Crescentine, also known as gnocco fritto, torta fritta, or pizza fritta depending on the region, are a traditional dish originating from Bologna and found throughout the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. These fried dough delicacies, each family boasting its own unique twist, represent a culinary cornerstone of Bolognese cuisine.
A Culinary Journey Through Emilia-Romagna
The name "crescentine" is most common in Bologna, while in Modena and Reggio Emilia, they are known as "gnocco fritto." Parma calls them "torta fritta," and in Romagna, they are referred to as "piadina fritta" or "piê fritta" in the local dialect. Some even call them "pizza fritta." In Fontanelice, a town in the Romagna region of the province of Bologna, a festival dedicated to crescentine has been held every Easter Monday since the 1950s.
Essentially, crescentine are a type of fried bread found with slight variations in ingredients and names across different parts of Italy. Each Bolognese family cherishes its own recipe, with some using baking powder or adding sugar. Resting times may also vary.
The Essence of Crescentine: Simplicity and Warmth
The key to enjoying crescentine lies in their warmth. They must be served hot, fresh from the fryer. In the past, some would even dip leftover crescentine in their coffee the next day. These versatile morsels can be served as an appetizer or aperitivo, typically accompanied by cheeses and cured meats. Alternatively, they can be enjoyed as a bread substitute alongside a Bolognese-style main course, featuring an array of cold cuts, cheeses, and pickled vegetables. In Romagna, squacquerone (a type of stracchino cheese) is a staple accompaniment to both crescentine and piadina.
This fried bread also pairs well with other fried dishes. Lunches featuring crescentine, veal or pork cutlets, mortadella cutlets, eggplant, and french fries are unforgettable.
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Personal Memories and Crescentine
Crescentine evoke strong childhood memories. The act of frying was often reserved for summer and Carnival, with occasional exceptions for french fries. Large gatherings with relatives or friends of parents, and later with friends, were common. The "azdore" (traditional Romagna housewives) were kept busy frying basket after basket of crescentine and piadine.
Crescentine also bring to mind winter afternoon snacks. Trips to Faenza, near Imola, included visits to a zoo with wild animals (a surprising sight in the 1970s). Next to the zoo was a kiosk, one of those still found in Romagna. These kiosks offered crescioni, piadina, and plain or filled crescentine. During those Sunday outings, the family would buy peanuts for the monkeys and dry bread for the ducks, while they enjoyed a large, warm, and fragrant fried piadina.
Crescentina vs. Ficattola: Close Relatives
Crescentina and ficattola are similar yet distinct.
Complementary Recipes
Piadina is a perfect accompaniment to crescentine.
The Art of Making Crescentine
The dough should be well-amalgamated and soft. After kneading, place the dough back in the bowl, cover it with a cloth, and let it rest for an hour. This resting period isn't meant for significant rising, so the dough won't double in size. The dough should be rolled out to a thickness of about 2mm.
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Use a knife or pasta cutting wheel to cut the dough into desired shapes: rectangles, triangles, rhombuses, or diamonds. Round shapes are also an option. While rolling out the first piece of dough, heat the oil and begin frying. The crescentine are ready when they puff up, form bubbles, and turn golden brown.
Remove the crescentine with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl covered with a cloth to keep them warm. As the first batch fries, roll out the second piece of dough.
Tigelle: A Discovery
While growing up in Romagna, tigelle, or crescentine montanare, were a discovery made after moving to Bologna. Decades ago, they weren't as widespread as they are today. For the first twenty years, only piadina was consumed, specifically the slightly leavened kind from Forlì and Ravenna, different from the thin version of Rimini-Cattolica.
Saturday Night Dinners
A recipe book is more than just ingredients and instructions. Flipping through family notebooks often triggers a journey down memory lane. Some foods are like milestones, marking transformations or achievements. Tigelle symbolize the transition from girlhood to adulthood.
During university years, a group of friends shared a passion for good food. Every weekend, they explored restaurants, trattorias, and osterias between Modena, Bologna, and Ferrara. The Saturday night ritual included choosing a place, organizing the car convoy, getting lost in the fog, braving the rain, ascending unknown hills, enjoying the silence under a starry sky, and eating until bursting, finishing with tigelle with Nutella and jam.
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Those carefree evenings ended with graduation and the start of working life.
Tigelle or Crescentine Montanare
In the Modena area, tigelle are called crescentine montanare. "Tigella" was the name of the old refractory stone molds used to cook them. In Bologna, crescentine are the fried ones, and tigelle are named after the molds.
Tigelle have ancient origins, their name derived from terracotta molds used in Roman times, later made of cast iron or metal. Tigelle and piadine belong to the same family of ancient, thin breads, uniting diverse cultures and being part of human history.
Like piadina, tigelle are a simple preparation-water and flour-typical of the Modenese Apennines, eventually arriving in the city. A tigelleria isn't necessary to cook tigelle; the characteristic patterns once made by hand can be reproduced. A good tigella is enjoyable even without decoration.
