pane frattau — Italy

Pane frattau takes its name from the Sardinian word for shredded or torn, describing how the crisp flatbread called pane carasau is broken and rehydrated to build the dish. Pane carasau itself is a very thin, twice-baked bread that shepherds in the highlands of Barbagia once carried on long days away from home, since a stack of the dry sheets keeps for weeks without spoiling. The dish is reported mainly from the Barbagia area in the central highlands of Sardinia, an inland region of small mountain towns where sheep farming has long shaped the local table. From there it spread across the island and now appears on trattoria menus well beyond its home villages, sometimes under the double-t spelling frattau. To prepare it, sheets of pane carasau are dipped briefly in hot broth or salted water until they soften without turning to mush, then stacked in a shallow dish like a simplified lasagne: a sheet of bread, a ladle of tomato sauce, a generous scattering of grated pecorino sardo, and so on for two or three layers. An egg, poached or fried, is set on top just before serving so the yolk runs into the layers when the dish is cut. Cooks vary the broth used to soak the bread — some favor a plain vegetable stock, others a meat broth for a richer result — and adjust how much sauce and cheese goes between the layers. Basil or a drizzle of good olive oil is sometimes added at the table, and the egg can be cooked softer or firmer depending on the household, but the bread-sauce-cheese-egg structure stays recognizable from one kitchen to the next.