TESTO, the great Italian genius

In central Italy and, in this case, in Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany (but, to tell the truth, as far as Romagna and Liguria), we still see the use of a tool of ancient origins which takes the name of text, unknown in truth in the rest of the Italian regions but spread under different names in other areas of the Mediterranean.

According to the most reliable historical research, the recipe dates back to Ancient Rome: Cato the Elder, in fact, in De Agri Cultura, tells the recipe for the placenta (an ancient form of cake) using these words:

"YOU WILL CLEAN THE HEARTH WELL, YOU WILL HEAT IT TO THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE, THEN YOU WILL PLACE THE PLACENTA IN IT. YOU WILL COVER WITH A HOT TILE, YOU WILL COVER THE TILE WITH EMBERS. YOU WILL SEE TO COOK IT WELL AND SLOWLY, YOU WILL LIFT THE TILE TO SEE THE COOKING POINT, TWO OR THREE TIMES".

However, others date the origin of this bread back by a few centuries, associating it with the mefa of the ancient Umbrians (comparable to the Latin mensa) which underwent the same type of cooking. Originally, however, the Latin word testum indicated a vase or an earthenware pot and, by extension, also its lid, which was filled with embers in order to cook also from above. The oldest texts were made of clay but currently those made of cast iron are more common. The main use of this tool was to cook focaccia. Among the various text models widespread in central Italy, the one that is particularly interesting for us for the purposes of this narration is the Umbrian text, used for cooking the famous torte al testo, a focaccia kneaded and cooked on this cast iron plate and subsequently topped with the best of local butchery. This recipe was born as an unleavened alternative to traditional bread and has two variants: the original one, with wheat flour and the one with corn flour, born after the importation of the latter from the Americas.

To make a good torte al testo, you need four readily available ingredients: