It's September and the grapes in the vineyards are starting to ripen. in this period of the year, you begin to find crushed with grapes in bakeries, pastry shops and shops.
Schiacciata with grapes is a product of our tradition, nowadays it is made with sweet brioches dough, freshly picked red Moscato grapes and anise seeds. There are at least two versions, one uncovered and one covered.
For the uncovered version, the dough is rolled out on a wooden shovel to the desired thickness, grapes and anise seeds are placed on top (anise is not always used), it is left to rise and cooked as if it were a stuffed focaccia . Once cooked, sprinkle with plenty of icing sugar.
For the covered version, do exactly as above but the dough is spread in a pan and everything is covered with another layer of dough so that the grapes remain enclosed between two layers of dough.
The product is good both ways, from Quarratino, I like the covered version more because it is typical of my territory, but this does not mean that the other version is worse.
I made this little explanation not to exhaust the topic but just to introduce some of my memories.
In Quarrata people say: “can you give me a piece of panconluva?” that is, focaccia with grapes is not requested but bread with grapes. But why is it said like that?
I remember that when I was a child, people, whether they were farmers or not, they all did it, brought lasagna pans full of muscat grapes to the bakery, red but also white, beautiful, peeled and washed. My father rolled out common bread dough without salt with a rolling pin as we use, and prepared a sort of lasagna where each layer was made of bread dough, grapes, sugar and anise seeds. Then he let it rise and cooked it for about an hour.
The result was real bread with a pleasant amber color. When cut it had a nice filling with multiple layers of grapes. In particular, I remember that the breadcrumbs absorbed the grape juice syrup that formed during the long cooking and this made the panconluva particularly tasty.
It was eaten warm or cold at home but also in the fields as a packed lunch and we children had a snack with it.
Then, with the economic boom, with the arrival of yogurt and snacks, this tradition transformed into something else, leaving behind only a nostalgic memory of lasagna pans full of grapes.
What is still made today is precisely the schiacciata with grapes which, covered or uncovered, has only one layer, and the dough used is no longer that of bread but that of brioches.
However, if you think about it, something more of this tradition has remained, it has remained in the name of the product. And then, once again I would like to say: "can you give me a piece of panconluva?!"