Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread) is a popular Italian bread made with prosciutto and lard (traditionally, but you could use bacon grease). This crunchy, meat-filled bread will be your new favorite homemade bread recipe.
For more ideas, check out all of our recipes.
Lard Bread is a really popular Italian bread filled with chunks of prosciutto, twisted into a ring form, and brushed with some form of fat to make it incredibly crunchy. Sometimes, bacon grease is used for the fat component. Other times, for convenience, butter is used.
But, traditionally, it’s lard. And that’s where the traditional name of Lard Bread comes from. Most people refer to it as Prosciutto Bread instead because that’s what the read is stuffed with.
Regardless of what you call this bread, you can find it on the shelves of any Italian bakery amongst the other popular Italian breads, like a semolina loaf or ciabatta. You’ll recognize it right away, though, because prosciutto bread is shaped like a ring. The bread dough is twisted as its shaped, so it gets this delicious crackle on the top.
If you don’t have an Italian bakery close, don’t worry. You can make Lard Bread at home.
Funny story: Once upon a time, Pete’s dad brought us a loaf of Prosciutto Bread from New York. “I feel bad for you,” Pete said to me. When I asked why, he replied, “Because you didn’t grow up eating this.”
No. I didn’t. But I can make it now.
There’s nothing that tops a good homemade loaf of bread. This Lard Bread is just one of the bread recipes we have on the blog. 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:
- 2 cups + 3 tablespoons bread flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoons yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 8 oz. sliced prosciutto, diced
- 3 teaspoons melted butter or lard
How To Make Prosciutto Bread/Lard Bread:
Put the bread flour, sugar, pepper, and yeast in a stand mixer bowl. Sift them together.
Add the salt and stir with a whisk (or fork).
Pour in the water.
Mix in a stand mixer, using the dough hook, on low speed just until the ingredients are combined.
Turn the stand mixer up to medium speed and mix for about six minutes.
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.
Shape the dough into a ball. Cover it with a tea towel and let the dough rise for 20 minutes.
Roll the dough into an 18-inch log.
Quick note: It’s easiest to do this on a pizza peel because of the length, but you could use a parchment paper-lined baking sheet if you don’t have a pizza peel.
Twist the bread and combine the edges to form a ring. (Tips for this below.)
Cover the ring with a tea towel and let the dough rise 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.
Using a pastry brush, brush the dough with 1 teaspoon of melted butter (lard or bacon grease, depending on what you’re using). 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 the bread cool before cutting and serving.
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.
We use a pizza peel, but you can use a cutting board, clean counter top, or baking sheet. Just make sure that your lightly floured surface of choice has enough room for you to work.
If the dough starts to get sticky when you’re rolling it from a ball shape to a log, sprinkle the dough with a little extra bread flour.
When you have a log, you need to 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 the ends are 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 bit of 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. 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.
Prosciutto Bread (aka Lard Bread): Frequently Asked Questions
Lard is a semi-soft, white fat made by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.
Lard is not the same as Crisco, which is a vegetable shortening. Which makes sense since 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.
We use sliced prosciutto cold cuts, which we diced into chunks, and then add 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 meat, you can add up to 16 oz. of prosciutto slices.
If you have a cut of prosciutto from the butcher shop or grocery store, that would work too. But in that case, dice the prosciutto into small chunks of meat. If you’re making this prosciutto bread with prosciutto chunks, you’ll want to stick with 8 oz. of prosciutto.
Yes, prosciutto bread should be refrigerated. It has cooked meat it in and that shouldn’t sit out on the counter.
After it has cooled to room temperature, place the prosciutto bread in an airtight container and put it in the fridge. It can stay about a week in the fridge (although, let’s be honest, this never lasts us a full week. We always devour it before then).
You can freeze prosciutto bread.
The easiest way to do this is to cut slices of the bread, wrap them in foil or plastic wrap, and put them in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag.
Prosciutto bread will keep in the freezer up to eight months, although it will be best up to two months in the freezer.
Let it defrost in the fridge overnight before serving.
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. If you’re short on time, you can heat slices of lard bread in a toaster.
The bread is best served with a drizzle of olive oil on top.
Purchase Prosciutto Bread Online:
If it feels like this homemade version of lard bread is too much work for you, we found a few places where you can purchase prosciutto 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.
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.
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
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- Shape the dough into a ball. Cover it with a tea towel and let it sit for 20 minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Nutrition Information
Yield
10Serving Size
1Amount 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.
Jules
Thursday 28th of November 2024
This bread is amazing. My best friend recommended it to me a while back. I made it about 6-8 months ago and we ate the entire loaf (4 adults 1 11yr old) in 10 mins. Currently it’s Thanksgiving morning and it rising in my kitchen while I take a nap! I added provolone last time and added it again!
Anne
Tuesday 30th of July 2024
The flavor was exactly how I remembered it to be growing up in Brooklyn which was divine! However, the dough was sticky and difficult to twist. It also browned too quickly in the oven. At 18 minutes it was a minute away from burning on top. I had to cover with foil, reduce the temp to 400 and eliminate 10 minutes of cooking time. The result was a very very dark crust but not crispy. Maybe because the foil was placed on top for the remaining cooking time. Next time I will reduce the first cook time to 15 minutes, skip the 5 minute pan turn, and back only 7-10 minutes more at 400. Also add a bit more flour to make the dough more manageable and get the full twist it needed. Will definitely make again with these adjustments. I also dice a slab of prosciutto into tiny squares and fried it before adding to the dough, and used the rendered fat to brush on top!
Anne
Wednesday 31st of July 2024
@Lisa, Yes I did put the pan with the water but it evaporated at least 3 times and I had to keep adding another cup. I will lower the rack next time- thank you for the suggestion! All in all, my daughter and daughter in law loved it and it was devoured the same day. I will definitely be making again. My daughter in law bakes bread all the time so the next time I make it I’m going to have her help me with the twist. Delicious recipe, so happy I tried it and will make it again and again until I get it perfect! Thank you!
Lisa
Tuesday 30th of July 2024
Anne, your oven rack might be too high and close to the burner. Did you make sure to put the cup of water in the pan under the pizza stone, like the post says? That water gives you the steam for the crispy crust.
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!