Sardinian shepherd bread documented since at least the 1300s, designed as portable rations for transhumant herders who left their villages for months at a time. The double-bake removes nearly all moisture, so a stack keeps for six months without spoiling. The name 'carasau' comes from Sardinian 'carasare' — to toast.
Sardinian shepherd's bread documented since the 1300s — twice-baked thin as parchment, keeps six months in a transhumant herder's pack. The horizontal split while still puffed is the trick.
Thin sheets the diameter of a dinner plate, baked twice until rigid and translucent like old parchment. Snap one and it shatters into shards; the inside is hollow, layered, faintly toasted. Plain it tastes of wheat and salt only. Sardinian shepherds carried it for months; at the table it's broken into pieces and eaten with cheese, prosciutto, or dunked into broth and topped with poached egg (pane frattau).
The technique is a controlled puff-and-split. The disc is baked once at high heat until it inflates like pita, then immediately split horizontally with a knife into two paper-thin sheets while still hot — wait too long and the steam escapes and the layers fuse. Each half is then baked a second time flat to drive off the last moisture and crisp it. Skipping the split gives you flatbread; doing it right gives you carasau.
Variations
Plain at the table with cheese and prosciutto; pane frattau dunks it in tomato broth and tops with poached egg; pane guttiau brushes oil and rosemary on for a savoury cracker.
On the Palate
Where Pane Carasau sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
How it's made
5 steps · 4 hours
- 116 min
Mix wheat flour, semolina, yeast, and salt with water to form a dough.
- 237 min
Knead the dough until smooth, then let it rise until doubled in size.
- 327 min
Roll out the dough into very thin sheets.
Watch outRoll until you can almost see your hand through the sheet — too thick and it won't puff, it just bakes into flatbread.
- 4133 min
Bake the sheets in a hot oven until they puff up and become crisp.
Watch outWatch for the disc to balloon up like pita — that's the steam pocket forming; split it horizontally the instant it puffs, before the steam escapes and the layers fuse.
- 527 min
Let the baked sheets cool before serving.
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