Mostaroli

Hand made almond and cooked must biscuits 250g

Upon realizing that his end was near, Francesco called upon his friend Jacopa dei Settesoli to ask her, among other things, for “some of the food that you used to prepare for me when I stayed in Rome”. The biographer specifies that “it is a sweet that the Romans call mortariolo (mortariolum in the original Latin text) and is made from almonds, sugar or honey and other ingredients“. Since scholars do not know of any medieval sweets with this name, they believe Jacopa’s mortarioli may have been the typical “mostaccioli” found in Rome at the time, which in ancient times were made from flour and grape must, hence the name, then flavoured with bay leaves. Archeo Food therefore came up with the Mostaroli of San Francesco, a synthesis between the original source and their modern interpretation: from the mostaccioli (Roman mustaceans) we took the grape must, flour and bay leaves and from the Franciscan mortarioli, the sugar and almonds. Who knows whether or not we have come close to the much sought after and mysterious sweets by Donna Jacopa?