When it comes to the dictionary of Italian pizza, focaccia and piadina – as well as the borders surrounding them – the erbazzone reggiano deserves a separate chapter unto itself. One could even argue that the erbazzone reggiano is, in fact, a dish made from said borders – where the flavors of Emilia-Romagna’s Southwestern crescentine and pinzone meet deliciousness of the region’s Northwestern torta fritta parmigiana (which is a whole other story, too). Somewhere in the middle is the erbazzone reggiano. You might say it’s a focaccia, but it also resembles a savory pie and a pizza (like the famed Neapolitan pizza with escarole). Did we mention the Ligurian flavors in the recipe?
The recipe
The erbazzone (called both ‘scarpasòun’ and ‘scarpazzone’ in local dialect) is a savory, fluffy bread “pie” filled with boiled beets. The dough is made simply with flour, water, lard, oil, salt and pepper. Then, for the filling, you’ll fry the crushed garlic and chopped onions in the lard or ham fat, then add the boiled chard (or spinach, or a mix of both). Then add oil and butter and season with pepper and salt. Once cooked, add chopped parsley and grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Egg is often added to the filling, as well. Divide the dough in half and spread both sections across two separate baking sheets. Add the filling to the center of the bread dough. After baking, grease the surface with lard while still hot.
Roman origins
The similarity of the erbazzone to Neapolitan pizza with escarole, and to the Ligurian beet- filled türta de gee (also called torta cappuccina or torta pasqualina), can most likely be explained by a common Roman ancestor – the ‘moretum’ described in the “Appendix vergiliana and De re rustica” by Lucio Giunio Moderato Columella. The ‘moretum’ was made by mixing cheese, herbs, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil – all pounded in a mortar until becoming a spreadable cream. Spread on a slice of bread, this was just another version of the ‘placenta’ mentioned by Cato the Elder, referring to the ancestor of all our pizza and focaccia recipes today. This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by one of the names used in local dialect for erbazzone: ‘morazòun’ (or ‘morazzone’ in standard Italian). The recipes are certainly similar, with cooked vegetables sandwiched between two layers of schiacciate (focaccia) bread. In fact, recipes for morazzone have existed in Emilia for centuries -- so much so that both 15th century writers Martino da Como and Bartolomeo Sacchi called them “Bolognese-style” herb cakes.
And in the mountains, rice is added!
While Neapolitan pizza with escarole and Ligurian türta de gee have been historically associated with the Lent period of the Christian liturgical calendar, the erbazzone followed seasonal rhythms instead – linked to the maturation of chard (from May to November). In any case, you’ll find more erbazzone in the mountains than in the valleys or in the city, where it’s often called ‘scarpazzone.’ The addition of parmesan to the recipe was probably a more recent addition, given that poverty was typical of these lands in the past. Here, the erbazzone was often cooked “in the sun,” in a special copper dish for cooking in a wood-fired oven, as a simple omelette with eggs and cheese. It’s always customary to add rice to the dough in the mountains. A tradition still popular today, the use of rice in the recipe probably came from the mondine (women who worked in the rice fields) returning from their travels to the valleys during the rice harvesting season for work. In addition to rice and eggs, there is also a variant that provides for a ricotta filling. Then there’s the diced bacon filling. Or maybe the erbazzone “aperto” (or “open-faced” erbazzone) sounds better to you -- this one only features one layer of bread on the bottom (not the surface).