A seasoned, recrisped version of Sardinia's wafer-thin flatbread pane carasau. Whole sheets of the dry, brittle carasau are brushed or drizzled with olive oil, scattered with salt, and passed briefly back through a hot oven (or over embers) until they crisp and the oil soaks in. The sheets are then usually broken into shards and eaten warm, as a bread or snack alongside cheese, cured meats and wine. The name is the difference: plain pane carasau is the unseasoned keeping-bread, while pane guttiau is the same bread finished with oil and salt to eat at once.
Pane guttiau is a direct preparation of pane carasau, the thin crisp bread of inland Sardinia long associated with the shepherding districts of Barbagia, Ogliastra and Logudoro, where its dryness let it keep for months and travel with herders. Pane carasau is recognised as a Traditional Agri-food Product (PAT) of Sardinia on the national register, and an application for IGP protected status was under way as of 2026; it is not a DOP product. Its name comes from the Sardinian verb carasare, «to toast», for the firing that crisps it. The name guttiau comes from the Sardinian guttiare, «to drip», after the oil dripped over the bread before its second firing. Dry flatbreads of this kind are very old on the island — primitive forms are said to be attested from the Nuragic period — though pane guttiau itself is simply the everyday, dressed way of eating the sheet hot.
Extremely thin and shatteringly crisp — it snaps and crackles, almost flaking apart, lighter and shorter than a cracker. Warm from the oven, the olive oil carries through with a fruity, peppery richness and the salt sits in bright flecks on the surface; underneath is the toasted, faintly nutty wheat flavour of the carasau itself. Against the plain bread, guttiau is oilier, saltier and more savoury, and the oil makes it slightly less glassy and a touch more tender than bare carasau. It is at its best eaten straight away while warm and freshly crisped; left to sit, the oil softens it and it loses the clean snap.
Pane carasau is made by baking a thin disc of durum-wheat dough until it puffs, splitting it into two even thinner sheets, then firing those sheets a second time to drive off the water and toast them rigid — the carasare step that leaves a brittle, low-moisture bread that keeps for months. Pane guttiau builds on that base: brushing the dry sheet with olive oil and a brief return to high heat warms and re-crisps it, the heat caramelizing and toasting the surface a little further while the oil is absorbed into the porous, dehydrated bread, carrying its flavour right through. Because the sheet holds almost no water, it recrisps in moments and would scorch if left too long. The salt is scattered on while the surface is oiled so it adheres; eaten at once, before the absorbed oil has time to soften the structure, the bread keeps its sharp crispness.
Variations
The plainest guttiau is just oil and salt; common embellishments add rosemary, and sometimes oregano, garlic or chilli, brushed or scattered on with the oil. The closely related pane frattau takes carasau in another direction entirely — softening the sheets in broth and layering them with tomato sauce, pecorino and a poached egg into a dish rather than a crisp bread. Pane carasau itself, unseasoned, is the keeping-bread and the starting point for all of these, and is sometimes called carta da musica, «music paper», for sheets thin enough to read through. A similar Sardinian crispbread, pistoccu, is thicker.
On the Palate
Where Pane Guttiau sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 5 min
- 13 min
Heat the oven hot, or prepare a bed of glowing embers.
- 21 min
Lay whole sheets of pane carasau out flat on a tray.
- 32 min
Brush or drizzle each sheet evenly with extra virgin olive oil.
- 41 min
Scatter with flaky salt, and rosemary if using, while the surface is still oiled so it sticks.
- 52 min
Pass the sheets through the hot oven for a minute or two, watching closely, until they crisp and just take a little colour — they scorch fast.
Watch outWatch it every second in the oven — the oiled sheet crisps and takes color in a minute or two, and it scorches to bitter fast.
- 62 min
Take them out, break into large shards, and serve at once while warm with cheese, cured meats and wine.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
