Crescentina — Tigelle Modenesi

Crescentine (often called tigelle outside Modena, though technically the tigella is the terracotta disc used to cook them, not the bread itself) are small, round, thick flatbreads from the Modenese Apennine hills — cooked between pairs of heated terracotta discs or in a special cast-iron mould that stamps them with a decorative pattern. The dough is leavened with yeast or, in older recipes, natural sourdough, and enriched with lard — producing a bread that is softer and slightly more risen than piadina, with a specific bouncy texture that comes from the combination of leavening and fat. Crescentine are split open horizontally while hot and spread with cunza (a pounded paste of lard, garlic, and rosemary — the traditional Modenese condiment) or filled with salumi and soft cheese. The cunza is specifically Modenese: raw lard pounded with garlic cloves and fresh rosemary needles until it becomes a smooth, aromatic paste that melts instantly into the hot bread. The tigella mould — a hinged cast-iron device with multiple shallow round impressions — is the traditional cooking tool, placed directly over coals or a gas flame. The heat from both sides cooks the crescentina evenly, producing a bread with a lightly crusted exterior and a soft, yielding interior. In the Modenese hills around Zocca, Montese, and Pavullo nel Frignano, crescentine con cunza are served at every family gathering, paired with a board of local salumi and a bottle of Lambrusco. They are the mountain counterpart to the lowland piadina — same philosophy of simple bread as a vehicle for extraordinary cured meats and cheeses, adapted to a different landscape and cooking tradition.