Biscotti:

Biscotti have come a long way -- the word means twice-cooked, and derives from the custom of baking cookie dough in long slabs, cutting it into half-inch thick cookies, and heating them again to dry them out, probably so they would keep better. There has always been some variation in the way biscotti were made from place to place, and even now what you find in the shop of a Milanese baker will differ considerably from that of her colleague in Reggio Calabria.

What you will find in the aisles of the supermarkets of the two cities, on the other hand, will be roughly the same -- there has been a tremendous increase in the variety of commercially prepared biscotti, almost all of which are distributed nationally, and many of which closely resemble the commercially prepared cookies of other countries.

What, you wonder, about home-made biscotti? The variety of the industrial bakers really hasn't trickled over into the home, in large part because most Italians prefer to visit their local baker rather than fire up the oven when they want something to take when invited out, and peruse the supermarkets for snacking material. This doesn't mean that we never bake cookies, just that the number of traditional recipes is relatively small.

Biscotti recipes on site:

• Mandelbroit
  Wonderful dipping cookies that invoke memories of simpler times.
• Biscottini alla Mandorla
  Stuart Borken's tasty almondy treats for the end of the meal -- assuming they last that long.
• Biscotti Croccanti
  Artusi's Crunchy cookies.
• Biscottini di Milano
  Simple lemony cookies that you'll have to make more of.
• Biscotti Teneri
  Chewey cookies. This is originally from Artusi, but has been reproposed many times since then.
• Biscotti della Salute
  Healthy cookies.
• Biscottini di Marroni
  Chestnut macaroons.
• Croccanti di Marroni
  Crunchy Chestnut fritters.
• Anicini
  Delicate anise-flavored biscotti.