Bocconotto · Bocconotto Abruzzese
Abruzzo · dolce · serves 12 · 120 min total · medium
Castel Frentano in the Chieti hills claims the bocconotto as its own — a 17th-century gift from a noble lady who first filled the pastry with the new Spanish exotic, chocolate. "Un boccone" — a single mouthful. Eaten cold the day after, dusted in sugar that snows down the shirt. Now found from Pescara to Bari, but the Abruzzese version is the one with the wine.
Ingredients
- 400 g 00 flour
- 180 g cold butter, cubed
- 120 g sugar
- 3 yolks egg yolks
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 200 g toasted almonds, finely ground
- 150 g sugar for filling
- 80 g dark chocolate (70%), grated
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 whites egg whites
- 3 tbsp Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (or any dark red)
- 3 tbsp icing sugar for dusting
Method
- Pasta frolla: rub butter into flour with sugar, salt and lemon zest to a fine crumb. Add the yolks; bring together fast. Wrap, chill 1 hour.
- Filling: whisk egg whites lightly (not stiff — just frothy). Stir in ground almonds, the filling sugar, grated chocolate, cocoa, cinnamon and the spoon of red wine. The mix should be thick but spoonable.
- Butter 12 small bocconotto moulds (the classic shape is a deep tartlet, about 6 cm across — like a small upturned dome).
- Roll the pastry to 3 mm. Cut discs slightly larger than the moulds and line each one, leaving a small overhang.
- Fill to just below the rim with the almond-chocolate paste.
- Cut smaller discs to cap each tartlet. Press the edges to seal, trim flush.
- Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 22–25 minutes — pale gold, not coloured. The bocconotto should look almost raw on top.
- Cool 10 minutes in the mould before turning out. Dust thickly with icing sugar — they must look snowy.
- Best the next day, when the filling has settled into the pastry.