two layers, topped with a generous sprinkling of grated pecorino and one poached egg. Serve immediately.
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Did You Know?
If we were to trace the history of pane frattau, we would find multiple sources.
Let’s start with a curiosity about the Sardinian meaning of the word. In fact, “frattau” means “grated” or “broken into pieces.”
The preparation is a variation of the use of
sheets
of carasau bread , also called music paper , and is consumed by rolling the sheets up on themselves, in such a way as to collect the seasoning, and is eaten with the hands.
Its recipe is very ancient and in
Sardinia
, it was classified as a poor dish and prepared mainly by farmers.
A very ancient source for this recipe comes from Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, in which he spoke of bread soaked in boiling water and extra virgin olive oil .
During the Middle Ages, pane frattau consisted of a
layer of bread
on which the
dishes
were placed . Once this dish was finished, the bread, soaked in leftovers, became a precious food to be
eaten
, in turn, precisely to avoid waste.
In the 15th century, the most famous medieval chef, Maestro Martino da Como, left us a recipe in which he claimed to have
prepared
grated bread, soaked in broth and
seasoned
with cheese and
poached eggs
.
Soaked bread, therefore, was not only food for the poor, but also a delicacy enjoyed by the aristocracy.
The addition of tomato sauce to pane frattau appeared for the first time in Apicio moderno by Francesco Leonardi, published in 1790.
The preparation of this dish is therefore very simple, as simple as its ingredients—and its flavor.
