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Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread)

Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread) is a popular Italian bread made with prosciutto and lard (traditionally, but you could use bacon grease).

For more ideas, check out all of our recipes.

Ring of prosciutto bread on a wooden cutting board.

Don’t be deterred by the title. Please. Lard Bread doesn’t sound delicious. And making bread with lard just sounds gross. Prosciutto Bread sounds much better.

If you’re wondering, “What is lard bread?” your answer awaits.

Lard Bread is the traditional name for the Italian delicacy commonly known as Prosciutto Bread.

Whatever you call it, it’s so good.

And something you can make at home.

Once upon a time, Pete’s dad brought us a loaf of Prosciutto Bread. “I feel bad for you,” Pete said to me. When I asked why, he replied, “Because you didn’t grow up eating this.”

No.

But I can make it now.

So I set out to learn how to make Italian Lard Bread. But, you know, call it Prosciutto Bread because it makes it sound less … lard-like.

When I sent Pete’s dad a photo of my Prosciutto Bread, he was thrilled at how delicious it looked.

He also reminded me that back in the day, it was known as Lard Bread.

Can’t escape it.

Two quarters of a sourdough loaf of bread in a bowl with the words "Homemade Bread Recipes" digitally written on top.

This Lard Bread isn’t the only bread recipe on Drugstore Divas. For more, check out all of our Homemade Bread Recipes.

Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread) Recipe

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Prosciutto Bread/Lard Bread Ingredients:

How To Make Prosciutto Bread/Lard Bread:

Flour in a silver mixing bowl.

Put the bread flour, sugar, pepper, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sift them together.

Add the salt and stir with a whisk (or fork).

Water plus flour in a silver mixing bowl.

Pour in the water.

Mix in a stand mixer on low just until the ingredients are combined.

Turn the stand mixer up to medium and mix for about six minutes.

Sliced prosciutto, chopped into pieces, on a neon green cutting board.

While that’s mixing, slice your prosciutto.

Prosciutto bread dough in a silver mixing bowl.

Add in the sliced prosciutto and mix on low until the prosciutto is combined into the dough, about five minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball. Cover it with a tea towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Prosciutto bread dough, rolled into a log shape, on a wooden pizza peel.

Roll the dough into an 18-inch log. (It’s easiest to do this on a pizza peel.)

Prosciutto bread dough rolled into a ring shape,

Twist the bread and combine the edges to form a ring. (Tips for this below.)

Cover the ring with a tea towel and let it sit for an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 450 F. Leave a pizza stone and a cake pan in the oven while the oven is preheating. Put the pizza stone on the middle rack and the cake pan on the rack under it.

Let the oven sit at temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.

Prosciutto Bread ring being brushed with a pasty brush.

Using a pastry brush, brush the dough with 1 teaspoon of melted butter. Transfer it to the pizza stone.

Fill a cake pan with 1 cup of water and close the oven door.

Bake for 18 minutes.

Rotate the pizza stone 180-degrees and brush with another 1 teaspoon of melted butter. Bake 5 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 400 F.

Bake for 11 to 12 minutes.

Turn off the oven and prop the door open. Let the bread sit in the oven for 5 minutes.

Remove the prosciutto bread from the oven and brush it with the remaining 1 teaspoon of melted butter.

Let it cool before cutting and serving.

Slice of prosciutto bread.

What is lard?

If you’re easily grossed out, skip this part.

I’m warning you.

Skip. This.

Okay. You’re still here? So, lard is a semi-soft, white fat made by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.

Delicious, right?

Lard is not the same as Crisco, which is a vegetable shortening. Which you should have gathered because a pig isn’t a vegetable.

There are two main kinds of lard. There’s leaf lard, which is made from the soft, visceral fat around the pig’s kidneys and loin. Then there’s back fat lard, which is made from the (you guessed it) back fat. Even though lard comes from a pig, it doesn’t have a pork or smoky flavor.

You can purchase lard on Amazon to use in this recipe.

