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Originally Posted by Lana  I was thinking about those.
Have either of you heard of schiacciata? |
My mother (from province of Lucca) made a sweet raisin bread at the holidays flavored with anise seeds which she would call schiaccia or schiacciata.
"Schiaccia" just means squashed, and i think it referred to the procedure (being bread it was kneaded) because it was big and high and rounded.
In florence they make a sweet flat bread called schiacciata, which i ran into in a bakery, with fresh grapes on top (horrible to have to pick out the seeds as you eat the bread)
As for a flat bread, first of all, not all countries roll up sandwiches, and italy is a country with very little sandwich culture. Sandwiches are a recent idea. Peasants, workers, marble cutters, etc, brought a loaf of bread and some onions. If they were lucky a piece of cheese - eaten with the bread one in one hand and the onion or cheese in the other hand, a bite of one and a bite of the other. Or their wives brought some sort of minestrone out to them. (Pasta was for very special occasions - luxury food)
Pizza is a flat bread, and some kinds are cooked in large rectangular pans, cut in squares and eaten in the hand. Sometimes you will get white pizza (it has oil and salt on top) and you can find it split with mortadella inside. (Foccaccia is higher and softer). Remember that "Pizza" and "Pita" have the same root. Though my inlaws (lazio area) call any cake a "pizza" even a chocolate cake with frosting!
Further north, I believe in the pianura padana (the flat plains around the po - or maybe emilia or romagna only, not sure) you get a "piadina" which is like a pita, but not as bready. Some places have it "filled" usually meaning cut in half and a filling put inside.
If you want to know what is like wonton, then just think of ravioli, tortelli, tortellini, and the like. And of course, manicotti. But at that point you are getting very far away from the idea of a rolled sandwich!