Pissaréi e fasò is a typical dish from Piacenza with ancient origins. It was a dish offered to pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena in the Middle Ages.
The dish was different from what is eaten today, but it retains the same nutritional elements.
The basic ingredients are flour, breadcrumbs for the pissarei and beans for the sauce, which, with the discovery of the Americas, were enriched with tomato.
Initially, it was served as a broth dish and the beans used were black-eyed peas. Nowadays, it is more common to find it with borlotti beans and “morbida” (in Piacenza dialect, barzotta) tomato purée.
To flavour the dish, the sauce is enriched with a fatty pork base (pistà ‘d grass).
The origin of the name is unclear. It could be linked to the shape of a snake, which is used to detach the gnocchetti, or to the wet dough that leaves residue on the hands and, when you try to remove it by rubbing your hands together, creates small snakes, pissaréi in dialect.
