The Italian flatbread piadina rises to prominence in 2 Seattle eateries

WE SWEAR BY Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, pasta of all types. Is it finally time for the piadina to become a household name in the United States?

Sabrina Tinsley certainly has done her part to uplift the Italian flatbread, giving it a prominent spot on her menu at Osteria La Spiga, the casually great restaurant she opened on Capitol Hill in 1998 with husband Pietro Borghesi and sister Sachia Tinsley (Sachia is now co-owner of Peyrassol Café in Renton). Italian meat and cheese sandwiches on the thin grilled bread tasted “like rusticity itself,” this paper reported in 1999.

Piadinas retreated to a supporting role when La Spiga moved into a bigger, more elegant incarnation in 2007. But they’re a feature once again at La Dispensa (“The Pantry”), the Italian deli/market that Sabrina Tinsley recently opened in an adjoining space in Chophouse Row (1424 11^th Ave.). Among other items, the menu includes take-home pasta kits such as porcini-filled tortelli, hot entrees including a six-layer Lasagna Verdi … and a half-dozen sandwiches, including piadina classics such as prosciutto-arugula and a roasted eggplant with tomatoes.

The bread is a specialty of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy (also home to that Parmigiano and prosciutto di Parma), spotlighted there in stand-alone piadina kiosks equipped with flat-top grills, a regional culinary hallmark like a high-quality New York hot dog stand.

There was a time when Sabrina Tinsley wasn’t familiar with the breads, either. She was born in Alaska and met Italian-born Pietro while traveling through Europe. They married and settled in Italy, where their first venture was a frozen yogurt shop. Branching into piadinas was meant as a counterbalance to that business, she says, attracting customers when the yogurt season slowed down in winter.

“Everybody talks about taking (piadinas) outside of Romagna and just making it explode on the market, but almost nobody does it because, you know, ‘People in Romagna live so well, so why would they ever leave?’ And so we decided that that was the direction we wanted to go.”

They opened a solidly busy piadina shop in Macerata, a university town to the south, but eventually realized they needed to expand to succeed. Italy’s tax structure made it harder to run a profitable business, and Tinsley was getting homesick, so they headed to the Northwest. “That was in 1998, and the rest is history.”

It’s been a full history, with twists for Tinsley such as competing on the “Beat Bobby Flay” TV show and, more recently, mentoring a new generation of chefs with a Future of Diversity pop-up program hosting other chefs of color at Osteria La Spiga.

Even the piadinas have gone through some shifts over the years. The original version used lard, but they switched to a blend of extra-virgin olive oil and canola oil long ago on customer request. They are, though, still grilled on the same big flat-topped piadina grills Tinsley and Borgheri shipped in from Italy long ago.

It’s possible to make the breads at home — but not necessarily preferable. “The results aren’t as light, since the dough is so dense that it’s really hard to roll out thin enough. And then it’s hard to get the right temperature on the skillet,” Tinsley says.

La Dispensa is something of a return to her business roots, but also something she’s been thinking of for a long time, as a way to grow without the energy and staffing required for another full-scale restaurant. Luckily, their landlord had a small space available where they could try out the project conveniently, doing all the production work at La Spiga.

“We’re making our own breads; we’re making our own sauces … and everything that you need to create an Italian experience at home,” Tinsley says. She could imagine opening similar markets in different neighborhoods. “It is kind of a neighborhood-type thing … We’ve always wanted to be that go-to place.”

Some Caffe Umbria branches are selling La Dispensa sandwiches, with other cafes inquiring about joining the list. And the bread is not just piadina, she says. Other lesser-known Italian breads on the menu include Spianata, something like a focaccia, and Tigella, something like a little English muffin cooked in metal molds.

What made her think such foods might be a success here, where few people were — or still are — familiar with them?

“The impact that Italian food had on me when I first went to Italy was just incredible. I had tasted nothing like that here in the States,” Tinsley says.

“The Italian food I grew up on was, you know, the checkered tablecloths, thick red sauce, completely different. I figured that if the real Italian food impacted me that much … others would also appreciate that. I don’t know. We were really young and naive. But it did work.”

Piadina
Makes 6-8 servings

Note: I think piadinas are best at a restaurant, for the reasons Sabrina Tinsley lists above, but — as with most breads — second-best is pretty good, too. The recipe below is condensed from Marcella Hazan’s “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.” Hazan preferred lard as a shortening but says the olive oil is OK.
— Rebekah Denn

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup lukewarm water

1. Pour flour onto a work surface, shape it into a mound, make a hollow in the center and pour in the olive oil, followed by all other ingredients. Draw the sides of the mound together, mixing with your hands, and knead for 10 minutes. (Note: I used a bowl, and needed extra water for the dough to form a mass.)

2. When the dough is no longer sticky and has become smooth and elastic, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and return to it 1 or 2 hours later, or proceed at once, as follows: Cut the dough into pieces, each about the size of an egg. Roll out each piece of dough into a very thin disk, about 1/16-inch thick. Over medium heat, heat a cast-iron skillet until it is hot enough to make a drop of water skip. Place a disk of dough on it, cook about 10 seconds, flip it with a spatula and cook the other side, without moving it, another 10 seconds. Prick it here and there with a fork, and continue cooking another 3-4 minutes, rotating it to keep it from getting scorched and flipping it from time to time to cook evenly. When done, it should have a dull, parched white surface mottled by random burn marks. Repeat with other disks of dough. Serve as promptly as possible, preferably while still warm.