Pane frattau
Photo: Frattau · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

Pane carasau is the flatbread of the Sardinian interior, baked twice so it keeps for months, which is why shepherds carried it and why every island table has it. Pane frattau is what you do with it when you are home: soften the sheets in hot broth, layer them with tomato sauce and grated aged pecorino, stack three or four deep, and finish with a poached egg so the yolk runs into the layers. The name comes from the Sardinian for crumbled or broken up. It is a dish of the Barbagia and the Nuoro region that has moved into city kitchens, and in Cagliari it has its own dedicated restaurant on Via Azuni.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs

Make it at home

Yield Serves 2Hands-on 20 minTotal 30 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 sheets pane carasau
  • 600ml light meat or vegetable broth, kept at a bare simmer
  • 400g passata
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 80g aged pecorino sardo, grated
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar, for poaching
  • Salt

Method

  1. Warm the oil with the garlic, add the passata, season and simmer 15 minutes until it thickens. Keep it hot.
  2. Poach the eggs in simmering water with the vinegar for 3 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk still runs.
  3. Dip one sheet of carasau into the hot broth for 3 to 4 seconds, until it bends but does not disintegrate, and lay it on a warm plate.
  4. Spoon over tomato sauce and grated pecorino, then repeat with a second and third sheet, building a stack.
  5. Finish the top layer with sauce and a heavy handful of pecorino.
  6. Set a poached egg on each stack and serve at once, while the bread still has some texture.

Tip from the editors. Count the seconds in the broth. Leave the carasau in too long and the whole stack turns to paste.

Where to eat pane frattau

Pane frattau in Cagliari

Panefratteria ★ 4.2

€€ ItalianMarina

Panefratteria builds its Cagliari menu on pane carasau, the sheet bread softened into pane frattau and zuppa gallurese in a modern room on Via Azuni.

OrderPane frattau, tomato, pecorino and a poached egg.

Why locals goA whole menu built on pane carasau, the sheet bread most visitors only meet as a bread basket in other rooms.

TipClosed Tuesday; there is a garden at the back and the grappa and Sardinian wine list is longer than the food menu.

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