# Crescentine Modenese mountain breads cooked in the tigelliera, with cunza. Pavullo nel Frignano, Emilia-Romagna. Pizza & Bread (Pizze e Pani). > The small round breads of the Modenese Apennines, a soft dough of flour, milk, water, lard and yeast cooked in a hot tigelliera, then split and filled with cunza, lardo pounded with garlic and rosemary, under grated Parmigiano Reggiano; one of Emilia-Romagna's traditional food products. - Level of proof: Documented tradition (Tradizione documentata). A regional tradition documented in cookbooks and local practice, with no single official text. - Sources checked: 2026-11-03 - Published: 2026-11-03 - Page: https://nonnario.com/recipes/crescentine/ ## In short - Soft wheat flour, milk and water, lard, yeast and salt, kneaded by hand until very soft, then left to double, at least 2 hours at about 25 °C. - Rolled just under 1 cm thick and cut into rounds 8 cm across. - Cooked in a well-heated tigelliera greased with lardo, over a low flame, 4 minutes on each side. - Split while hot and filled with cunza (lardo, garlic and rosemary chopped fine with a mezzaluna) and grated Parmigiano Reggiano. - The fireplace dough was flour, water and salt alone; yeast and a little milk came with iron plates and the tigelliera. Also called: tigelle, tigella, crescentina, crescenta, crescentina modenese, tigella modenese, cherscènta modenese. ## Where it comes from Crescentine are the everyday bread of the Modenese Apennines, the Frignano between the Secchia and the Panaro, where for generations they took the place of bread and were carried to the fields; Pavullo nel Frignano holds a crescentina festival at the end of every August. The name speaks of dough that rises. Tigella, the name most people use outside the mountains, belonged to the tool: a disc of clay about 10 cm across, made in winter from earth dug half a metre down in the chestnut woods, mixed with finely crushed white stone, shaped in a willow mould, dried for 15 days and fired under the embers. Many were carved, often with a six-pointed star, so the pattern printed itself on the bread. Heated by the fire until they turned red, the discs were stacked with the raw crescentine between them, each laid on chestnut leaves, turned and finished under the ashes; rubbing a raw crescentina on a disc showed by its mark whether it was too hot. Iron and cast-iron plates followed, and today the tigelliera, a hinged aluminium mould set on the flame or an electric one with stones. The dough of the fireplace was flour, water and salt alone, worked by hand at length; for plates and moulds a little yeast and milk are added, and richer doughs some lard or oil. In the mountains each one is still shaped by hand from a ball of dough. Split while hot, crescentine take the cunza, pork fat pounded with garlic and rosemary, under plenty of grated Parmigiano Reggiano, or cured meats such as prosciutto, salame, pancetta and coppa, or soft cheese. The name Crescentina (Tigella) di Modena belongs to a collective mark of the Modena Chamber of Commerce, whose specification for producers in the province allows soft wheat flour, salt at about 2% of the flour, water and, if they wish, lard or olive oil, milk, malted flour and yeast or bicarbonate, and sets the size of the finished bread. It is also on Emilia-Romagna's and Italy's lists of traditional food products. None of these sets a recipe for the home kitchen. We compared 14 sources and publish the most widely recognised version: a dough of flour, milk, water, lard and yeast, kneaded by hand, left to double, rolled and cut, cooked in a stovetop tigelliera greased with lardo, then filled with cunza and Parmigiano. Its milk is about a quarter more than the specification allows, as in every household recipe we read that gives an amount of milk, and its teaspoon of sugar is not on the specification's list: these are household crescentine, not the marked bread. The heat of the tigelliera in degrees, the temperature inside when done, the ways to cook without a tigelliera, how much cunza to make, the timing for the re-rolled scraps and the food-safety times for the cunza are ours. - Defined by: Modenese tradition - Reference: Compared across 14 sources, listed below; this page publishes the most widely recognised version. ## Sources - [Camera di Commercio di Modena: production specification of the collective mark Crescentina (Tigella) di Modena, 2022 text (Italian)](https://www.tradizionesaporimodena.it/assets/Uploads/DISCIPLINARE-crescentina-anno2022.pdf) - [Camera di Commercio di Modena, Tradizione e Sapori di Modena: the Crescentina (Tigella) di Modena product page (Italian)](https://www.tradizionesaporimodena.it/prodotti/crescentina-tigella-di-modena/) - [Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF): national list of traditional food products, 25th revision, 2025, Emilia-Romagna no. 280 (Italian)](https://www.masaf.gov.