Tips for Cooking Tigelle
Mina, a Bolognese cook, shared a tip: never thaw tigelle. Put them straight from the freezer onto a hot plate for a minute or two, turning them on both sides to keep them soft inside and crispy outside. For 30 mini tigelle, use 30g of dough per piece; for 15 large tigelle, use 40-50g per piece. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes under a cloth.
After resting, lightly flatten the dough balls into circles and let them rest for another 30 minutes covered with a cloth. Lightly grease the tigelliera with olive oil, heat the mold on the stove on both sides, place the tigelle in the mold, close the mold, and cook over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes per side. If you don't have a mold, shape the tigelle into rounds using a round cookie cutter (about 10 cm in diameter) and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes, turning halfway through.
Serve tigelle with cured meats, cheeses, Modenese pesto, pickled vegetables, and Nutella or jams.
Serving Suggestions
With 1/2 kg of flour, you can make 30 mini tigelle of 30g each, or 15 tigelle of 50g each, perfect for an aperitivo/antipasto for 6 people. Tigelle can be stored for a few days outside the refrigerator. You can freeze tigelle after cooking. To reheat them, place them on a hot plate directly from the freezer.
Crescentine Bolognesi Recipe
Crescentine bolognesi, also known as gnocco fritto bolognese, are a specialty of Emilia Romagna, made with leavened dough, easy to prepare, and perfect for accompanying mixed cold cuts and cheeses.
These savory fritters are prepared with simple ingredients: flour, lard, brewer's yeast, and milk. As with all traditional recipes, crescentine bolognesi change name depending on the area in which they are prepared.
In this recipe, you will learn how to make crescentine bolognesi step by step, with tips to obtain a soft and light dough. To prepare fragrant and soft crescentine bolognesi, it is essential to use simple but quality ingredients. Follow the recipe step by step to make homemade crescentine bolognesi, perfect to accompany with cold cuts and cheeses.
Tips and Variations
Yes, you can prepare the dough in advance and store it in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Crescentine are a typical Bolognese dish, similar to bread dough, rolled out, cut into lozenges, and fried. During frying, the lozenges puff up and are ready to be accompanied with cold cuts, such as coppa, prosciutto, pancetta, or with soft cheeses like squacquerone, crescenza, or a creamy sweet gorgonzola.
Depending on the area, they are called crescentine in Bologna, chizze in Cremona, torta fritta in Parma, gnocco fritto in Reggio Emilia and Modena, and pinzino in Ferrara. In each area, there are slight variations of the recipe, and each family has its own. Traditionally, crescentina is fried in lard, but this habit has been almost completely lost in favor of using seed oil.
Recipe: Homemade Crescentine
Homemade crescentine are an easy and delicious recipe, perfect as an appetizer or aperitivo. These fried crescentine, also called "gnocco fritto" in some areas of Italy, are squares of leavened and fried dough, ideal for accompanying cold cuts and cheeses. They are very simple to make: just use flour, brewer's yeast, and fresh cream to obtain delicious snacks. Compared to the classic recipe, these crescentine are prepared without lard, making them particularly light and fragrant.
Preparation
Add the flour little by little to the liquids; initially mix with a spoon, then, when the dough takes consistency, transfer it to the pastry board and work it by hand, adding the remaining flour. After the leavening time, spread the dough on a pastry board with a little flour using a rolling pin. The dough must reach a thickness of about 3 mm. Cut the dough with a serrated wheel forming rectangles of about 5 cm wide.
Fry the crescentine in a large pan, heat plenty of seed oil. When the oil is hot (the ideal temperature is about 170 °C), dip the crescentine and cook until they are golden brown.
The crescentine are ready to be brought to the table. Arrange them in a basket and eat them with your favorite cheeses and cold cuts.
Detailed Instructions
In a bowl, combine the flour with the yeast and fresh cheese (or cream) and gradually add the milk. Start kneading and add the salt. Add more milk little by little, adjusting according to the absorption of your flour, and knead by hand until you obtain a smooth, elastic, and soft (not sticky) dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
After this time, spread the dough on the pastry board (no flour needed) with a rolling pin into a thin sheet (about 3-4 mm) and, using a knife, cut out rectangles of dough that you will gradually place on a tray lined with a kitchen cloth.
Fry the crescentine, a few at a time, in hot lard, turning them with a fork to obtain a homogeneous cooking. You will notice that they will swell up like balloons, that's fine. They should not brown too much, their characteristic color is light golden yellow. Drain them with a slotted spoon, dry them on paper towels and serve them hot with cold cuts and cheeses.
Important Notes
The exact amount of milk depends on the absorption of the flour you are using, which is not the same for all brands of flour on the market, and also on the type of cheese you will use. Adjust as needed: the dough must be soft and smooth, but not sticky, easy to knead by hand on the pastry board.
tags: #ricetta #crescentine #bolognesi