Italian · Emilia-Romagna · appetizer

Erbazzone Reggiano

Name: Erbazzone Reggiano
Prep time: 1 h 13 min
Total time: 1 h 43 min
Cuisine: Italian · Emilia-Romagna
Ingredients: all-purpose flour — 300 g; pork lard — 60 g; cold water — 120 g; salt — 8 g; swiss chard — 1000 g; onion — 150 g; garlic — 9 g; flat-leaf parsley — 20 g; parmesan cheese — 150 g; pancetta — 80 g; extra virgin olive oil — 28 g; freshly ground black pepper — 5 g; salt — 3 g

Erbazzone Reggiano reads umami 6.8, richness 6.6 and salinity 5.8 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Italian · Emilia-Romagna appetizer, about 1 hr 43 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 7.6 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 2.3 / 10
Sour & Bright — 0.8 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 2.6 / 10
Rich & Fat — 7.2 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 4.3 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.8 · Richness 6.6 · Salinity 5.8 · Allium 4.0 · Funk & Ferment 2.5 · Nutty 2.3 · Sweetness 2.2 · Bitterness 2.1 · Herbaceous 1.8 · Earthy 1.7 · Smoke 1.7 · Warm Spice 1.5 · Floral 0.7 · Sourness 0.7 · Heat 0.6

What's in it (13)

all-purpose flour — 300 g
pork lard — 60 g
cold water — 120 g
salt — 8 g
swiss chard — 1000 g
onion — 150 g
garlic — 9 g
flat-leaf parsley — 20 g
parmesan cheese — 150 g
pancetta — 80 g
extra virgin olive oil — 28 g
freshly ground black pepper — 5 g
salt — 3 g

Time & effort: about 1 hr 43 min (1 hr 13 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 152.5 kcal, 5.5 g protein, 7.6 g fat, 16 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

Rub the lard into the flour and the 8 g salt with your fingertips until it looks like coarse meal, then add the cold water and bring it into a dough without kneading it more than 30 seconds. Wrap and rest 30 minutes. Lard, not butter and not oil, is what gives the Reggiano crust its short, flaking snap; buy strutto from an Italian butcher.
Cook the chard leaves in a large pan with only the water clinging to them, covered, over medium heat for 5 minutes, until collapsed. Drain, cool under the tap, then squeeze them out in fistfuls until they are genuinely dry and weigh about 350 g. Chop them roughly.
Fry half the pancetta in the olive oil over medium-low heat for 4 minutes until its fat runs, add the onion and cook 8 minutes until soft and golden, then the garlic for 1 minute more.
Mix the chard into the onion pan off the heat with the parsley, the Parmigiano, the 0.5 tsp salt and the pepper. Taste it; it should be assertively cheesy and peppery, because the pastry is bland.
Heat the oven to 200 C. Roll two-thirds of the dough as thin as 2 mm and line a 26 cm tin, letting it overhang. Spread the filling level. Roll the remaining dough just as thin, lay it on top, seal and trim the edges, and prick the lid all over with a fork so it does not balloon.
Scatter the remaining raw pancetta over the lid and press it in lightly. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is blistered, deep gold and the visible pancetta has crisped. Cool 15 minutes and eat warm or at room temperature, cut in squares, as they do standing up in the bars of Reggio.
Substitutions: lardo can stand in for the pancetta.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Risi e Bisi — Italian · Venice
Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Pasta — Italian-American
Spinach Artichoke Baked Pasta — Italian-American
Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo — Italian-American
One-Pan Chicken Alfredo Skillet — Italian-American

Keep reading: what umami, richness, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.