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/22781) - [Regione Emilia-Romagna: regional list of traditional food products, 26th revision, no. 281 (Italian)](https://agricoltura.regione.emilia-romagna.it/dop-igp/altri-regimi-di-qualita/prodotti-tradizionali/elenco-regionale-dei-prodotti-agroalimentari-tradizionali-ventiquattresima-revisione/@@download/file) - [Provincia di Modena, Modena magazine no. 24, 1999: Crescentine montanare, with the tigelle and a recipe (Italian)](https://newsrivista.provincia.modena.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/24_399.pdf) - [Provincia di Modena, Storie di terra e di rezdore: crescentine cooked in the tigelle, a household recipe from Sestola (Italian)](https://rezdore.provincia.modena.it/crescentine-tigelle.html) - [Comune di Pavullo nel Frignano: the town's food specialities, the crescentina and its festival (Italian)](https://www.comune.pavullo-nel-frignano.mo.it/turismo-a-pavullo/scopri-pavullo-e-il-suo-territorio/specialita-gastronomiche/) - [Travel Emilia Romagna, the regional tourist board's site: all there is to know about tigelle](https://www.travelemiliaromagna.it/en/tigelle-history-recipe/) - [Agrodolce, food magazine: tigelle, the recipe (Italian)](https://www.agrodolce.it/ricette/tigelle) - [GialloZafferano, recipe site: crescentine (or tigelle) with cunza (Italian)](https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Crescentine-o-tigelle-con-la-.html) - [Il Cucchiaio d'Argento: crescentine modenesi (tigelle), the recipe (Italian)](https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/crescentine-modenesi/) - [Dissapore, food magazine: tigelle, five mistakes not to make (Italian)](https://www.dissapore.com/ricette/tigelle-5-errori-da-non-fare/) - [Accademia della Crusca, language advice: crescentine or tigelle (Italian)](https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/consulenza/crescentine-o-tigelle-questo-%C3%A8-il-dilemma/31534) - [USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Leftovers and Food Safety (archived copy of 29 May 2025)](https://web.archive.org/web/20250529160018/https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/leftovers-and-food-safety) ## Ingredients Makes about 22–23 crescentine 8 cm across, with the scraps rolled again once: 6 servings, in metric units. ### For the dough (for each batch, not scaled with servings) - 500 g soft wheat flour, tipo 00 (plain flour, and a little more for the board) - 130 g semi-skimmed milk (at room temperature or just warm) - 130 g lukewarm water - 12 g fresh brewer's yeast - 1 tsp sugar (about 4 g) - 1 tsp fine salt (about 5 g–6 g) - 50 g lard (strutto, rendered pork fat, soft at room temperature) ### For the tigelliera (for each batch, not scaled with servings) - 1 lardo (a small piece of salt-cured pork back fat, to grease the moulds) ### For the cunza and to serve (for each batch, not scaled with servings) - lardo (salt-cured pork back fat, to taste; about 200 g–250 g for the whole batch (our guide)) - garlic (to taste; about 1–2 cloves for that much lardo (our guide)) - fresh rosemary (to taste, the needles only; about 1–2 sprigs (our guide)) - Parmigiano Reggiano (grated, to taste, and plenty of it) ## Equipment - A stovetop tigelliera (a hinged aluminium mould for crescentine, often with 7 moulds), or an electric one; without one, two heavy cast-iron pans of the same size - A gas burner with a double ring and a flame diffuser to set under the tigelliera - A round cutter 8 cm across - A wooden board and a rolling pin - A fork, a bowl and a damp tea towel - A mezzaluna (a curved two-handled chopping knife), or a large knife, for the cunza - Kitchen scale and measuring spoons - Infrared thermometer (useful on a non-stick or seasoned mould, not on bare aluminium) and probe thermometer ## Method Hands-on 59 min, cooking 54 min, resting at least 3 h. About 3½ hours for the first cut, most of it waiting; about 4¼ hours with the scraps rolled again. The