“Grandin” pizza, or corn pizza, is a poor dish peasant tradition, used to represent the ideal substitute for bread and accompanied simple, genuine meals.
Mrs. Concetta, a native of Fresagrandinaria, prepares this typical pizza by meticulously following the old family recipe.
She explains to me that yeast is not used, that there are only flour, water and salt, while for cooking using a “coppo,” a large concave iron lid covered in hot coals which uses the warmth of the fireplace.
For those who do not have a coppo and fireplace, it’s possible to cook it in a heated pan on a normal stovetop.
But let’s get to the recipe.
Ingredients:
– 650 grams of cornmeal
– 150 grams of durum flour
– 15 grams of salt
– boiling water (enough to make the dough soft)
Pour the cornmeal onto a flat surface along with the durum flour. Then add, in order, a handful of salt and then the boiling water. Mix the compound well with the help of a fork.
Knead the dough until it reaches the optimum consistency, then let it sit for about ten minutes. Then spread the dough out inside a baking pan and pour a bit more hot water on top to make it softer.
Now place the baking pan on top of the hot coals, covering it with a coppo (a metal lid), then cover the coppo with more hot coals and leave it to cook for about thirty minutes.
As soon as our corn pizza is ready we will accompany it, according to Abruzzo tradition, with mixed vegetables from the countryside, previously parboiled and browned in a frying pan (“fuje” in the Abruzzo dialect ), some fried sardines, and crunchy sweet red peppers.
Translated by Alan Glenn Embree
[Credits | Photography: Carmelita Cianci]