Tips for making Prosciutto Bread

  • We use prosciutto slices in this prosciutto bread recipe. Those are diced up into chunks, and then added straight into the dough. We recommend 8 oz. of prosciutto slices for this because it adds tastes and flavor, but there’s not an overwhelming amount of prosciutto in it. If you want more prosciutto, 16 oz. of prosciutto slices would be the way to go.
  • If you have a piece of prosciutto, like a cut from the butcher shop or grocery store, that would work too. But in that case, dice the prosciutto. If you’re making this prosciutto bread with prosciutto chunks, you’ll want to stick with 8 oz. of prosciutto.
Prosciutto bread ring on a wooden cutting board.

How to form the twisted prosciutto bread ring:

Flour your hands with bread flour. Pour some onto the clean surface where you are going to roll out the dough.

When you’re rolling the dough out from the ball to the log, sprinkle it with a little extra bread flour if it starts getting sticky.

Now that you have a log, let’s work on the twist. The twist is such an integral part of Lard Bread. It gives the crackle on top of the bread, which it is known for. So whatever you do, do not skip this part.

To form the twist, grab one edge of the dough. Then, tightly twist. You will end up picking up the bread and completely flipping it over a few times. Form as many full twists as possible.

When you’re done twisting, put a little water on your fingers, then rub your fingers on the ends of the bread. If they’re covered in flour, they won’t “close” the bread. So you want to make them sticky with a little — not too much — water.

Push the ends together, then use a little water on the edges to seal the ends together. Sprinkle a little flour on top if any wet spots are showing.

Prosciutto Bread Variations:

This recipe calls for melted butter because we always have it at home. If you want to make a traditional lard bread, use lard in place of the butter.

If you don’t have lard handy, use bacon fat, which honestly is essentially homemade lard. Gross. And cool. Next time you’re making bacon, drain the bacon grease into a clean, air tight, glass container. When the grease cools, cover it and put it in the fridge.

When you’re ready for the bacon grease, measure it out and leave any remaining grease in the fridge.

This is prosciutto bread, so of course, it calls for prosciutto. But you can actually add other Italian meats in it. Genoa salami or dry, sweet sausage would both be great alternatives or additions to this Italian meat bread.

If you do use a dry, sweet sausage or Genoa salami, you’ll want to use a piece of prosciutto instead of sliced prosciutto. You’ll want to dice the meat so that the sizes all match, and you can’t match a hard sausage slice to sliced prosciutto (unless you have a meat carver at home).

Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread): Frequently Asked Questions

Should prosciutto bread be refrigerated?

Yes, prosciutto bread should be refrigerated. It has opened, cooked meat it in and that shouldn’t sit out on the counter.

The bread isn’t airtight and therefore, the exposure that the prosciutto can get that way isn’t safe for consumption. Also, the bread can eventually mold if it’s sitting on a counter, and that would be a waste of all your hard work.

Wrap the prosciutto bread in an airtight container and it can keep about a week in the fridge (although, let’s be honest, this never lasts us a full week. We always devour it before then).

Can prosciutto bread be frozen?

You can freeze prosciutto bread.

The easiest way to do this is to cut slices of the bread, wrap them in foil, and put the foil-wrapped slices in an airtight container. If you wanted, you could freeze the prosciutto bread whole. Just be mindful of wrapping the center ring of the bread when you’re wrapping it in foil.

Prosciutto bread will keep in the freezer up to eight months, although it will be best up to two months in the freezer.

How long to heat up prosciutto bread?

If you’ve frozen prosciutto bread and want to consume it, leave it on the counter to come to room temperature.

Then, heat prosciutto bread in an oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes. If you cut thick slices it may take longer; thinner slices may reheat quicker.

Prosciutto Bread

Purchase Prosciutto Bread Online:

If this feels like too much work, but now you want to try prosciutto bread, we found a few places where you can purchase lard bread online.

To start, you can also search lard bread near me on Instacart to see if it’s carried at your local grocery stores. You can also search lard bread on Goldbelly to see if you can get any delivered that way.

If you can’t find it that way, you can order prosciutto bread from the following stores online.

