Carta da Musica and Pane Frattau

In my web browsing I came across this recipe and it sounded interesting!  I really like have crisp breads on hand for snacks and to serve with pates or dips.  This one, from Italy, sounds very interesting.

These really tested my patience! The dough is soft and beautiful to work with and very forgiving.  I just got a brand new pizza stone and used it.  It worked beautifully.  But rolling the circles to 18" was beyond my ability this first time making them.  To make the larger circles, a pizza peel is essential.  I made circles about 6".  It is critical that the dough rounds be flat, without folds and tears or they won't puff up.  They are really a lot like making pita!

Carta da musica or 'music sheet' in English, called pane carasau in the Sardinian language, is staple of Sardinian shepherds, who rely on this flat, crisp, long-lasting bread for nourishment when they head into the mountains with their flocks. It forms the foundation of many Sardinian dishes: It can be broken up to take the place of rice in soups; softened using broth or water to replace pasta in dishes such as pane frattau; or deep-fried to become dessert fritters.  (from Epicurious)

For the Sponge

• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup very fine semolina flour
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse-grained salt
• 1 cup lukewarm water, or warm water if using dry yeast
• 1 ounce fresh compressed yeast or 2 packages active dry yeast

For the Dough

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 1/2 cup for kneading
• 1/2 cup very fine semolina flour
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water

Prepare the Sponge:
Mix the cup of flour with the semolina flour and place in a small bowl. Make a well in the flour. Add the salt to the water, then add the yeast. When the yeast is dissolved, pour it into the well. Incorporate the 1 1/4 cup flour by mixing with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of flour over the sponge. Let the sponge rest, covered, overnight in a warm place away from drafts. 

Next morning, if you do not have a brick oven, line the lower shelf of the oven with unglazed terra-cotta tiles or, as second choice, use a pizza stone. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Be sure to preheat the oven at least 1 hour before using it because the tiles themselves must reach that temperature. 

Prepare the Dough:
Mix the 2 cups of flour with the 1/2 cup of semolina flour and make a large well in the flour. Place the sponge in the well along with the water. Carefully mix the sponge with the water, using a wooden spoon, then start incorporating the flour from the edges of the well. Gather the dough with your hands, form a ball and place the ball on a board or other work surface. Start kneading, incorporating more flour. Knead with a folding motion. At this point you will need some of the 1/2 cup of reserved flour. When the dough becomes very elastic, after about 5 minutes of kneading, lightly flour it, place it in a bowl and let it rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. 

The classic size of the carta da musica is a disc of about 18 inches in diameter. Bearing in mind the size of your oven and even your own experience in handling large sheets of thin dough, divide the risen dough into pieces of comfortable size, remembering that the dough is to be stretched to the thickness of about 1/8 inch. Once the dough is divided into pieces, knead each piece with a little flour. Roll each piece very evenly to a uniform thickness, with no holes at all and no creases; otherwise the dough will not puff up completely in the oven. 

As 2 or 3 pieces of dough are rolled out, start baking them one at a time. Place a disc on a baker's peel, transfer it onto the tile, close oven and bake for 1 minute. Open the oven, gently turn the puffed-up dough over and bake for 30 seconds more. 

Remove bread from oven, transfer onto a board and immediately insert a sharp knife between the two puffed-up, separated layers of half-cooked carta da musica. Placing one hand over the puffed-up dough, use the other hand to cut all around to detach the edges of the layers from each other.

It is best if a second person can do this cutting because the first will be completely occupied in rolling out dough and baking the remaining dough. 

Stack the separated halves on a towel, being absolutely sure that all are placed with the inner side down, so that no 2 inside parts will touch. Place a light weight over the stack of prebaked carta da musica halves to prevent them from curling up. 

When all the pieces of dough have been baked, placed under the weight and cooled, take the pieces and return them, one at a time, to the oven to bake for about 10 seconds on each side or until very crisp. Carta da musica should be very dry and extremely crisp. Continue until all the pieces of the bread are rebaked and crisp. Once all the layers are cold, you may wrap them in brown paper and use them for as long as several months if the humidity is not high.


This video recipe for Pane Frattau is like a lasagna using the carta da musica as the pasta.  It is in Italian but is so good that I think you should watch it.  Click here to watch.  I love the way she makes the poached egg.  Also, epicurious has their recipe here.

Here is another chef's procedure on making the carta da musica.  I decided to post them both because they both have good suggestions.

Procedure      

Adapted from "Sapore della Sardenga - Pane e Pane", by Giovanni Poli  with techniques described in "The Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands" by Giuliano Bugialli.

Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup water and allow it to stand for approximately 5-10 minutes. 

Dissolve the salt in the additional water (1 cup). Place the flour (3 3/4 cup) on the work surface (or in a large bowl) and make a well in the center. Gradually add the dissolved yeast, and the dissolved salt mixture to the flour mixing well between additions. Continue to mix until the dough begins to hold together. Knead the dough to a soft, slightly damp, well amalgamated  consistency (approximately 10-15 minutes).

Consider the size of your oven and your experience in handling sheets of thin dough prior to dividing the dough.  Divide the dough into pieces of a comfortable size, keeping in mind that the dough will be stretched to a thickness of approximately 1/8 inch.  Shape the divided dough into equal rounds of approximately 3 inches (8 cm) in diameter.  Dust a piece of canvas (untreated, 100% cotton), or a proofing board (lumber core plywood) with flour. Place the portions of the dough on the canvas or board.  Allow the dough to rise, covered with a cotton towel, until it is nearly tripled (approximately 3-4 hours. 

As the dough is rising, place a baking stone in the oven and set the temperature to 450° F. Allow the oven to heat for 30 minutes. 

Using a rolling pin, roll each portion of dough evenly to a uniform thickness, without any holes or creases.  (Holes and/or creases in the dough causes uneven rising in the oven, and the bread will not open fully.)  Continually dust the work surface, to avoid the dough from sticking. As two or three portions of the dough are rolled out, begin baking them one at a time.  Place a disk of dough on a sheet of parchment paper. Slide a baker’s peel beneath the parchment paper, and onto the baking stone. The dough should bake for approximately 1 minute within which time it will inflate or swell.  Without allowing the disk to deflate, quickly remove it from the oven and divide the top from the bottom, using a serrated knife. (At this stage the bread is referred to as pane lentu, or softened bread).  

Stack the separated halves on a towel, making sure that they are placed with the inside surface of each facing down, so that no two inside areas are touching one another.  Place a light weight on the stack, to prevent the prebaked halves from curling upwards. Following the prebaking of all the pieces of dough, their separation, and their being weighted and cooled, begin the process of baking each piece again.  Return the pieces to the oven, one at a time, baking them for about 10 seconds on each side, during which time they will become crisp and dry.

Stack the disks up in a pile, one upon the other as they are removed from the oven.