My grandma used to make this crescia when we were kids (my cousins and I) since we were all living together as in a traditional Italian family, and we were just going crazy for it, it was called la crescia colle patate (in dialect it’s more like la crescia col patet). I remember her bending and in sweat, flipping the crescia back and forth on top of the grill on burning coals, she was already old but working so hard to make us happy. We had a fireplace in the attic we would use to grill meat, roast chestnuts, and grill crescia, when my grandma was in the mood for it. The wooden flavor would make anything taste wonderful.

Crescia is a word used in my parents region to call some types of focaccia or piadine, it’s basically a local word. Piadine are from Romagna region and are famous all over Italy, and of course in most of all in the neighboring regions of Romagna. They’re flat types of bread very thin and that are stuffed with various cheeses, greens such as spinach or kale, prosciutto, lonza or any other local product.

I don’t want to confuse you between a crescia and a piadina, but they’re two cousins, and if you ever end up in Romagna you might run into piadina and a meet a crescia if you arrive in Urbino, la città di Raffaello. In Romagna, piadina is a street food, and you can find many restaurants where they’re served with so many side dishes that you can stuff your own piadina with whatever you want.

Crescie on the other hand are usually grilled and originated in Marche and Umbria regions. There are different recipes for crescia, most of them do not have potatoes in the dough, but mainly flour, eggs, lard, water, salt and pepper. My grandma version has potatoes and no lard.

My grandma made this crescia with a potato base and made it a little thicker than regular piadina, and it was our treat. It is hard to translate something so typical and precise into another language, most of the time there is no translation for it because it does not exist anywhere else. I was trying to find some equivalent in English and could not find it.

When the crescia gets cold, it gets a little rubbery, so you need to eat it hot. The base is somehow a gnocchi dough base with a little more flour. Since I don’t have a fireplace, I cooked this in a skillet and it worked quite well.

I used dandelions in this recipe, my grandma used white cabbage, you can also use spinach or any green you like and any Italian cheese such as pecorino, or any sharp cheese. If you have a wood fire place where you can grill food, please try to make a crescia, it’s heavenly.

Ingredients for 6 crescie

• 4 large potatoes, boiled
• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 mozzarelle di bufala (or pecorino, etc…), sliced
• Prosciutto or any other cold cuts (optional)
• salt
• olive oil

For the greens

• 1 bunch dandelions or any other greens
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 rosemary sprig, roughly cut
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the greens

If using dandelions, previously cook in salted water for about 5-7 minutes, than drain, let it cool and squeeze excess water. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic and rosemary, stir to get the flavors out without burning the garlic. Add the greens and saute for a while. Adjust with salt and pepper.

For the crescia

Boil potatoes in water until cooked allt he way through. Let them cool and peel.

In a bowl, mash potatoes into a thin purée, add egg and flour and mix to form a smooth and solid dough.

In a wooden working surface, divide the dough in 6 equal portions and roll each of them into a round flat circles about 3 mm thick.

Heat a large non stick pan or a grill, then cook crescia until both sides are golden brown, maybe a few minutes, depending on how think your dough is.

Remove from grill, drizzle with olive oil, coarse salt and stuff with greens, cheese and prosciutto.

After a sunny and perfect weekend, not too much breeze, not too hot, just perfect day of hanging out with a friend, I realized that when people drop by, I never have snacks to offer them. I rarely snack or buy snacks, so when you have nothing to offer people other than wine, or apéritif, they tend to get buzzed a little too fast. So having little bites would be something to think about.

As every Sunday, I speak with my mom who keeps me updated on what is going on over there. So she had guests and made mini savory olive madeleines in her fancy silicon molds. I don’t know why I never of think of making those. They are perfect for an apéritif, snack or whatever, you can even even freeze them…so I figured I would make some too, and if no guests show up, I will give them to my neighbor. Which is what happened.

They’re fun to make and they don’t have to be the regular boring ones. In France, savory madeleines are common, it’s somehow trendy, and they’re great to nibble on. Not that I particularly love to follow a trend, because sometimes they don’t make any sense, but if you taste those, a lot of sense is in there. I can assure you.

Here is for the little story….Madeleines de Commercy are born in Lorraine that’s why I am bringing this up (yes again, it’s a rainy region, but lots of stuff happened there! and Commercy is a small town – when it’s rainy, people stay inside, and lots of stuff happen in rainy regions). In 1755, King Stanislas (he was a Polish King who was a also Duke of Lorraine and ruled it for years; we have a gorgeous square called Place Stanislas with all Golden painted doors with the statue of the King in the middle) had an argument with his pastry chef, who quit “il a rendu son tablier“, he gave his apron back! Soon after, the King with his sweet tooth, got introduced to a pretty young lady whose name was Madeleine Paulmier, a servant at some marquise estate. She made those beautiful little bites for the King who became addicted to them and probably to her too, since he was known to like the ladies. She then became his personal supplier. Those little oval golden nuggets with the shape of a shell were then named after our pretty baker. Since then, Commercy has been famous for its madeleine fabrication.

Now the madeleine has evolved into a savory one and can be fun to make and to eat too. I think I will post more madeleines recipes…don’t even know why I didn’t think about it sooner. So much clutter in my mind lately, too many recipes and too little time.

For those savory madeleines, I used olive oil, the sweet ones need butter. Whenever I can substitute butter with olive oil, I do it. You can use butter too if you prefer in this recipe. My recipes are lenient, when you use the base quantities, you can flavor the rest with your ingredients.

Ingredients for 16 madeleines

• 5.30 oz (or 150 g) flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1. 35 fl oz (or 4 cl) olive oil
• 1 fl oz (or 3 cl) milk
• 1 tbs fresh oregano, chopped
• 2. 16 oz (or 60 g) gruyère cheese, grated
• 2 tbs kalamata olives, chopped
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a container, mix flour and baking powder. In another container, mix eggs and milk, then add to the flour. Gradually add olive oil and mix well to obtain a smooth but sticky dough. Add gruyère, oregano, olives, and mix well to combine all ingredients together. Add salt and pepper. I add more salt than I would to a savory dough, I like them to be on the salty side, but you might not. I always taste the dough before adjusting with salt.

Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Butter madeleine molds, and fill each with with dough but not up to the top, only 3/4 filled. Place in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 10-15 min, or until the madeleines have risen and became golden.