Sbrisolona

Rather than being cut into equal portions with a knife, it is broken by hand and eaten in pieces large and small. Mantua’s sbrisolona is a sweet in which crumbs that never fully come together are baked into a single round. Crumbs and almonds show on the surface of the low, round cake, and the dough, made with wheat flour and cornmeal, comes apart in the mouth. Its name, linked to “brise,” the local word for fragments, describes exactly how it looks when eaten.

Not kneaded smooth: crumbs baked together

The dough is not worked until it forms one smooth mass. Flour, sugar, fat, and chopped nuts are combined with the fingertips and scattered into the pan as a crumbly dough with crumbs of various sizes. Rather than baking a uniform sablé round and then breaking it, it is characterized by baking together a dough that is uneven from the start.

The basic recipe (ingredient proportions and method) presented by the Lombardy Region uses equal amounts of white wheat flour, yellow cornmeal, and sugar. The cornmeal particles add a slightly gritty texture different from that of a dough made with wheat flour alone. As the fat blends into the flour and comes together with the sugar in the heat, even a thin round develops a firm bite.

Almonds are used in different forms: finely ground, coarsely chopped, and whole ones placed on the surface. The ground portion melts into the flavor of the dough, while the larger pieces meet the teeth. Both the nuts visible on the surface and the pieces inside each fragment are enjoyed together with the dough.

The proportions of flour and sugar reflected in the name “three cups”

The region’s food culture materials explain that it is also called the “three-cup cake” because wheat flour, cornmeal, and sugar are measured in equal amounts by the cup. This does not mean that all the ingredients are used in equal amounts. Even in the same source’s recipe, different quantities of butter, egg yolks, and almonds are used.

The version said to have been made in farmhouses uses a large proportion of cornmeal combined with lard and hazelnuts. As a sweet made with readily available flours, nuts, and fats, it allowed for a range of ingredients.

Meanwhile, in the court cuisine of Mantua, almonds, sugar, and spices are associated with the tables of the wealthy. The details of how the ingredients changed are not known, but the difference between ingredients familiar in rural areas and lavish ingredients for receiving guests lies behind today’s various recipes.

The rural keeping-sweet theory and the court travel-food theory

Tourism materials from the Province of Mantua include a theory that in the 17th century, bakers of the Gonzaga family created a hard, bread-like sweet that could be carried on journeys, as an alternative to Cremona’s torrone. The same materials also present another explanation that sees a rural origin, based on its simple ingredients and good keeping qualities. Beyond the explanation that it passed from the countryside to the court, differing histories are told, as a sweet carried on journeys and as a sweet served to guests. Its creator is not known.

Cooled until firm and broken by hand to eat

As it cools, the dough settles, and even the thin parts break with a crisp snap. Methods are used in which it is not forced out of the pan while still soft from the oven, but removed only after it has cooled. Because it is firm yet crumbles easily, at home people can gather around a single round and break off pieces by hand in whatever size they like. It is made throughout the Province of Mantua and has been handed down as one of the area’s representative sweets.

A crumbly texture that remains even when the alcohol or nuts change

Some modern recipes combine hazelnuts with the almonds and add a small amount of wine. The wine gives the dry crumbs a little moisture, so they can be scattered into the pan without binding together too much. This is an adjustment to keep the coarse crumbs, not a way of turning it into a pourable cake batter by adding a lot of liquid.

There are also versions using coffee and hazelnuts, and recipes combining Marsala and olive oil. Even when the recipe and ingredients differ from the traditional ones, the finish remains the same: the surface is not smoothed flat, and the sweet is eaten in fragments. Even when a soft cream is served with it, the star is the crisp bite of crumbling baked grain and nuts.

Pasticceria Farina in Japan also offers a product that uses no wheat flour, made instead with rice flour, corn grits, and chopped almonds. It keeps the coarse grains of corn while changing the combination of flours, and suggests eating it dipped in a zabaione liqueur cream. In contrast to the basic recipe of equal amounts of wheat flour and cornmeal, modern shops are also experimenting with changing the flours themselves.

Ways of eating it with cream or wine

The region’s guide describes, besides eating a piece on its own, serving it with mascarpone cream on the side and pairing it with Sangue di Giuda, a sweet wine from the Oltrepò. Barlocca and tortionata are also listed as other names within the region, but this does not mean the ingredients and methods are exactly the same. Giorgio Bolzani, a pastry maker in Vicenza in the Veneto, presents his shop’s sbrisolona as something to be broken by hand and eaten with grappa poured over it. In a coffee-flavored version, coffee syrup is mixed into whipped cream and served with the baked round. Because the cream is served alongside rather than worked into the dough, two textures can be enjoyed at the table: the dry fragments of the sweet and the soft cream.

Glossary