Schiacciata all'uva Recipe: Tuscany's Grape-Harvest Bread

Schiacciata all'uva is Tuscany's grape-harvest flatbread, a saltless yeasted dough pressed thin around whole black wine grapes and baked hot enough to blister their skins before the juice can soak through the crust.

The dish has been made around Florence and Prato every September and October for generations, from the black grapes left over once the sangiovese has gone to the winery. Some historians trace its roots to Etruscan-era wheat flatbreads from the same region, though that link is folklore, not documented history.

This year the timing carries extra weight: a hot summer has pushed grape harvests across Europe weeks early, with growers in Austria, Germany and Italy all reporting a low-yield but high-quality vendemmia. Schiacciata all'uva is the oldest response to exactly that: a way to use surplus grapes before they turn.

The oldest way to turn a surplus grape harvest into something worth baking.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 300 ml lukewarm water
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 90 ml extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 70 g granulated sugar, divided
• 1.2 kg black wine grapes (sangiovese-type, or concord grapes), whole with skin and seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed (optional)
• Extra olive oil and flour, for the tin

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water for 5 minutes, until foamy, confirming it's active before it meets the flour.
2. Knead the flour with the yeast water, 60 ml oil and 20 g sugar for 10 minutes, until smooth. Skip the salt: unsalted dough is Tuscan tradition, so the grapes' sugar dominates.
3. Cover and let rise for 1 hour, until doubled. This proof builds the gluten that keeps the schiacciata light, even pressed thin.
4. Rinse the grapes but keep the seeds in; whole grapes hold their shape and release juice slowly, so they caramelize rather than turn to jam.
5. Oil a 30 cm tin. Split the dough in two, and press the larger piece thin over the base.
6. Press half the grapes into the base, half-submerged, so they don't roll off and the dough rises unevenly around them.
7. Cover with the second piece of dough, sealing the edges. Press in the rest of the grapes, the fennel seeds, remaining oil and sugar.
8. Rest, uncovered, for 30 minutes, so the stretched dough relaxes and doesn't bake tough.
9. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 30 minutes, until golden and the grapes have caramelized; a hot oven sets the crust before the juice can soak it.
10. Cool for 15 minutes before cutting into squares, so the sugars firm up and it holds together.

What to Serve With It

Serve it still warm as an afternoon snack rather than a formal dessert, ideally with a small glass of vin santo, the amber dessert wine whose dried-grape sweetness echoes the baked fruit on top.