The Cookies of Siena

Cantucci

I recently had a perfect day in Siena, Italy, the perfect place to have it. Delicious cookies played a part.  I started the day in my room in a converted 14th century monastery by opening the heavy, oak shutters to sweeping views of land undulating in folds to the horizon, the same soft air and wispy atmosphere that is seen and almost felt in a Renaissance painting. 

    View from our room in Monastery

Breakfast was served in the monastery's ancient wine cellar, a cheerful room sitting under an enormous arch of honey-coloured bricks. There were cookies for breakfast with foamy cappuccino, along with the more usual offerings like bread, cheese, cereal, fruit and yogurt.  What wonderful cookies these were, and with capricious names: Cavallucci, Ricciarelli and Cantucci.  We had read that Siena was famous for its biscotti (all cookies are biscotti in Italian) but nothing had prepared us for the intriguing treats laid out before us. Cavallucci are nubby, bumpy, chewy, thick and homely, yet bursting with peronality from the unusual marriage of anise and corinader seeds, local walnuts, honey and candied fruit. Ricciarelli are a conceptual contrast to Cavallucci, soft and white as a cloud, sprinkled with a dusting of confectioners' sugar. They are pretty and cakey, shaped like and scented with almonds, with a texture that is a cross between meringue and marzipan. Cantucci are hard, chubby toasted little almond slices, twice-baked and best enjoyed when softened by dipping them into vin santo (sweet wine), which we refrained from doing at breakfast, dipping into our cappuccinos instead.

My husband and I quickly determined that we needed our very own stash of these Sienese biscotti to sustain us through the day. Bini Bakery was right across the street, certainly a sign meaning we and the cookies were meant to be together. We nibbled on cookies as we ambled through the ancient, winding streets of Siena, unchanged since medieval times. We munched in Il Campo, the sea-shell-shaped piazza (public square) and focal point of Siena, the only relatively flat space in a town that rises and falls everywhere else.  We sat on the marble steps of the Duomo with cookies in hand, awestruck by the fantastical frenzy of twisted gothic columns and golden frescoes on the facade of the cathedral. We climbed 505 steps to the top of the Torre Mangia fortified by our goodies, swooning over the beauty of the "sienna"-coloured land. Even dirt is pretty in Siena. And we picked at the crumbs at the bottom of our bag after a delightful dinner of pici pasta, long, thin strands of hand-rolled pasta dough doused with assertive arrabiata sauce.  

View from Torre Mangia

A perfect day must nourish your heart and soul, delight all your senses and deliver continual pleasure from morning to night. Nothing ugly should pass before your eyes; no discordant sounds should disturb your ears. You should definitely eat delicious cookies. This is exactly what my perfect day in Siena was like. 

Bring the aromas and flavours of Sienese baking into your home with these delicate Ricciarelli:

2 cups whole blanched almonds; 1 cup granulated sugar; 1+1/4 cups confectioners' sugar; 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten, 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract; pinch of salt.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 11" x 17" baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulverize the almonds with both sugars in a food processor fitted with a metal blade until soft and floury. In a mixing bowl beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add the almond extract and a pinch of salt into the egg whites and stir gently to just combine. Gradually add the almond/sugar mixture to the egg white mixture and stir well to form a malleable paste. Break off walnut-sized balls of dough and roll them in confectioners' sugar. With your hands, mould dough into tapered almond-shaped cookies about 1/2" thick and 2" long from end to end. Place cookies 2" apart on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until set but still soft and not browned. Let cool and dust with a cloud of confectioners' sugar. Makes 20 lovley cookies.

Ricciarelli

If you would like to learn more about Italian baking, you may want to borrow these library books:

Italian baking secrets / by Orsini, Joseph E.

La dolce vita : sweet things from the Italian home kitchen / by Ferrigno, Ursula.