P
Italian · Umbria
Fave dei Morti con Mandorle e Pinoli Umbri
Small almond and pine nut cookies shaped to resemble dried fava beans — made throughout Umbria and central Italy for the Feast of the Dead on 1 and 2 November. The dough is made with ground almonds, flour, sugar, egg and lard, flavoured with cinnamon and lemon zest, rolled into small ovals and baked until pale golden. They are traditional offerings placed on gravestones.
‹Swipe for the next dish›
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
200 g
blanched almonds
ground to a fine, not oily, powder
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
100 g
plain flour
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
120 g
caster sugar
Your own market
1
egg
whole
Your own market
60 g
lard (strutto)
at room temperature
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
ground cinnamon
Your own market
1
lemon
finely grated zest only
Your own market
30 g
pine nuts
one per cookie, for pressing into the top
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
II
The Method
1
Grind the blanched almonds in short pulses until a fine, dry powder forms. Stop before any oiliness appears in the meal — the powder must remain loose and separate.
2
Combine the ground almonds, flour, sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the lard and rub it through the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg and bring the dough together with the hands until it is smooth and uniform. It should hold its shape without sticking.
3
Wrap the dough and rest it at room temperature for 30 minutes. The fat will firm and the flour will hydrate evenly; after resting, the dough should feel cohesive and no longer greasy to the touch. This is where the dish lives or dies: a dough shaped too soon — before the fat has set and the flour absorbed — will spread in the oven and lose the clean, dry oval form that defines the cookie.
4
Heat the oven to 160 °C. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll each between the palms into a small, slightly flattened oval resembling a dried fava bean. Press one pine nut lightly into the top of each piece. Arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a small gap between each.
5
Bake at 160 °C for 16–18 minutes. The cookies are done when they are pale golden at the base and just set on the surface — they must retain the colour of a dried bean and show no browning. They will still yield very slightly to a light finger-press at the centre; they firm fully as they cool.
6
Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Store in an open tin, not an airtight container, so the texture remains dry and crumbly rather than softening.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Freshly ground Avola almonds — the Sicilian cultivar favoured across central Italian pastry-making — with home-rendered lard and the zest of an unwaxed Amalfi lemon.
02
Estate — Good-quality blanched almonds ground to order, artisan strutto from a butcher, and an unwaxed organic lemon.
03
Market — Pre-blanched almonds ground at home in a food processor used with care, supermarket lard and an unwaxed lemon.
04
House — Ground almond meal (watch closely for oiliness), standard lard and a waxed lemon — zest well-washed before use.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Ground almond powder feels loose and dry between the fingers — no oiliness or clumping.
◇Touch. After resting, the dough holds a clean shape when pinched and does not feel greasy against the palm.
◇Sight. Baked cookies are pale golden at the base and retain an overall colour close to that of a dried fava bean — no browning on the surface.
◇Touch. Cookies yield very slightly at the centre when pressed directly from the oven; they firm to a crumbly, melting texture as they cool completely.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dough must rest a full 30 minutes before shaping: fat that has not firmed and flour that has not hydrated will produce cookies that spread, lose their bean-shaped form and collapse their definition in the oven.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Agave spirit
From British Columbia
Nothing from British Columbia holds against this yet.
Without alcohol
No pour without alcohol holds against this yet.
Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year