During my days in Italy as a child I used to love it when my grandfather placed a tin box of ‘Amaretti di Saronno’ biscuits on the dinner table for dessert. He would unroll the rice paper wrapping two hemispheric amaretti and we’d be handed the delicious biscuits. My grandfather then spooled the very thin tissue paper into a tube and placed it on a plate. He lit the paper which, consumed by the flames, rose up towards the room’s ceiling. We expressed a wish and if the paper touched the ceiling our wish was supposed to be fulfilled. I was utterly transfixed by these pyrotechnics and the paper’s defiance of gravity … even if my wishes were rarely granted.

In these bitter-sweet times the Italian pastry biscuit made with almond paste, sugar, egg white and sweet and bitter almonds known as ‘amaretto’ (sometimes translated as ‘macaroon’ in English) continues to make the perfect dessert. The word ‘amaretto’ translates as ‘little bitter’. I am not entirely sure whether this means that the biscuit is small in size or whether the biscuit has a slightly bitter taste.  Perhaps both.

The Amaretti di Saronno with their famous paddle steamer logo are the classic and best-tasting amaretti. A box of these amaretti even appears in a scene from the film ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’!

There are, however, several amaretti regional variants. Apart from the crunchy and crumbly Saronno amaretto there is the Sassello-type amaretto, soft and more comparable to marzipan. In our local Penny discount store I found these Sassello-type amaretti made in Mombaruzzo, a town near Asti in Piedmont, in which, in addition to the usual ingredients – sweet and bitter almonds, egg white and sugar – are armellines, the seeds contained in the apricot’s kernel, which give the amaretti a hint of bitter taste mixing with the usual sweet one.

As a sufferer of ‘biscuititis’ – a disease which can be defined as an addiction to the eating of biscuits (and not knowing when to stop!) – I love both of these types of amaretti.

Actually the amaretto does not originate from Italy but was introduced by the Arabs during their conquest of Sicily in the ninth century. From thence it spread throughout the peninsula. Well done Arabs- If your physical conquest lasted less than a hundred years your culinary one continues to the present times.

Amaretti go very well dipped in dessert wines like Pantelleria. They are also delicious with peaches and tiramisu where they can replace the Savoyard biscuits.

However, amaretti are sometimes also mixed with salty dishes.  In Lombardy they are often used for particular fillings, such as pumpkin tortelli, or crumbled as a substitute for grated cheese in some vegetable dishes and in Piedmont they are one of the ingredients of the Piedmontese mixed fry, together with apples and sweet semolina pancakes.

Incidentally, the Italian word ‘biscotto’, from which we get the English ‘biscuit’, means ‘twice cooked’ and derives from the method in which biscuits are produced.  I’d certainly prefer these twice-cooked than those half-baked dishes served during these weird times!

Don’t forget that there is also a great liqueur called Amaretto di Saronno. Like many recipes based on almonds, it is of ancient tradition and has its origins in 1500. In the city of Saronno a fresco depicting the Madonna and the Adoration of the Magi was commissioned to the painter Bernardino Luini. The fresco is still visible today in the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Miracles. Legend has it that during the time the painter was in Saronno he was staying at an inn whose landlady was so beautiful, that he fell in love to the point of using her as a model for his Madonna.

(Luini’s fresco in Saronno)

To thank him, she offered him an elixir of herbs, toasted sugar, bitter almonds and brandy which was immediately appreciated. This liqueur, therefore, has always kept a meaning of affection and friendship.

Who launched the modern version of this liqueur in the United Kingdom? Clement Freud. My wife was the interpreter, the perfect model for a Luini Madonna, even as a teenager!