Keep in mind that these are specialty bakeries and shipping may be high based on where you live.

Two loaves of bread in bread pans.

More homemade bread recipes:

If you want more homemade bread recipes, we have a few for you.

Grilled Eggplant, Prosciutto & Mozzarella Roll Ups on a plate.

More Prosciutto Recipes:

If you have leftover prosciutto after making this Lard Bread, you can use it in the following recipes:

Yield: 1 Loaf

Prosciutto Bread (AKA Lard Bread)

Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread) is a really popular Italian bread. Find out how to make it on www.drugstoredivas.net.

Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread) is a really popular Italian bread. Find out how to make it on www.drugstoredivas.net.

Prep Time 11 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Additional Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 16 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups + 3 tablespoons bread flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoons yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup lukewarm water
  • 8 oz. sliced prosciutto, diced
  • 3 teaspoons melted butter or lard

Instructions

  1. Put the bread flour, sugar, pepper, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sift them together.
  2. Add the salt and stir with a whisk. Pour in the water. Mix in a stand mixer on low just until the ingredients are combined. Turn the stand mixer up to medium and mix for about six minutes.
  3. While that’s mixing, slice your prosciutto. Add in the sliced prosciutto and mix on low until the prosciutto is combined into the dough, about five minutes.
  4. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover it with a tea towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.
  5. Roll the dough into an 18-inch log. Twist the bread and combine the edges to form a ring. Cover the ring with a tea towel and let it sit for an hour.
  6. Pre-heat the oven to 450 F. Leave a pizza stone and a cake pan in the oven while the oven is preheating. Let the oven sit at temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.
  7. Using a pastry brush, brush the dough with 1 teaspoon of melted butter. Transfer it to the pizza stone. Fill the cake pan with 1 cup of water and close the oven door.
  8. Bake for 18 minutes.
  9. Rotate the pizza stone 180-degrees and brush with another 1 teaspoon of melted butter. Bake 5 minutes.
  10. Lower the temperature to 400 F. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes.
  11. Turn off the oven and prop the door open. Let the bread sit in the oven for 5 minutes.
  12. Remove the prosciutto bread from the oven and brush it with the remaining 1 teaspoon of melted butter.

Nutrition Information

Yield

10

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 81Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 20mgSodium 779mgCarbohydrates 3gFiber 0gSugar 1gProtein 7g

Have you made this Prosciutto Bread/Lard Bread recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments.

Sue

Wednesday 27th of March 2024

Wanting to try this recipe. Question, could you make smaller rings, say like a bagel size? If so could you give me an approximate oven temperature and bake time. Thank you

Sue

Thursday 28th of March 2024

@Lisa, ok thank you for answers. If I try making smaller I'll definitely let you know the results

Lisa

Thursday 28th of March 2024

I haven't tried this particular recipe smaller, but you definitely could. I've done artisan bread in smaller rolls instead of a large loaf and it's taken about 75% of the amount of time. So, I would try reducing the first two bake times to 13 minutes then 4 minutes. Try the final bake for 8 minutes. If it's not crunchy and baked enough, extend that one to the full 12 minutes.

Sandra

Friday 28th of October 2022

When you roll the dough into an 18 inch log, twist the ends and form it into a circle, you suggest it should be put on a peel to facilitate sliding it onto the pizza stone.. For the dough not to stick to the peel, do you use cornmeal or flour? Thank you

drugstore diva lisa

Saturday 29th of October 2022

We do flour.

amy liu dong

Monday 22nd of August 2022

Oh my goodness, such a good and tasty bread. I will def make this at home. Thank you!

Jere Cassidy

Monday 22nd of August 2022

This bread is totally intriguing using lard and prosciutto. I grew up using lard and honestly it needs to come back in recipes.

Steve

Sunday 29th of May 2022

Can you make instead of. The ring two mound of bread. Like. I used to get back in N.Y.

drugstore diva lisa

Sunday 29th of May 2022

I'm not quite sure what a "two mound of bread" is. The ones we've gotten in New York have always been rings, but you can definitely shape this however you prefer.

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