Fiadoni – Fee-fi-fo-fum I Smell a Gorgeous Cheese Pastry…

Abruzzesi Fiadoni

How I love Abruzzo’s delicious Fiadoni, these delicious small baked cheesy pastries are so easy to eat on the road, the ultimate in design for gastro picnic fodder. Happily, these traditional Abruzzo Easter gems are no longer reserved for Pasqua and you can buy them all year across Abruzzo, we even found them in a butcher’s shop up in Castel del Monte once when we were going walking in Campo Imperatore, arh sweet delights! Shepherds must have loved these when they set back off on with a few packed into their rucksacks as a tasty reminder of home that they could munch on as they walked.

There are some villages across Abruzzo’s regions that add a little bacon, others that use ricotta, even a sprinkle of local saffron, I have a preference for the salty cheesy tang that pecorino brings. Whichever your favourite or local variant it is the nearest that Abruzzo gets to the torta rustica that is so popular at this time of the year.

When asking my neighbours about recipes for them they all seemed to agree that they should be a combination of young and mature pecorino cheeses, not just for taste but for consistency; there is nothing worse than cheese that is on the dry side wedged into pastry no matter how good its taste. One suggestion that particularly appealed to me was from one Signora was to use 3 types of cheese including Caciotta al peperoncino, a soft young cows’ cheese with chili for a little bit of a kick.

Abruzzesi Fiadoni

Abruzzese Fiadoni

How I love Abruzzo’s delicious Fiadoni, these delicious small baked cheesy pastries are so easy to eat on the road, the ultimate in design for gastro picnic fodder. 
Course Starter
Cuisine Italian

Ingredients
  

For the Pastry

  • 250 g 00 Flour
  • 1 Large Egg
  • 50 ml Olive Oil
  • 50 ml White Wine
  • 1 Large Pinch Salt

For the Filling

  • 150 g Grated Pecorino
  • 100 g Parmesan
  • 1 Egg
  • Black Pepper to taste
  • Nutmeg to taste
  • 1/4 Packet of Dried Yeast

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180 C

For the Pastry

  • Sift the flour and the pinch of baking powder into a food blender. Mix in the beaten egg and oil and wine until uniform. Remove from the food blender and knead for between 5-10 minutes until smooth.
    Wrap the dough in clingfilm so it doesn’t dry out whilst you leave it to stand.

For the Filling

  • Blend together the grated cheeses, egg, yeast, 8 g Baking Powder, nutmeg and black pepper and leave to stand.

Creating your Fiadoni

  • Roll out your pastry dough and put strips through your pasta machine until you reach the penultimate notch in the same way that you would make ravioli. Place small heaps of stuffing onto a strip and cover with another of your rolled strips that you’ve put through your pasta machine.
  • Cut your little fiadoni with a glass beaker or ravioli cutter and shape into a crescent. On each fiadone at the top cut a small cross which will allow the pastry to breathe and the steam to escape as well as a little of the filling to crust up out the top. Brush each with beaten egg using a pastry brush.
  • Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until they turn a golden brown.
  • If you don’t have time for the above and would rather just make a pie, use a 30mm/12” pie tin that you have greased and floured and line with your bottom layer of rolled pastry. Add the cheese filling and then give it a top pinching the sides together to seal and create decoration. Slit the middle with 2 small slits to let steam escape and brush with beaten egg. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 180C.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

 

 

Sam Dunham
Author: Sam Dunham

Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 12 and juggles her work as a self-employed freelance SEO food and travel copywriter and EFL teacher. She is the founder of the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, co-founder of Let's Blog Abruzzo. she is the founder of the 'English in the Woods' initiative, teaching English outdoors in a forest style school.


5 1 vote
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Marla
22 April 2011 10:50

These sound really fabulous and I look forward to trying them very soon!

amelia, z tasty life
25 April 2011 19:43

mmm che delizia!

lifeinabruzzo
26 April 2011 12:21

Let me know how they went Marla and what cheeses you used, would love to hear your Chef interpretation on the recipe!

Rebecca Coombes
26 January 2012 19:25

trying these for the second time but using cheddar as its veggie and my daughter is very strick.

If you like you could add one finely grated squeezed raw potatoe to filling.firms it up too.Not Abruzzese!

LifeInAbruzzo
29 January 2012 22:58

oh the potato is a grand idea Rebeccca thanks for sharing

All about Abruzzo in a slow travel & food blog
A co-operative travel + food blog guide & thriving marketplace keeping you connected to Abruzzo – Italy’s rocky heart!

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish! Accept Read More

Tradurre »