dough takes about 25 minutes to make, then rises for at least 2 hours; make the cunza while it rises and keep it in the fridge. Put the tigelliera on to heat 30 minutes before you want to cook: it heats while you roll and cut. The first cut gives about 18–19 rounds, three rounds of about 8 minutes in a tigelliera with 7 moulds; serve them as they come off. The scraps, kneaded again, rest at least an hour while those cook, then give the last 4 or so in one more round: about 22–23 in all. ### The dough 1. **Dissolve the yeast in the milk and water** (Hands-on 3 min; 30–35 °C). Pour the 130 g of milk and the 130 g of lukewarm water into a bowl and crumble the 12 g of fresh yeast into them. Check: The liquid feels just warm on the inside of your wrist, not hot, and the yeast is crumbled into small pieces. Tip: Our guide: the milk at room temperature or just warm, so that the mixed liquid is about 30 °C–35 °C. Much hotter, and the yeast suffers. 2. **Stir in the sugar** (Hands-on 2 min). Add the teaspoon of sugar and stir with a spoon until the yeast has dissolved. Check: No lumps of yeast left: an even, pale, cloudy liquid. 3. **Make a well of flour** (Hands-on 3 min). Heap the 500 g of flour on the board and make a hollow in the middle. Pour the yeast liquid into it and add the 50 g of lard and the teaspoon of salt. Check: A ring of flour holding the liquid, with the lard and salt in it and nothing running out. Tip: Our guide: keep the wall of flour high and wide enough to hold all the liquid; if it breaks, push the flour back with a scraper or your hand. Tip: The lard in the dough is what makes crescentine soft and full of flavour. 4. **Work in the lard and flour with a fork** (Hands-on 5 min). Crush the lard with a fork so that it melts into the liquid. Then, still with the fork, draw part of the flour from the inside of the wall into the liquid, a little at a time, until it is too thick to stir. Check: The lard has disappeared into a thick, sticky batter that the fork can no longer move. Tip: Our guide: soft lard, at room temperature, melts into the liquid easily; cold from the fridge, it stays in lumps. 5. **Knead by hand for about 10 minutes** (Hands-on 10 min). Bring in the rest of the flour with your hands and knead for about 10 minutes, pushing the dough away with the heel of your hand and folding it back, until it is even. Check: A smooth, even dough, very soft but no longer sticking to your hands or the board. Tip: The dough should stay very soft: do not knead in extra flour to make it firmer. Tip: Our guide: if it still sticks after 10 minutes, flour your hands lightly rather than the dough. 6. **Leave it to double** (Rest 2–3 h; 25 °C). Put the dough in a bowl, cover it with a damp tea towel and leave it to rise for at least 2 hours at about 25 °C, until it has doubled. In a cooler room it takes longer. Check: At least 2 hours have passed and the dough has doubled in volume. A floured finger pressed in leaves a dent that fills back only slowly. Tip: Wait for it to double, however long it takes; the time is only a guide. Tip: Our guide: the finger test is ours; if the dent springs back at once, give the dough more time. ### The cunza, while the dough rises 7. **Make the cunza** (Hands-on 10–15 min). Peel the garlic and strip the needles from the rosemary. Chop the lardo, the rosemary and the garlic together, then go on pounding and chopping them with the mezzaluna until they come together into one fine, smooth paste. Check: An even, pale, spreadable paste, flecked green with rosemary, with no pieces of garlic or lardo left whole. Tip: Our guide: allow a heaped teaspoon of cunza, about 8 g–10 g, for each crescentina: about 200 g–250 g of lardo for the whole batch, with 1–2 cloves of garlic and the needles of 1–2 sprigs of rosemary. Garlic is a matter of taste. Tip: Our guide: cover it and keep it in the fridge until the crescentine go to the table. Leftover cunza that has never left the fridge keeps, covered, for up to 3 days from making it. ### Rolling and cooking 8. **Heat the tigelliera, 15 minutes on each side** (Cooking 30 min; 180–200 °C; heat: low to medium-low). Set the closed tigelliera on a flame diffuser over a double-ring gas burner and heat it for 15 minutes, then turn it over and heat the other side for 15 minutes. Roll and cut the dough while it heats. Check: Both plates are hot right through: a drop of water flicked into a mould sizzles hard and