Best tigelle recipe — how to make easy tigelle at home!
Tags: Tradition, Recipe, Italian Food, Street Food, Bread

If you are here, you might have heard about tigelle and you are curious about making them at home. I don’t usually use the “best” word in my posts, but this is actually the best tigelle recipe I have ever tried, and today I want to share it with you!

What are tigelle

First of all, what is a tigella? Tigelle is, in fact, the plural of tigella, a type of bread typical of the mountains near Modena and Bologna (known in Italian as Appennino Modenese). That small portion of our mountains is an authentic cradle for typical food, and I would highlight what I call the Modenese street food triad:

tigelle (singular: tigella): the bread you are learning to cook today!

(singular: tigella): the bread you are learning to cook today! crescentine (singular: crescentina): they have different names in different parts of Emilia Romagna; crescentina in Bologna, gnocco fritto in Modena, torta fritta in Reggio Emilia. Whatever the name, crescentine are always made by rolling out the tigelle dough in a very thin way, cutting it into shapes (square or triangular) and deep-frying it in lard or (today more common) oil.

(singular: crescentina): they have different names in different parts of Emilia Romagna; crescentina in Bologna, gnocco fritto in Modena, torta fritta in Reggio Emilia. Whatever the name, crescentine are always made by rolling out the tigelle dough in a very thin way, cutting it into shapes (square or triangular) and deep-frying it in lard or (today more common) oil. borlenghi (singular: borlengo). While you will be able to find tigelle also in industrial preparations in the Italian supermarkets, and you will find crescentine in many restaurants, you will find borlenghi only in typical trattorie in the mountains near Modena. One of the best places for borlenghi is Zocca, which is not a lovely village in the mountains but also the hometown of the famous Italian rocker Vasco Rossi. Borlengo is a sort of flatbread, with actually the thickness of crepes, that will be filled with lard, rosemary and Parmigiano Reggiano, folded in four and … eaten. Fun fact: when you sit and order borlenghi, you don’t have to ask for a precise number of them. Just say “I will go for borlenghi” and they will start serving you with a series of borlengo dishes, one after another until you say “next one is the last one”. At the end of the meal, the host will just count the dishes on the table and get you the bill.

Tigelle or crescentine?

You know, Italians are really picky with food, and every town has its own traditional food or a different way to make/name common dishes. But with tigelle, we come to the next level 🙂

If you are in Bologna, I strongly suggest using the word “tigelle”. But if you are in Modena, please refer to them as “crescentine”. But… didn’t I just say that crescentine are fried dough? Let’s try to make it clear with a schema.

What you need to cook tigelle

You can follow the best tigelle recipe and cook them using a bunch of different techniques and tools, from the most traditional to the more contemporary ones. Let’s go through them:

In my life I have tried them all, starting from a very young age, and honestly I would not recommend investing in specific tools: a flat pan like the one in the recipe below will work just fine and is what I always use!

How to eat tigelle, the real way

Well, tigelle might seem just a flatbread. And yes, if you want to fill them with prosciutto, mortadella, salame, cheese (my choice: gorgonzola) … for sure they will be great!

But there is one single way that will make them stand out: stuffed with pesto montanaro and Parmigiano Reggiano!

Montanaro means mountaineer and, actually, pesto montanaro is typical only of the mountains near Modena. Its ingredients are energetic and super tasty:

lard,

garlic, finely chopped,

rosemary, finely chopped.

Simple like that! But if you will try once a hot tigella, cut in two and filled with pesto montanaro plus one spoon of grated Parmigiano Reggiano… you will never forget its mouthwatering taste! And you can even use them as a tasty bread if you are not into baking your own crusty loaf, or you simply don’t have enough time to.

Now that you know something more about tigelle and the love we share for this food in Emilia Romagna, let’s learn how to make the best tigelle. After trying, you will be amazed that this is not only an incredibly tasty one but also a very easy tigelle recipe!

To read my step-by-step guide to your first tigelle, visit:

Suggested wine pairings

Tigelle is a dish strongly rooted in the tradition of a territory, the mountains near Modena and Bologna. I strongly recommend to enjoy them with wine typical of the same area, i.e. a good Lambrusco (choose the dry one, secco in Italian). If you prefer white wine, you can follow the same advice by choosing a Pignoletto, a sparkling white wine from our hills.

Buon appetito!