Pane Carasau - Music Paper Bread

Welcome back to our Sardinian food series. Today we’re talking about "carta da musica", better known as "pane carasau" in the Sardinian language. Pane carasau actually has nothing to do with music, it literally means “toasted bread” as it is cooked twice, but we like to call it music bread because of the unique crackly noise it makes when it’s broken or eaten. When the bread is put back into the oven for the second time, a large part of the water is eliminated and no crumb is formed, creating a dry and crunchy product. This process gives it a unique, light, crunchiness while the semolina flour used in the recipe makes the bread nuttier and sweeter. This makes pane carasau very addictive and easy to eat, especially when drizzled with olive oil. 

This ancient bread is deeply connected to Sardinian traditions of shepherding. Because it lasts a long time, the shepherd’s wives would prepare it for their husbands to eat while working long days in the fields. Thanks to its wide round shape and crispy consistency, they used it - literally - as a dish, gradually eating it together with the other ingredients, especially cured meat and cheeses. The love and care to make this bread was enormous and it’s one of the oldest types of bread in the world. Even today you’ll find pane carasau on the table at almost every meal and it’s definitely one of our favourites foods.  

Makes: 8 discs of pane carasau

Ingredients

• 500g semolina 
• 3g fresh yeast or 2g dry yeast 
• 270ml water 
• 10g salt 

Method

1. In a large bowl, add the water and mix in the yeast until fully dissolved. Now add all the semolina flour and mix with a fork or a wooden spoon until you can't see any more dry flour. Now add the salt and start mixing with your hands. Move the dough over the table surface and knead well for 6-8 minutes.
2. Put the kneaded dough back in the bowl, cover and rest for 3 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge for 8-10 hours.
3. Now divide the dough into 4 equal balls, about 195g each.  Place them back in the bowl and rest for another 45 minutes.
4. Preheat a pizza stone (or upside-down baking tray) in an oven set to 230°C fan mode. Give the stone plenty of time to heat up, we recommend preheating for at least 40 minutes.
5. On a flour dusted surface, start rolling each dough ball with a rolling pin. When rolling the dough try to keep it round and with a diameter of 33cm. Now cover each disc in layers of parchment paper or clean tea towels and rest for another 15 minutes.
6. Dust a pizza peel liberally with semolina and place a circle of dough on top. If you don’t have a peel, you can use another upside down baking tray or a large wooden board.
7. Slide the dough onto the pizza stone and bake until it blows up like a balloon. Keep a close eye on it, this happens quickly! Remove the bread from the oven and cut along the edge with a sharp knife to make two large sheets of thin flatbread. Now press each piece flat on top of each other while you cook the remainder (you can see this process here in our tutorial video).
8. Bake each piece again one at a time at the same temperature for 1 minute each side, until golden patches appear and they become crispy and lightly browned. You don’t want the whole piece to be brown as this will taste bitter. Let the bread cool before serving or storing in plastic bags.
9. This bread is perfect to serve with antipasti or on its own with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. There is also the classic Sardinian recipe “pane frattau” that uses pane carasau as layers to make a sort of Sardinian lasagna, where the bread is soaked in a broth and layered with pecorino cheese, tomato sauce and topped with a poached egg - you can find our recipe here. 

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