In Liguria, we normally cook ravioli, vegetarian or meat-based, and cappon magro, a vegetable and fish dish, very popular on Ligurian tables but quite hard to make so it’s often made only for this occasion.
As dessert we often have the pandolce genovese, a sort of dried panettone cake made with dried fruit and candied fruit but not only, from millenary traditions to the most modern ones, Ligurian sweets boast a culinary culture capable of conquering the most refined palates. With the Christmas holidays, our ancient origins are rediscovered, with a unique and unmistakable flavor.
It is impossible to visit or leave Liguria without having tasted a Ligurian sweet.
I want to mention some of the most uncommon ones which are a must try in my opinion, also because they are sold or prepared exclusively during the Christmas period.
Spungata. Round in shape, with a spongy, perforated and irregular appearance, Spungata or Spongata is the typical dessert of Sarzana and the surrounding area. It is a simple dessert, baked in the oven, peculiar for its filling, a jam enriched with dried fruit, honey, aromas and spices. It is given as a gift during the Christmas holidays, following ancient customs.
Pinolata di Santo Stefano d'Aveto. A typical dessert of local pastry shops, where the tradition of the hinterland has given a delight rich in pine nuts. Pinolata di Santo Stefano d'Aveto has become the typical dessert of the area, almost a distinctive sign that combines gluttony with tradition.
It is a sweet baked cake with a round shape which has a golden appearance and it is covered with pine nuts. The outer layer is crunchy while the inside is soft and fluffy.
Its ingredients are sweet and bitter almonds, egg whites, a pinch of bicarbonate, sugar, pine nuts and butter.
Amaretti di Gavenola. A round and slightly flat sweet, with a gold and honey color and an almond flavor.
My absolute favorite sweets are Ovis mollis biscuits, delicious butter biscuits prepared with a very particular shortcrust pastry, which has the peculiarity of being prepared with crumbled hard-boiled egg yolk, instead of the classic raw fresh egg. This ingredient alone is capable of making you obtain an incredibly soft, smooth and silky shortcrust pastry, with which you will obtain crumbly, tasty biscuits, with a light consistency and melting on the palate.
I particularly like these biscuits because there is a nice tale grandmas tell at Christmas while preparing these with their grandchildren.
It’s a tale of a girl who mistakenly left her eggs by the fire and the eggs hardened. She could not afford buying more so she decided to try using the hard boiled eggs anyway and the recipe came out great, even better than expected.
Ovis mollis biscuits made by my son
And here is the recipe:
Ingredients for about 40 biscuits:
300 g of flour
200 g of butter
100 g of sugar
5 eggs
Preparation:
First off boil the eggs for eight minutes, then let them cool and shell them. Blend the hard egg yolks and set them aside. Meanwhile, in a bowl with an electric whisk, mix the butter with the sugar, then add the flour and chopped egg yolks, mixing well until you get a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and add the cocoa powder to one of the two halves, working the dough until it is smooth.
Then roll out the two doughs, until you get rectangles. Overlap the dough and roll them up. Cut the roll thus obtained into slices and arrange the rolls on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake at 170° for about 15 minutes. Let the biscuits cool well before serving.
