Le Marche Recipes: Italian Cookies and Sweets

For this recipe you’ll need a glass of “sapa”: it is concentrated must or grape juice, it comes in the form of a sweet, dark liquid and is obtained boiling the must until it reaches half of its volume.

finely cut dried figs

finely chopped skinless almonds

finely chopped walnuts

a small glass of sapa

a small glass of mistra’

Thoroughly mix in a bowl the ingredients, slowly adding the sapa and the mistra’, untill it reaches the consitency of a firm paste. Give the mixture an elongated shape, like a salami.

Wrap the small salami in figs leaves and hang in a cool, dry spot.

Enjoy during the cold winter months.


Le Marche Recipes - Castagnole

Castagnole are one of the easiest Italian dessert recipes. These sweets are typically enjoyed during the festivities of Italy carnival.

Ingredients:

100 gr. of sugar

4 eggs

200 gr. of flour

half a glass of rum

lemon zest

baking powder

frying oil

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs with the sugar, add two spoons of rum and the flour. Mix until you obtain a smooth and firm paste.

Grate the lemon zest and add it to the mixture with a pinch of baking powder.

Collect a spoonful of paste and fry it in hot oil until golden.

Let the oil drain from your castagnole on kitchen paper and, as final touch, dust with icing sugar. Serve while warm.


Frappe

Here is another Le Marche recipe typical of the Carnival season.

Ingredients:

500 gr. of flour

1 glass of olive oil

4 eggs

grated lemon zest

icing sugar

frying oil

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Place the flour on a large wooden board. Make a well in the center and place in it the eggs, the oil and the lemon zest.

Start mixing with a fork until the flour is mixed with the other ingredients then start kneading the dough until is smooth and elastic.

Let rest for half an hour covered with a tea towel then, with a rolling pin make it into a sheet of pastry.

Cut into ribbons 2 cm. (about one inch) wide.

Tie a simple knot in the center of the ribbons and deep fry them.

Let drain the oil on kitchen paper and dust with the icing sugar.

Le Marche Recipes - Fave dei Morti

A classic among traditional Italian cookies recipes, the Fave dei Morti are typically prepared around the 2nd of November, All Souls' day.

The origin of this recipe goes back to pre-Christian time when fava beans were used as ritual offering to the dead and the gods of the nether world.

These delicious cookies are shaped like fava beans and are baked in Le Marche region for the festivity of the Giorno dei Morti or All Souls’ day.

In an airtight jar they keep for days and make the perfect Halloween cookies.

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Ingredients:

200 gr. of peeled almonds

250 gr. of sugar

200 gr. of flour

100 gr. of butter2 eggs

lemon zest

a pinch of salt

Dip the almonds in boiling water for few minutes to easily rid them of the brown inner skin, then lightly toast them in the oven. Crush the almonds finely in a mortar or with a food processor.

With a wooden spoon mix the almonds and the sugar then add the softened butter, the eggs and the remaining ingredients.

Knead the dough until is soft and elastic.

Divide in four pieces and with each make a kind of string as thick as a finger.

Cut in small pieces and give them the shape of a big fava bean.

Grease and sprinkle with flour a baking dish. Align the cookies on it and bake for half an hour at 150 centigrade. Let the cookies cool before removing them from the dish.

Enjoy with a sweet wine and don’t forget to leave some Fave dei Morti outside the window on Halloween night to placate the evil spirits.

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