vanishes within a second or two, or skates across in beads. On a non-stick or well-seasoned mould an infrared thermometer reads about 180 °C–200 °C; on bare aluminium it reads far too low, so go by the water drop and the colour of the first round. Tip: Our guide: the flame low to medium-low; the diffuser spreads it so the whole mould heats evenly. Tip: Our guide: leave the tigelliera on the low flame between rounds, and while the scraps rest, so it stays hot. Tip: Our guide: an electric tigelliera only needs heating, closed, until its light says it is ready; then cook the crescentine closed for 4–6 minutes, both sides at once. Tip: Our guide: without a tigelliera, heat two heavy cast-iron pans of the same size over a low flame for about 10 minutes. Grease the lower one with the lardo, lay the rounds in it and set the second pan on top, base down, as a hot lid; cook 4 minutes, turn the rounds and cook 4 minutes more. They will not take the pattern of the moulds. 9. **Roll the dough into a round sheet** (Hands-on 5 min). Turn the risen dough onto the lightly floured board, flatten it a little with your fingers, then roll it with the rolling pin into a circle about 40 cm across and just under 1 cm thick. Check: An even sheet just under 1 cm thick all over, edges included. Tip: Our guide: if it keeps shrinking back as you roll, leave it for a few minutes under the tea towel and roll again. 10. **Cut out the crescentine** (Hands-on 5 min). Cut out rounds with the 8 cm cutter, as close together as you can. The first sheet gives about 18–19. Check: About 18–19 clean rounds 8 cm across, each just under 1 cm thick. Tip: Our guide: a 40 cm circle has room for about 18–19 rounds of 8 cm; the scraps, rolled again once, give about 4 more, about 22–23 in all. The figure of about 25 that some recipes give counts every last scrap rolled again and again. Tip: Our guide: cover the rounds with a dry tea towel while they wait for the tigelliera, so they do not form a skin. Tip: The cut rounds can also be brushed with a little lard before they go into the tigelliera. 11. **Knead the scraps and let them rest** (Rest 1 h). Gather the scraps, knead them together again by hand into one smooth ball and leave it under the tea towel for at least 1 hour, until it has swelled and is soft and easy to roll again. Cook the first rounds while it rests. Check: The timer is running for at least 1 hour; when it rings, the ball has swelled and rolls out without springing back. Tip: Start the timer and go straight on to the next step: the first rounds cook while the scraps rest. Tip: The rest lets the worked scraps swell again and turn soft and easy to roll. Tip: Our guide: if you would rather not wait, the first cut alone makes about 18–19 crescentine. 12. **Grease the moulds with lardo** (Hands-on 1 min). Open the hot tigelliera and rub each mould with the piece of lardo. Check: Every mould shines with a thin film of fat, with no pools. Tip: Our guide: hold the lardo with a fork or in a fold of paper, as the moulds are very hot. 13. **Cook the first round, 4 minutes on each side** (Cooking 8 min; 180–200 °C; heat: low). Lay a round in each mould, close the tigelliera and cook over a low flame for 4 minutes. Turn the whole tigelliera over and cook for 4 minutes more. Check: Golden on both sides, with a crisp crust and, if the mould has one, its pattern printed on it. On the first round, a probe pushed sideways into the middle of one reads at least 95 °C. Tip: The tigelliera must be well heated before the first round goes in: that is what gives the golden, crisp crust. Tip: Our guide: if they turn dark brown within 2 minutes, the flame is too high; if they are still pale at 4 minutes, raise it a little. Tip: Our guide: 95 °C or more in the middle means the crumb is cooked through. 14. **Cook the rest of the first cut** (Cooking 16 min; heat: low). Go on in the same way until all the rounds of the first cut are cooked. Keep the cooked ones wrapped in a clean tea towel in a basket while the others cook. Check: Every crescentina golden on both sides; the ones in the cloth still hot and soft. Tip: Our guide: with 7 moulds the 18–19 rounds of the first cut take three rounds of about 8 minutes; fewer moulds, more rounds. Tip: Our guide: rub the moulds with the lardo again if the crescentine start to stick. 