A food originating in the
Modenese Appennines;
plural form is
borlenghi.
The
borlengo is prepared by spreading in a large pan (12 inches
in diameter, and up), previously greased with a piece of lard, a fluid
mixture of milk, eggs (which some recipes omit) floor and salt. The
borlengo, when cooked, must be extremely thin - in fact, almost
transparent - and crisp. It is then brushed with a spread composed of pork
lard,
garlic and
rosemary (very similar to the one used for
tigelle) folded and served warm. This is the one and only
way in which the borlengo (unlike tigelle) is ever eaten.
The borlengo is less frequently met in restaurants, and most of the
places that prepare it do so (for unexplicable reasons) only in
winter. One exception I know of is a restaurant called La ca' dal
porc (literally "The pig's house" in the dialect of Modena) in the
village of Bell' Italia, 13 km South of Modena, where you can
also taste tigelle and gnocco fritto. The hill town
of Guiglia has an annual borlengo fair during the month of May.
Finding borlenghi has become easier in recent years (a borlengo
Renaissance?). This has not happened for his more rustic cousin -
the ciaccio.