Sbrisolona

Big Crumbly Cookie

This giant crumbly cookie is a specialty of Mantua, in Lombardy. But I first tasted it at a cooking class at the home of a chef from Parma, in Emilia-Romagna, where it is also popular. This makes sense, as Parma is just about an hour south of Mantua, and popular cookies tend to travel beyond their place of origin.

Also known as torta sbrisolona, the name of this cookie roughly translates to “crumbly cake.” It comes from the verb sbricolare, which means “to crumble.” The cookie was once upon a time prepared by farmers using simple ingredients that they were likely to have on hand—flour, cornmeal, sugar, a little lard or butter, and almonds. It was eaten as a snack to revive them after a long morning of work.

When assembling your sbrisolona, resist patting the sandy dough into the pan too firmly. It needs to be loosely packed in order to yield that fall-apart texture that makes it so irresistible. Once baked, it is customary to break this cookie into irregular pieces for serving, though you can cut it with a knife for a neater presentation.

MAKES 1 LARGE COOKIE, TO SERVE 8 TO 10

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup (105 g) whole raw almonds, plus a handful more for decorating

  Italian Cookies: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region Domenica Marchetti

• 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling

• 3/4 cup (100 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

• 2/3 cup (100 g) fine cornmeal (do not use coarse cornmeal or polenta or your cookie will be grainy and tough)

• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

• 3 1/2 ounces (7 tablespoons; 100 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch (12-mm) cubes

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C). Line an 8-inch (20-cm) springform pan or cake pan with parchment. The easiest way to do this is to crumple up the parchment with your hands and then insert it into the pan; once crumpled, it’s easy to make the parchment fit.

2. Reserve 10 of the 3/4 cup (105 g) almonds and put the rest into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add the 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar and process until the nuts are very finely ground, almost like almond flour. Take care not to overprocess or you will release the oils from the almonds. Pulse in the flour, cornmeal, and lemon zest.

3. Distribute the butter around the inside of the work bowl and pulse briefly to break it up into small pieces. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the vanilla and salt and pour this in through the feed tube of the food processor. Pulse until the mixture begins to look like damp sand. Pinch a small handful; it should clump together lightly. Toss in the reserved 10 almonds and pulse briefly to break them up a bit.

4. Remove the blade from the food processor. Scoop up handfuls of the almond mixture, lightly clumping it together, and spread it evenly into the parchment-lined pan. You can pat it lightly, but resist the urge to pack it in. Once it’s all in the pan, sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon sugar and decorate it with the handful of whole almonds.

5. Bake the sbrisolona for 30 to 35 minutes, until the center feels firm and it is lightly browned on top and around the edges. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, remove the sbrisolona from the pan by unlatching the ring (if using a springform pan), carefully lifting out the parchment (the edges will crumble easily), and transferring the sbrisolona to a plate. Break or cut into pieces and serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Recipes excerpted from Italian Cookies: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region by Domenica Marchetti. Photos by Lauren Volo. Reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith Books.

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