American-Style Cassoni: Cheeseburger-Inspired Romagnoli Flatbreads

 

Today I'm sharing another stop on my Around the World in Eighty Cassoni journey.

This time we're heading to America, more precisely to the United States.

On some Saturdays, I love making big, juicy burgers for dinner. They're a real treat for everyone: I bake the buns myself, often make the mayonnaise too, and carefully choose the meat for the patties. They're certainly not light, but they're a delicious homemade indulgence to enjoy together.

And since there's hardly anything that represents the United States abroad quite like a good hamburger, last Saturday I decided to skip the bun and put the burger inside a cassone instead. Literally! 😀

I only wish the photos did justice to how good they tasted. This isn't exactly an easy filling to photograph, and I had to take the pictures the following day because, by the time dinner was ready, there was absolutely no chance of getting even halfway decent shots.

The dough is always the same: my basic piadina dough recipe. 

Inside, you'll find everything you'd expect in a classic cheeseburger, and you can customise the filling to suit your taste.

American-Style Cassoni

A Romagnoli flatbread with an all-American cheeseburger filling: beef, pickles, barbecue sauce and American cheese, finished with sesame seeds on the outside.

Recipe 

Yield: 12 cassoni
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Resting time: As required by your piadina dough recipe
Cooking time: Approximately 20–25 minutes, depending on the number of batches
Total time: Depends on the preparation and resting time of the dough

Ingredients

• 400 g ground beef

• 4–5 pickles

• 12 slices American cheese

• 5 tablespoons barbecue sauce

• Ketchup, to taste

• Sesame seeds

• Mayonnaise, to serve

• 840–960 g piadina dough, divided into 12 portions of 70–80 g each

Method

1. Cook the ground beef in a frying pan, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and cook until all the liquid has evaporated.

2. Just before the meat is fully cooked, add the barbecue sauce and simmer for another couple of minutes.

3. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the pickles, sliced or diced, and leave the filling to cool.

4. Divide the piadina dough into portions of 70–80 g each. Roll each portion out thinly. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the outside of the dough and press them gently into the surface, just as you would on a burger bun.

5. Place a generous amount of the beef filling on each disc, add a slice of American cheese (you can tear it into smaller pieces for convenience) and a little ketchup. Don't overdo the ketchup, though, or the dough may become too wet.

6. Fold each cassone in half. Seal the edges with a little water and press them firmly with the tines of a fork.

7. Cook the cassoni on a hot griddle or frying pan over low heat, turning them as needed. The heat should be gentle enough to cook the dough through without burning the outside.

8. Serve hot with mayonnaise and, if you like, French fries.

Notes

These cassoni are best eaten as soon as they're made. The filling tends to dry out if they are left over, and reheating them doesn't really improve matters.