Some of my favorite Umbrian dishes involve stewed meat with some kind of salty, intense sauce. At Cibocchi, a restaurant near us in Todi I always order the rabbit. And at the La Palomba in Orvieto the namesake pigeon dish comes to the table in the richest saltiest most delicious livery sauce imaginable. At the Umbria in Todi I usually choose between wild boar or guinea hen.
While all these dishes are of course different from each other, they all share the penchant for cooking slightly gamey meat in the most intensely flavored sauce imaginable. In fact, if your thinking some sort of tomatoey southern Italian sauce or even a northern creamy sauce then perhaps ‘sauce’ is not the right description. These sauces are thin, oily and packed with flavor and usually incorporate the pureed liver of whatever you are cooking. This method of cooking is called ‘in salmi’ it’s one of my favorite things in the world.  Not only do the juices of the meat provide the base, but things like capers, anchovies, vinegar and wine add punch. And salt. Lots and lots of salt, even on top of the already salty capers and anchovies Umbrians add more salt.
The one thing these dishes have in common is the bread used to sop up every last drop of precious flavor. And not just any bread, but the Umbrian torta al testo. Torta al testo is a kind of griddle bread made throughout Umbria. This thick doughy circle gets it’s name from the circular pan on which it is made. The ‘testo’ is griddle type pan that was originally made of stone and placed in the embers to heat and cook the pancake type bread. Nowadays most cooks use a pan made of cast iron over the cooktop.
The recipe changes from cook to cook. The basic recipe is flour and water, with a pinch of salt and maybe some olive oil. Originally an unleavened bread, most home cooks now add some sort of leavening agent (yeast or baking soda) to lighten the dough. And every cook has their own method for cooking it as well.
Last week, when we were up at Laura’s house, Paola made up a batch of torta al testo, because our main course was wild boar stew and no Umbrian in the right mind would think of enjoying this dish without a big slice of torta al testo to sop up the juices. But as Paola was cooking in the kitchen, she also let us snack on another typical way to eat this bread: sliced open while hot and stuffed with  garlicky wild greens.
As she always does, Paola put her own spin on this traditional recipe. Since she was making the bread for lunch, and only had two hours to let it rise, she used a higher than usual amount of yeast. Also, while most cooks carefully roll out the dough into a circle before laying it on the testo, Paola just grabs a chunk of dough with her hands, stretches it out much like a pizza, and lays it on top of the hot griddle. Hard to explain. Easy (and fun) to watch.
torta al testo
Ingredients
- 1 kilo/ 2 pounds of flour type 00
- 700 ml / 3 cups water
- 25 grams fresh yeast (lievito di birra)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- For the instructions please refer to the video above.
I just LOVE your videos! And this looks absolutely wonderful, another “must-try” recipe. FAVOLOSO!!!!
Hello Elizabeth,
Thanks so much for sharing! Quick question the 25 grams of Yeast, is that the amount she used today since she needed this in 2 hours or is this the amount she uses regularly?
Going to try it I have some “OO” flour! Also will have to shop around for a testo?
Thanks
Janet
Yes, the 25 was for the rather fast rising dough. And if you have a griddle you could use that.
Wonderful! Enjoyed!
I love the way Paola measures! Great video -as always.
Your video’s make me so happy!!!! Can you buy a testo in the US?
After a very quick search, I couldn’t find one. But you could use any flat griddle pan.
Thanks! I’ll just have to come back to Italy!
Grazie….wow, looks wonderful.. The bread rose more than I thought it would, in the pan. I do something similar, but I keep the dough in the fridge…then break off a chunk as needed and cook it in my lage cast iron pan. I love the greens too…Is that the usual garlic, pepperoncino, and a little anchovies with blanched greens?
Yes, exactly for the greens. Except they are not just blanched, but cooked very well to get rid of most of the bitterness and make them tender.
Oh my god, that looks so delicious!
Excellent video! We were with relatives in Gubbio and they made us this bread along with Fricco’, which was out of this world. It is similar to what you’ve described above, meat cooked in a thin, oily, and incredibly flavorful sauce. I can’t wait to go back to that gorgeous town, but until then, might you showcase a recipe for Fricco’? I’d love to recreate it for my family here in the US!
Thanks, Carmen, for reminding me that I’ve never made fricco on the blog. A great idea for the next video!!
Yes, that would be great! I enjoy your blog very much, thank you!
This looks terrific!!! However, I’m sorely disappointed that one has to rewatch and rewatch the video to get the instructions. It seems this blogger could have provided the text for the basic instructions.
I’m so sorry you’re having difficulty following the instructions. Making the videos is a new thing for me, and I’ve decided to let the images speak for themselves with an instructional video. I’ve specifically chosen to video recipes that require a certain technique that is almost impossible to express and/or follow with words. That is why I hope people will watch the video over and over again, to learn these techniques. Which, I guess is working, since you mentioned you had watched it several times?
I like the testo video very much, makes it
look easy, if a little time consuming, as all yeast breads are. It looks very easy to pat out, though most yeasted breads shrink in. I want to try it with the greens!
Just to know, this is a variant to the original recipe? Torta al testo it’s originally a quick unleavened bread with baking soda. My mom use to make it when out of bread and stuff with Mortadella, prosciutto or grilled sausages.