15. **Roll, cut and cook the scraps** (Hands-on 13 min; heat: low). Roll the rested ball just under 1 cm thick, cut it into 8 cm rounds, rub the moulds with lardo and cook them as before, 4 minutes on each side over a low flame. Check: About 4 more rounds, golden on both sides: about 22–23 crescentine in all. Tip: Our guide: what is left after this second cut is too little to roll again; cook it as one small piece or throw it away. ### To the table 16. **Split, fill and serve hot** (Hands-on 2 min). Take the cunza out of the fridge. Split each hot crescentina in half with a knife, spread the inside with cunza, sprinkle it with grated Parmigiano Reggiano, close it and eat it straight away, while the heat melts the cunza. They can also be filled with cured meats and cheeses. Check: The cunza melts into the hot crumb as soon as it goes on. Tip: Our guide: put on the table only as much cunza as you will use. It stays out for at most 2 hours; whatever is left then is thrown away, not put back for another day. Tip: Our guide: fill them only as they are eaten. A filled crescentina is eaten at once. ## Good to know - Keeping: Best eaten hot. Unfilled, they keep for a couple of days at room temperature in a paper bag or wrapped in a clean tea towel. They also freeze, once cool, for 2–3 months, separated by baking paper in a freezer bag; thaw them at room temperature and warm them in the oven at 180 °C for about 10 minutes, or for a few minutes on a hot plate. ([source](https://www.agrodolce.it/ricette/tigelle)) - Variant: The fireplace way, without yeast: Flour, lukewarm water and salt only, worked at length by hand on a wooden board, covered and rested for 2 hours, shaped into fist-sized balls and pressed out by hand. The clay tigelle are heated in the fireplace until they turn red; then tigelle and crescentine are stacked, each crescentina on chestnut leaves (dried ones soaked in water will do), turned so they cook evenly and finished under the ashes, about 10 minutes in all. Cooked on electric plates or iron plates, the same dough takes a little yeast and a drop of milk. ([source](https://rezdore.provincia.modena.it/crescentine-tigelle.html)) - Variant: With olive oil: 50 ml of olive oil in place of 60 g of lard, in a dough of 500 g of type 0 flour, 150 ml of lukewarm milk, 80 ml of lukewarm water, 10 g of fresh yeast and 2 teaspoons of fine salt; doubled in about 2 hours, rolled about 1 cm thick, cut 10 cm across, rested 30 minutes and cooked for 5–6 minutes in a well-heated tigelliera, turning it several times. ([source](https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/crescentine-modenesi/)) - Variant: With herbs in the dough: Chopped rosemary or sage kneaded into the dough, for more flavour. ([source](https://www.agrodolce.it/ricette/tigelle)) - Variant: Cunza by weight: 200 g of lardo, 2 sprigs of rosemary and 2 cloves of garlic for 22 crescentine: the lardo cut with a knife to an even texture, the rosemary needles and then the garlic chopped finely, all mixed and beaten with the base of the knife, unhurried, for about 10 minutes, until soft and silky. With a food processor, chop the rosemary with the garlic first, then the lardo on its own. ([source](https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Crescentine-o-tigelle-con-la-.html)) ## Common mistakes - Kneading in extra flour: the dough should be very soft, though not sticky. - Rolling and cutting before the dough has doubled. - A tigelliera not heated through: the crescentine go pale and never take a crisp crust. - A high flame once they are in: the outside darkens before the inside is cooked. Keep it low. - Letting them go cold before filling: the cunza should melt into hot bread. ## Cooking it outside Italy - Tipo 00 flour is Italian soft wheat flour; plain (all-purpose) flour is the nearest elsewhere. - Strutto is lard, rendered pork fat. Lardo is a different thing: pork back fat cured with salt. Some recipes use olive oil in the dough in place of the lard. - Our guide: in place of 12 g of fresh yeast, about 4 g of active dried yeast, dissolved in the same way. - Semi-skimmed milk is called reduced-fat or 2% milk in the US. - Without a tigelliera, crescentine can be cooked in a heavy pan. Our guide is two cast-iron pans, one set on top of the other as a hot lid (see the step for heating the tigelliera). --- From Nonnario, the documented recipes of Italy: https://nonnario.com/recipes/crescentine/. Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources. Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).