Cornmeal biscuits

Ever since corn was introduced into Piedmont, its flour (known as granturco throughout Northern Italy) has been widely used in the making of small dry biscuits for special occasions otherwise known by the French term petits fours secs. Giovanni Vialardi, cook at the Court of Savoy when writing his cook book “La cucina borghese semplice ed economica” (Cheap and simple cooking) affirmed that the main ingredients for making petits fours in Piedmont were both white flour and cornmeal (which he calls meliga ) sugar, lemon peel, salt and eggs. In Barge near Cuneo, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, these biscuits were called Batiaje (which means christening in the local dialect) and were offered to guests at christening parties “fé batié”. These same biscuits are known as melicotti in the Turin area, whilst in Alessandria they are called “pasti ad melia”. As with the name, the amount of flour used and the ingredients also vary across the region. Some favour an equal split between wheat flour and cornmeal, whilst others favour twice as much cornmeal as wheat flour. The quantity of butter is usually half as much in weight in relation to the weight of the flour but this can also be decreased. The amount of sugar used depends on individual taste but is usually the same amount as the butter used. The shape of the biscuit depends entirely on the egg/butter ratio. When more butter is used the biscuits tend to be flatter, whereas in the opposite case, the biscuits tend to look like tiny loaves of bread. The ideal oven temperature is medium-high and the cooking time only a few minutes. What is striking is the similarity in appearance between these paste di meliga and classic shortbread.