A precious legacy of typical cakes and desserts is also to be found in the Province: the Spongata cake is a very rich Christmas cake produced in Brescello following the original 15th century recipe; at Christmas it is also very typical to have sweet Tortellini, with different fillings like custard, jam, almonds and walnuts, fried or baked. The Biscione (“snake”) is what is typical inside the Hexagon (Reggio city): an almond paste shaped as a snake, with meringue as skin and candied fruit as eyes!
The Savoyard biscuits where invented in here and are made by a secret recipe hold by the bakers family Alai; light and spongy, perfect to make desserts like the typical Zuppa Inglese, where Savoyard biscuits are dunked into two different kind of liquor and serve as a colored and delicious base for a custard filling.
A very widespread cake in Reggio Emilia is the Rice Cake, probably thanks to the mondine, female workers that, at the beginning of the 20th century were sent to the rice plantations in the Vercelli area; part of their salary was rice itself and, with some creativity and genuine raw ingredients, it became popular to use it in many recipes, including in this delicious cake.
Speaking of cakes, we should not forget Torta Nera, a chocolate almond cake, and in the Apennines mountain it is easy to find cakes made with chestnut flour.
During the wine making process, some must is taken away and cooked to become another countryside dessert: the Sughi d’Uva, a very sweet, thick and tasty, dessert. With fruit, a very special jam-like thing called savurett is also produced, boiling for hours apples and pears bites and juice, to be used as syrup, pudding ingredient or simply jam!
