Pastries are finger desserts, some linked to tradition, some are more modern mignon pastries. There are many types of Italian sweet pastries and they vary from region to region but some are the same all over Italy like the cream puffs, irresistible morsels of choux pastry filled with Chantilly cream or with a custard of various flavors: coffee, lemon, pistachio, orange, lavender…sometimes even sprinkled with powdered sugar or powdered cocoa or covered with icing and presented with sprinkles.
Commonly found typical pastries are also the fruit baskets: short crust pastry baskets with custard and chunks of seasonal fruit, beautifully decorated they come in different sizes and shapes.
Other typical Italian pastries include mignon size cannoli, tiramisu, crostata (jam pie)…
The pastry shops are open every day of the week except for Monday, which is the closing day, but Sunday is the busiest day of the week so it is usually recommendable to reserve pastries in advance especially if you need a large tray or if you wish to buy some special ones.
The pastry shops here sell chocolates, truffles, pastries and cakes for special occasions and they prepare custom made birthday, wedding and anniversary cakes upon request but they make the most money on Sunday when the best shops have a line outside.
Some pastry shops always propose the same pastries over the years and pass the recipes from one generation to the next whereas some more modern pastry shops aim at finding new consistencies of creams and doughs that are the result of the constant search for combinations. The mignon pastry has become today one of the most popular presentations, so close to new tastes and lifestyles, to enjoy quality tastings at any time of the day or to conclude a meal, more or less traditional, with an exquisite sweet note.
Here in Liguria we have some pastries unique to our region…
The gobeletti sweets take their name from the double mold used to make them. They are small shortcrust pastry cakes made in the shape of a tortellino pasta filled with quince jam and they are a typical Ligurian pastry of ancient tradition. The most modern versions come with apricot, peach or berry jams. The ingredients are simple: flour, sugar, eggs, butter and milk for the pastry, quince, peach or apricot jam for the filling; a spoonful of marsala makes this biscuit even more delicious for the palate.
An absolutely uniquely Ligurian dessert which comes in its cake versions and pastry mignon version too is the sacripantina. It’s a sponge cake and it’s over 150 years old and its name comes from Sacripante, a character inspired by a hero of Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem the ‘Orlando furioso.’ This pastry dates back to around 1800 and has two versions, a classic with zabaglione cream and one with mascarpone cream. The traditional one with zabaglione requires whole eggs and not just yolks for the cream and then a chocolate coating with much marsala liquor.
I know it is a cake that is prepared usually the day before because the marsala liquor needs to soak well in the sponge cake.
The kisses of Alassio, also known as the kisses of the Riviera, are oval shaped hazelnut and chocolate pastries made up of two hemispherical shells that are filled with a chocolate cream.
A tray full of typical pastries: mignon tiramisu, cream puffs, cannoli, sacripante…
