Piadina with Sausage and Stracchino

Piadina is the bread of Romagna. Not Emilia, which has its own traditions. Romagna, the eastern half of my region, where the Adriatic coast meets the hills. Farm wives made it on terra cotta discs called testi, and their grandchildren still eat it today, folded around whatever filling suits the season.

The dough requires lard. I know this troubles some modern cooks, but there is no substitute that produces the same tender, slightly flaky texture. Olive oil makes an acceptable piadina. Lard makes the real one. The choice is yours, but you should know what you are choosing.

With sausage and stracchino, you have a piadina for autumn and winter, heartier than the summer versions with prosciutto and soft cheese. The sausage must be crumbled and cooked through, browned in places. The stracchino, that impossibly soft cheese from Lombardy, melts into the warm bread and binds everything together. A few leaves of arugula, if you like, cut through the richness. Nothing more.