A fried wheat flatbread from Misiones, eaten at breakfast with honey or jam alongside mate. Crisp outside, soft within, torn by hand and dipped in sweet toppings.
Reviro is a fried wheat flatbread from Misiones province in the Argentine Litoral, the heart of the Guaraní-yerba-mate country. It is a simple dough of flour, fat, salt and water, stretched thin and fried in oil until puffed and golden, then torn by hand at the table and eaten with honey, jam, or dulce. It is the breakfast bread of the rural northeast, made fresh each morning on farms and in small towns, eaten warm with a thermos of mate. The tradition is rural and Guaraní-influenced, the simplicity of the ingredients reflecting the pantry of the northeast: flour, fat, salt, and whatever sweet thing is at hand.
Crisp, golden, puffed flatbread, torn warm, the inside soft and slightly chewy, dipped in honey or jam. Eaten with fingers and a cup of mate, the simplest breakfast of the northeast.
The technique is a wet dough, stretched and fried. Flour, salt, a little fat (oil or lard) and water are mixed into a soft, wet dough, wetter than bread dough. The dough is rested 30 minutes, then pieces are pulled off, stretched thin by hand, and slid into hot oil (about 170 degrees C). The bread puffs immediately, frying in 1 to 2 minutes per piece until golden and crisp. The wet dough is what makes it puff, the moisture turning to steam and inflating the bread. The pieces are drained and eaten warm, torn and dipped. The frying must be done just before eating, as the bread loses its crispness on cooling.
Variations
Some add cornmeal to the dough. A version with anise seeds is aromatic.
On the Palate
Where Reviro sits in the Argentinian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
5 steps · 15 min
- 14 min
Mix 500g flour with 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp oil and 300ml warm water to a soft wet dough; rest 30 minutes.
Watch outMix to a soft, wet dough — noticeably wetter than bread dough — that's what steams up and puffs in the oil; a dry dough just fries flat and hard.
- 24 min
Heat oil to 170 degrees C in a deep pan.
- 35 min
Pull off pieces of dough, stretch thin by hand, and slide into the hot oil.
Watch outStretch each piece thin by hand before it slides into the hot oil — thin lets it inflate fast; leave it thick and the middle stays doughy while the outside browns.
- 44 min
Fry 1 to 2 minutes each side until puffed and golden; drain.
Watch outIt should balloon and float within seconds — if it just sinks and browns slowly the oil's too cool; fry only to golden and eat straightaway before it goes limp.
- 54 min
Serve warm, torn by hand, with honey, jam, or dulce de leche and mate.
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