Potato Schiacciata
Schiacciata di patate is a potato cheese bread eaten with starters like focaccia or as a flatbread for sandwiches like a piadina.
Depending on the location schiacciata is also called ciaccia, schiaccia or stria. For many years the different denominations left me too confused to search for the recipe, but now I am happy to have found it by accident.
I first encountered the potato cheese bread decades ago, when we were driving around Monteveglio in the hills south of Bologna looking for a place to have lunch. It’s a hilly and sparsely populated area with few bars and restaurants. At least, we did not find any at the time, so at the end we entered a small grocer asking for anything lunch-like. The shop was out of bread, but they had some schiacciata di patata left over, which we could have with cheese and salumi. Though crisp on the outside, the bread was moist and juicy and it made an unforgettable picnic that can be easily reproduced with this simple recipe.
Ingredients
350 gr potato
350 ml tepid water
200 gr flour
2 tbsp parmesan
3 tbsp olive oil
Rosemary, salt and pepper
Preparation
Mix water, olive oil, salt, and flour to a smooth batter.
Stir in some grated parmesan cheese.
Grate the peeled potato or slice it thinly on a mandoline and mix it with the batter.
Line a focaccia pan with baking paper and grease with olive oil.
Pour the batter in the pan and bake it at 200 C /350 F
Italian Notes
How does the lack of yeast affect the bread? It doesn’t look like it turns out crunchy like a cracker; how big should the focaccia pan be?
The bread is not leavened like a yeasty bread, but more like layered potatoes. The crunchiness comes mainly from the cheese, and a thin schiacciata is generally more crunchy than a thick one, which means that all sizes of focaccia pans can be used. I use a round one with a diameter of 28.5 cm.